Synopsys, Inc. (NASDAQ: SNPS), the world leader in semiconductor design software, today announced that it has become a corporate member of the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA), an international organization serving today's industries with a complete portfolio of standards programs. Corporate membership provides an additional level of support for the IEEE-SA above and beyond Synopsys' individual memberships. The company also announced the addition of schematic view capabilities to the C-application programming interface (C-API) for Synopsys' widely used Milkyway™ database and environment and the continuing growth in industry support for SystemVerilog as demonstrated by the more than 50 companies who are now members of Synopsys' SystemVerilog Catalyst Program. These announcements will be highlighted at Synopsys' thirteenth semi-annual electronic design automation (EDA) Interoperability Developers' Forum on April 1 in Santa Clara, California.

Synopsys Joins IEEE-SA as Corporate Member

Synopsys is the first EDA company to become a corporate member of the IEEE-SA, joining a prominent list of companies that includes Synopsys customers. The IEEE-SA is a leading developer of international standards that underpin many of today's products and services, and oversees the development of a wide range of standards across a broad spectrum of applications. The IEEE-SA is entrusted with upholding and enhancing the quality and integrity of the IEEE standards process and the resultant standards and documentation. Synopsys' involvement will center on bringing this focus to standards in the EDA industry. As a corporate member of the IEEE-SA, Synopsys will contribute its experience and strong participation in formal standards committees, and its pioneering of open source interoperability standards to apply to EDA standards. The company's IEEE-SA membership demonstrates Synopsys' commitment to being the interoperability leader by ensuring that standards remain open and adopted. IEEE-SA is committed to standards that provide key mechanisms for opening up markets, stimulating innovation, enabling competition, encouraging customer confidence and optimizing industry business strategies.

"Standards play a central role in companies' research and development efforts, product development and marketing," said Edward Rashba, manager of New Technical Programs, IEEE Standards Association. "Members of the IEEE-SA ensure that their customers' interests are represented by taking part in shaping the direction of technology and its marketplace application in the secure, highly respected IEEE-SA standards development environment. This promotes interoperability by having stable standards as a basis for product development."

"There are many ways that Synopsys works toward improved interoperability in the EDA industry," said Karen Bartleson, director of Interoperability at Synopsys. "Joining the IEEE-SA as a corporate member reaffirms our dedication to this goal. Synopsys is committed to meeting customer demands for interoperability and sound standards practices that support their complex system-on-chip (SoC) designs."

Attend the Thirteenth EDA Interoperability Developers' Forum

The thirteenth EDA Interoperability Developers' Forum will take place on Thursday, April 1, 2004 at the Sun Conference Center in Santa Clara, CA. Topics and formats discussed will include Liberty™, Milkyway and SystemVerilog. The Forum will open with a keynote presented by Kathryn Kranen, president and CEO of Jasper Design Automation, on "Startups and Standards: A Love/Hate Relationship." In addition to updates on industry formats and initiatives, the event will also feature two panels: "What I learned in Committees," hosted by EDA industry veterans, and a technical panel on power management design challenges.

Synopsys invites everyone to attend the Forum to promote increased interoperability in the EDA industry. For information about the EDA Interoperability Developers Forum and to register for the event at no charge, please visit: http://www.synopsys.com/news/events/devforums/2004/apr/index.html .

For more information on interoperability formats, please visit the partner program web page: https://www.synopsys.com/community/partners/all-partners.html .

Milkyway C-API and SystemVerilog

During the EDA Interoperability Developers Forum, afternoon breakout sessions will be held on Milkyway and SystemVerilog.

The Milkyway Developers' Forum session will feature details and user perspectives on new Milkyway C-API enhancements. The expanded set of C-API functions provides a high-performance mechanism for creating and manipulating schematics in the Milkyway design database. This gives EDA vendors the ability to extend Synopsys' Galaxy™ Design Platform with full-custom design capabilities to address the challenges of analog and mixed-signal design.

The SystemVerilog Developers' Forum will include presentations on SystemVerilog product offerings from members of Synopsys' System Verilog Catalyst Program. The SystemVerilog Catalyst Program includes more than 50 EDA, intellectual property (IP) and training companies. EDA and IP vendors can learn how to deliver higher productivity and verification quality to their customers by incorporating SystemVerilog's advanced design and verification features into their products.

About the EDA Interoperability Developers' Forum

The semi-annual EDA Interoperability Developers' Forum provides a venue for all EDA vendors, IP suppliers and their customers to exchange information and ideas on EDA tool interoperability, including information on new interface technologies, future enhancements, upcoming news, and successes from developers and customers. The ever-popular Forum has grown steadily since its inception in 1998 and is the only industry event of its kind.

About Synopsys

Synopsys, Inc. is the world leader in electronic design automation (EDA) software for semiconductor design. The company delivers technology-leading semiconductor design and verification platforms and IC manufacturing software products to the global electronics market, enabling the development and production of complex systems-on-chips (SoCs). Synopsys also provides intellectual property and design services to simplify the design process and accelerate time-to-market for its customers. Synopsys is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and has more than 60 offices located throughout North America, Europe, Japan and Asia. Visit Synopsys online at http://www.synopsys.com/ .

NOTE: Synopsys is a registered trademark of Synopsys, Inc. Galaxy, Liberty and Milkyway are trademarks of Synopsys. All other trademarks or registered trademarks mentioned in this release are the intellectual property of their respective owners.

SOURCE: Synopsys, Inc.

CONTACT: editorial, Lynda De Vol of Synopsys, Inc., +1-650-584-1190, or
lyndad@synopsys.com; or Suraya Akbarzad of Edelman Public Relations,
+1-650-429-2757, or suraya.akbarzad@edelman.com, for Synopsys, Inc.

Web site: http://www.synopsys.com/