Synopsys, Inc. (NASDAQ: SNPS), a world leader in semiconductor design software, today announced the Best Paper Awards for the 16th annual Synopsys Users' Group (SNUG®) in Santa Clara, CA. "SNUG San Jose" is the largest user's conference in electronic design automation (EDA) and the flagship event of a global program that last year drew more than 4,000 chip and system design engineers to 10 such conferences worldwide. At the San Jose event, the first place award for Best Paper went to Wei-Si Jiang of National Semiconductor for Critical Paths Verification and Debugging with PrimeTime Advanced Features. Second place went to Stuart Sutherland of Sutherland HDL, Inc. and Don Mills of LCDM Engineering for SystemVerilog Assertions are for Design Engineers Too! Third place went to Dan Steinberg of Integrated Device Technology for Physical Layer Verification for PCI Express.

The Technical Committee Award went to Paul Zimmer of Zimmer Design Services for Getting DDRs 'Write' - The 1x Output Circuit Revisited. The award for Best First-Time Presenter went to Shankar Govindaraju, Jayanto Minocha, Kevin Rich and David Dobrikin, all of Transmeta Corp., for their presentation on Using SystemVerilog Testbench for High-Level Behavioral Modeling of a SIMD Processor Design.

Aart de Geus, chairman and chief executive officer at Synopsys, addressed nearly 1,300 attendees at the technical conference with an opening-day keynote that provided an overview of the EDA industry today and Synopsys' corporate direction. A highlight of the conference was a guest speech by Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder and philanthropist, who addressed a packed room with an engaging walk through his experiences as an engineer.

"It's always refreshing to attend an event where engineers exchange ideas and discuss their design challenges," said Mr. Wozniak. "Today's engineers design products that fulfill an ever-growing wish list of features that must be packed into low-power, affordable systems. A conference like this can re-energize them with new ideas and new ways of looking at things."

The three-day SNUG San Jose conference featured 43 user papers, 29 technical tutorials and 12 panels, all presented by Synopsys users and experts to fellow design customers. These presentations focused on the challenges that engineers face as they design complex systems for a wide array of applications. The conference also featured the Managers' Track, a special program of business and technology sessions designed for senior engineering and program managers. Attendees learned how to improve their overall design productivity in sessions delivered by senior representatives from ARM, SanDisk and others. Synopsys users may access the conference proceedings, including the award-winning papers, at www.snug-universal.org.

"SNUG is the best place to learn from other engineers involved in every aspect of chip development," said Leah Clark, principal design engineer at Broadcom Corporation and SNUG San Jose technical chairperson. "It's a unique opportunity to interact with Synopsys R&D, technical support and fellow users in one place, and to learn about new ways to solve tough design challenges."

"SNUG is a lively event that brings together the highest concentration of advanced engineers in the world to discuss the toughest challenges and solutions in chip design," said Aart de Geus. "I am always amazed at the sharpness of the issues and the practicality of their advice. We congratulate the award winners and thank them for sharing their technical insights with their peers."

About SNUG

SNUG is an open forum that that provides Synopsys users worldwide with a unique opportunity to exchange ideas, discuss problems and explore solutions. In addition to a highly technical program that focuses on real-world design challenges, each SNUG event includes interaction with Synopsys executives, product developers and applications consultants about future product directions, as well as product and support quality. Each SNUG is driven by a local Technical Committee, with operational support provided by Synopsys. For more information on SNUG, go to http://www.snug-universal.org/ .

About Synopsys

Synopsys, Inc. is a world leader in 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 offices in more than 60 locations throughout North America, Europe, Japan and Asia. Visit Synopsys online at http:/www.synopsys.com .

NOTE: Synopsys and SNUG are registered trademarks of Synopsys, Inc. Any other trademarks or registered trademarks mentioned in this release are the intellectual property of their respective owners.

  Editorial Contacts:

  Yvette Huygen
  Synopsys, Inc.
  650-584-4547
  yvetteh@synopsys.com

  Khyati Shah
  Edelman
  650-968-4033
  khyati.shah@edelman.com

SOURCE: Synopsys, Inc.

CONTACT: Yvette Huygen of Synopsys, Inc., +1-650-584-4547, or
yvetteh@synopsys.com; or Khyati Shah of Edelman, +1-650-968-4033, or
khyati.shah@edelman.com

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