MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNPS), a world leader in software and IP for semiconductor design, verification and manufacturing, has been selected as the winner of EDN Magazine's 2009 Innovation Award in two product categories. The winning Synopsys products are DesignWare® SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.0) IP and IC Validator for In-Design physical verification with IC Compiler. The winning products and technologies, which were selected by EDN readers and editors for having shaped the semiconductor industry during the past year, were announced on April 26th in San Jose, Calif., at EDN's 20th Annual Innovation Awards ceremony.  

"Winning the EDN Innovation Award is a significant honor because the user community plays a large role in determining who is recognized for having the most noteworthy technological contributions and achievements," said John Chilton, senior vice president of marketing and strategic development at Synopsys. "At Synopsys, we are committed to anticipating and meeting our customers' needs through ongoing innovation—not only by developing new technologies, but also by optimizing the capabilities and performance of our proven solutions. The awards won by DesignWare SuperSpeed USB IP and IC Validator for in-design physical verification with IC Compiler are validation that our recent technology advancements have been well received by the design engineering community."

The DesignWare SuperSpeed USB IP team, which consists of seven design groups across the globe, combined all aspects of Hi-Speed USB (USB 2.0, 480 Mbps) and SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.0, 5 Gb/s) to create a fully integrated USB 3.0 IP solution, optimizing all speed modes into a single USB 3.0 solution. This unique implementation enables designers to reduce area, pin count and power compared to separate USB 2.0 and SuperSpeed USB-only designs. Furthermore, the integrated DesignWare SuperSpeed USB IP significantly lowers integration risk and effort by not requiring designers to manage two distinct USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 data paths in their system-on-chips (SoCs).

The IC Validator DRC/LVS solution for in-design physical verification and signoff was architected to unite the worlds of physical design and verification. Growing design complexity, ever-increasing DRC rules and complex manufacturing compliance needs have rendered the prevailing implement-then-verify approach to physical verification suboptimal. Designers using IC Compiler are successfully adopting in-design physical verification with IC Validator to mitigate these challenges and have achieved faster time to tapeout. With In-Design physical verification, physical designers can achieve optimal timing-aware metal fill and find and repair DRC violations during design, thereby eliminating late-stage surprises and expensive design-signoff iterations.

The EDN Innovation Awards selection criteria were based on the nominees having demonstrated innovation that resulted in a significant advancement in technology and/or product development during the past 12 months. Synopsys had a total of five finalists in the running for the 2009 Innovation Awards: the Lynx Design System; the MVSIM Voltage-Aware Co-simulator; the IC Validator In-Design Physical-Verification Solution; DesignWare SuperSpeed USB IP; and the DesignWare SuperSpeed USB IP team for 'Innovator of the Year.' During the months of February and March, EDN's worldwide audience of electronic engineers and engineering managers used an online ballot to select the ultimate winners from among the more than 120 finalists. EDN's editorial staff also took part in determining the final winners.

"We received an impressive number of submissions for our 2009 Innovation Awards program, indicating that innovation was alive and well despite the economically challenging year," said Rick Nelson, EDN editor-in-chief. "Synopsys' wins in multiple categories underscore the strength of its offerings across the broad spectrum of EDA tools and IP."

About EDN and EDN.com

EDN serves the vital information needs of design engineers and engineering managers worldwide. EDN.com delivers a three-dimensional view of the electronic industry via news coverage, strategic business information, and in-depth technical content. (www.edn.com)

EDN is published by Canon Communications LLC (www.cancom.com), the largest business-to-business media company exclusively focused on the worldwide advanced manufacturing sector. Canon provides specialized, value-added access to information about technology that lowers costs, increases productivity and creates competitive advantages for some of the world's most sophisticated and finely engineered products.

About Synopsys

Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq:SNPS) is a world leader in electronic design automation (EDA), supplying the global electronics market with the software, intellectual property (IP) and services used in semiconductor design, verification and manufacturing. Synopsys' comprehensive, integrated portfolio of implementation, verification, IP, manufacturing and field-programmable gate array (FPGA) solutions helps address the key challenges designers and manufacturers face today, such as power and yield management, software-to-silicon verification and time-to-results. These technology-leading solutions help give Synopsys customers a competitive edge in bringing the best products to market quickly while reducing costs and schedule risk. Synopsys is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and has more than 65 offices located throughout North America, Europe, Japan, Asia and India. Visit Synopsys online at http://www.synopsys.com/.

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

SOURCE Synopsys, Inc.