Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Enables Greater China's IC Designers With Synopsys' DesignWare IP Cores Portfolio

- Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) and Synopsys, Inc. today announced that HKSTP has licensed Synopsys' industry leading DesignWare® intellectual property (IP) Cores portfolio to increase start-up and fabless company designers' productivity and enable them to more rapidly integrate broadly used protocol standards such as PCI, USB and Ethernet into their IC designs. Synopsys' newest PCI Express™ core, which is the first such IP to pass PCI-SIG compliance tests, is also included.>

"It is fundamentally important that designers have access to complete, well designed and verified IP cores to accelerate time-to-market and time-to-volume for new SoC (System-on-Chip) ICs being designed," said Mr. C.D. Tam, chief executive officer of HKSTP. "Designers can now focus on their core competencies, because they can rely on Synopsys' standards-based IP cores that have been pre-verified and proven in silicon by many leading IC companies."

"We are proud to be chosen as HKSTP's standards-based IP provider, delivering the dependable, high-quality IP that the growing Chinese IC design community demands," said Dr. Chi-Foon Chan, president, chief operating officer of Synopsys. "The availability of our DesignWare IP Cores portfolio in HKSTP demonstrates Synopsys' commitment to provide its customers with solutions that improve design productivity, lower development costs and decrease time to market."

This IP licensing agreement is the logical next step following the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in October 2003 by four parties: the China Beijing Semiconductor Industry Association, HKSTP, the Taiwan System-on-Chip (SoC) Consortium and the Chinese American Semiconductor Professional Association. These entities agreed to provide a global collaboration network to facilitate trading of semiconductor IP (SIP) in Greater China through the establishment of the Great China Semiconductor Intellectual Property Trading Centre (GCSIPTC) set up in Hong Kong. The System Integration and Intellectual Property Authoring Center in Korea (SIPAC) joined the effort in May 2004. Under this arrangement, all parties work together in the development of the IP list and catalog system. Hong Kong was chosen as the base for the system due to its strong intellectual property laws and its neutral political environment.

Availability
The Synopsys DesignWare IP Cores are available now for licensing through HKSTP. More information is available at www.hkstp.org.

About DesignWare IP Cores
DesignWare Cores provide system designers with silicon proven, digital and analog connectivity IP for some of the world's most recognized products including communications processors, routers, switches, game consoles, digital cameras, computers and computer peripherals. The DesignWare Cores family includes industry-leading connectivity IP such as USB 1.1, 2.0, OTG and PHYs, PCI, PCI-X®, PCI Express, PCI Express PHY, SATA and Ethernet. Provided as synthesizable RTL source code or in GDS format, these cores enable designers to create innovative, cost-effective systems-on-chip and embedded systems. Synopsys provides flexible licensing options for the DesignWare Cores. Each core can be licensed individually, on a fee-per-project basis or users can opt for the Volume Purchase Agreement, which enables them to license all the cores under one simple agreement. For a complete directory of Synopsys IP visit: www.synopsys.com/ipdirectory.

For more information on DesignWare IP, visit: www.designware.com or call 1-877-4BEST-IP

About the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation
Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) is a statutory body set up by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Its mission is to provide quality infrastructure and support facilities for innovation and technology development in the focused clusters* and the upgrading of manufacturing and service industry capabilities; full-service incubation program for technology start-ups; and foster partnership and collaboration between industry and universities/applied research institutes through consulting, training and research programs.

HKSTP offers advanced facilities and support services for high technology companies, which include an IC Design/ Development Support Centre and a Photonics Development Support Centre.

*Focused clusters encompass electronics, biotechnology, precision engineering and information technology/telecommunications industries.

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