Synopsys and Actel Renew OEM Relationship for FPGA Design Software

-- Synopsys, Inc. (NASDAQ: SNPS), a world leader in software and IP for semiconductor design, verification and manufacturing, and Actel Corporation (NASDAQ: ACTL) today announced a multi-year extension of their OEM agreement for FPGA design tools. Under the terms of the agreement, Actel maintains rights to provide Actel-specific versions of Synopsys' Synplify Pro®, Identify® and Synplify® DSP software as part of the Libero® Integrated Design Environment (IDE). Actel has been offering these products to its customers for more than 10 years through an OEM agreement with Synplicity, which was acquired by Synopsys in May 2008. The objective is to provide highly optimized software solutions for Actel's complete portfolio of FPGA products, including the IGLOO®, Actel Fusion® and RTAX families of FPGAs.

"Actel's customers have come to expect the best in FPGA synthesis over the years," said Jim Davis, Vice President of Software and Systems Engineering at Actel. "Synopsys is a valued, best-in-class supplier, and we are very pleased to be able to continue to bundle Synopsys products as part of the Libero IDE."

"Actel provides distinctive programmable solutions for important electronic applications, including those requiring low-power, radiation-tolerant or mixed-signal FPGAs," said George Zafiropoulos, Vice President of Solutions Marketing at Synopsys. "Our technology-leading FPGA design and verification tools have been designed to take full advantage of the unique features of Actel devices and to provide our mutual customers with the quality of results and productivity required to address the needs of their markets."

In addition to the technology-leading Synplify Pro FPGA synthesis product, the OEM agreement includes Synopsys' Identify RTL debugger software. The Identify product is a functional verification tool that provides probing and visibility into a live, running FPGA. The Identify RTL Debugger allows designers to debug an operating FPGA directly in their RTL source code, providing an efficient alternative to debugging at the gate level, where signal names may have been changed by synthesis and no longer match the RTL.

Designers implementing DSP algorithms will have a very fast and reliable path into Actel devices using Synopsys' Synplify DSP algorithm synthesis product. The Synplify DSP tool provides a unique high-level synthesis methodology that realizes significant productivity and optimization advantages over traditional HDL design flows. System and algorithm designers can quickly capture complex algorithmic behavior using the Synplify DSP model library, which includes vector arithmetic, fixed-point precision up to 128-bits, and a rich set of IP cores. The Synplify DSP synthesis engine allows designers to automatically implement and explore a range of area/speed-optimized architectures from a single model and generate verification testbenches from a high-level environment.

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 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 60 offices located throughout North America, Europe, Japan, Asia and India. Visit Synopsys online at http://www.synopsys.com/.

About Actel

Actel is the leader in low-power FPGAs and mixed-signal FPGAs, offering the most comprehensive portfolio of system and power management solutions. Power Matters. Learn more at www.actel.com.