The SPIRIT Consortium adds FPGA Solution Providers to its Roster, along with a GPS Solution Company and a Consultancy

SAN JOSE, Calif., Dec. 5, 2006 – Membership in The SPIRIT Consortium™, a global non-profit organization focused on establishing multi-faceted IP/tool integration standards that drive sustainable growth in electronic design, continues to accelerate as evidenced by the addition of four new members in less than one month.  The major FPGA vendor Altera, the EDA vendor Synplicity which specializes in tools for FPGA design, plus consultancy IPexpert and GPS solution company SiRF Technology, have signed as Reviewing Members.  Reviewing Members help validate ALPHA and BETA versions of the specifications provided by The SPIRIT Consortium.  The addition of these new members brings The Consortium’s membership to 61 members.

As FPGA designs become more advanced, IP re-use is becoming a fundamental principle of rapid SoC implementation.  Incorporating commercial IP is a strategy that addresses fast-moving markets, short product life cycles, and the need to keep design costs, a priority for FPGAs.  The focus of The SPIRIT Consortium to establish a set of IP and tool integration standards that enable proliferation of IP reuse will be directly applicable into this area of fast prototyping and custom system design.  In addition to this, The Consortium welcomes the addition of technical and product expertise in the area of IP re-use for radio-frequency design, as well as professional training organizations.

The SPIRIT Consortium provides the high quality IP-XACT™ specification for documenting IP using XML meta-data and interfacing tools using APIs that access design meta-data descriptions of complete system designs.  The Consortium tunes the specifications it delivers to the requirements of the industry, and it is focused on enabling technologies for the efficient design of electronic systems from concept to production.

About The Consortium
The SPIRIT Consortium is a global organization focused on establishing multi-faceted IP/tool integration standards that drive sustainable growth in electronic design.  It is comprised of leading EDA, IP, system integration, and semiconductor companies dedicated to the adoption of a unified set of specifications for configuring, integrating, and verifying IP in advanced SoC design tool sets.  For more information on The SPIRIT Consortium and its goals, please visit www.spiritconsortium.org.