Synopsys Announces EDA Industry's First Open Source Formats At the Fifth Interoperability Developers' Forum

Business Wire, April 18, 2000

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

Fifth Semiannual Interoperability Developers' Forum,

LOS GATOS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 18, 1999

Announcement Underscores Synopsys' Championship of EDA

Interoperability for Customer Productivity Improvements

Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq:SNPS) today took its commitment to EDA tool interoperability to a new level by announcing the open source enhancement to its Technology Access Program (TAP-in(sm)), providing free and open access to Synopsys' widely used library and design constraints formats. Synopsys' new TAP-in open source feature will initially make available the industry-leading Liberty(TM) library and Synopsys Design Constraints (SDC) formats. Syntax checkers and parsers for these formats will also be included as reference implementations. Synopsys unveiled its TAP-in open source expansion today at the Fifth Semiannual Interoperability Developers' Forum, "EDA Interoperability on Fast Forward."

As system-on-chip (SoC) designs push technology to new levels of complexity, interoperability is crucial to improving design quality and streamlining the development cycle. Interoperability can be achieved more rapidly through open standards that permit a community to further the development of the standard by providing ongoing input about enhancements needed to support new tools. Synopsys has been encouraging contributions to these formats through TAP-in and the EDA Interoperability Developers' Forum. Synopsys' decision to provide the formats and reference implementations through open source was a response to requests from the TAP-in developer community at the October 1999 Developers' Forum. Open source licensing of the formats provides a more effective method for the developer community to contribute.

"The Synopsys design constraint language is the de facto industry standard -- it's intuitive and engineers understand it," said Chris Malachowsky, vice president of hardware engineering at NVIDIA. "We use it as the golden source of our timing and physical requirements from which we drive our entire CAD methodology. The move to put this language into open source will of course mean fewer translators, but the ultimate benefit will be in the quality of results from our tool flow. Real improvements will be realized when all tools are provided and consistently interpret a single, succinct specification of our design targets. Delivering NVIDIA's industry-leading graphics processors season after season requires that all of our EDA tools work effectively together. We are extremely pleased to see that Synopsys is championing interoperability through this move to open source licensing."

Access to the syntax checkers and parsers, in addition to the Liberty and SDC formats, allows users to integrate tools with minimal effort and offers consistency in implementation across multiple EDA tools. "Synopsys is encouraging the EDA community to work in a collaborative manner to provide good, consistent and well-integrated solutions to their customer," said Antoine Bigirimana, president and CEO at Electronic Tools Company (E-Tools.Com). "Liberty and SDC are widely-used, proven formats. Having the syntax checkers and parsers available allows both developers and technical users to continually check for and fix possible problems leading to a superior solution."

"Synopsys has continually been advancing innovation in EDA interoperability through programs like theTAP-in, in-Sync and EDA Spine," said Rich Goldman, vice president for strategic market development at Synopsys. "Our adoption of an open source model furthers our commitment to interoperability, enabling our customers to design at Internet speed. We believe that this approach will serve as the model for successful standards development in the future."

"Monterey has worked very closely with Synopsys on Liberty and SDC, both of which are formats we use for interoperability with Dolphin," said Jacques Benkoski, president and CEO of Monterey Design Systems. "By offering these formats through open source, Synopsys is making their standards a reality. The fact that we have been able to build a coherent joint design flow strongly reinforces our decision to work very closely with them."

Pricing and Availability

The open source licenses for Synopsys Liberty and SDC are free and available now through the TAP-in program. By May 18, 2000 the on-line click through license will be available with the syntax checkers and parsers following. Current TAP-in licensees can upgrade to open source at their convenience. Liberty currently is supported by more than 60 semiconductor vendors with more than 400 submicron libraries. SDC includes information needed to describe a design's target timing, area, power and operating conditions. Virtually all IC's designed today are described using this format. Over 50 EDA tools, in addition to those offered by Synopsys support SDC and Liberty.

Interoperability Developers' Forum

This event marks Synopsys' fifth EDA Interoperability Developers' Forum. More than 50 developers from the broader EDA industry attended this session of the forum, which is a part of Synopsys' program to promote EDA tool interoperability by providing licenses and support of key formats to all EDA vendors. The forum is offered to all TAP-in and in-Sync members and provides a unique opportunity for EDA tool developers to exchange ideas on interoperability. Most importantly, information is made available about new formats, enhancements to existing formats, and services Synopsys provides to ensure success with these formats.