Synplicity and Actel Renew Strategic Alliance; Companies Ink a Multi-Year, Multi-Million Dollar OEM Agreement

Business Wire, April 12, 2001

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 12, 2001

Synplicity, Inc. (Nasdaq:SYNP), a leading supplier of software for the design and verification of semiconductors, and Actel Corporation (Nasdaq:ACTL), the leading supplier of non-volatile programmable logic devices (PLDs), today announced the renewal of their long-term strategic alliance by signing a multi-year, multi-million dollar OEM agreement. Under the terms of the five-year agreement, Actel will bundle Synplicity's Synplify(R) FPGA synthesis software into its development systems. As a result, designers using Actel devices will continue to have access to the performance and quality of results offered by Synplicity's FPGA synthesis software.

"Actel's customers represent a broad spectrum of PLD designers -- from high density and performance to mainstream designers using smaller PLDs for logic implementation," said Bernie Aronson, president and CEO of Synplicity. "By renewing our OEM agreement with Actel, we intend to continue serving these designers with synthesis products that we believe are fast and easy to use and provide the quality of results required by today's electronics engineer."

"Our customers continue to provide us with positive feedback about the results they achieve using Synplicity's Synplify products," said John East, president and CEO, Actel. "For designers, ease of use is an important consideration when choosing an FPGA synthesis product. Synplicity provides a robust solution that is fast and easy to use, and we are pleased to extend our relationship with Synplicity to provide this leading-edge synthesis technology to our customers."

With today's announcement, Actel will continue to bundle Synplicity's Synplify and Synplify Lite(TM) synthesis software into various versions of Actel's development systems. According to East, Actel expects that customers using the Synplify software within Actel's development systems will continue to receive significant design performance and productivity benefits.

About Synplify and Synplify Pro Software

The Synplify and Synplify Lite products leverage Synplicity's Behavior Extracting Synthesis Technology(R) (B.E.S.T.(TM)) algorithms and are designed to be fast, easy-to-use and to provide high quality of results. The products run on Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows NT and Unix workstations. The Synplify and Synplify Lite products offer high-quality synthesis and are optimized to enable increased performance and productivity for designers of complex programmable devices.

Pricing and Availability

Synplicity and Actel expect copies of the Actel development systems bundled with the Synplify and Synplify Lite software to be available directly from Actel in Q2 2001.

About Actel

Actel is The Programmable ASIC Solutions Company. Programmable ASICs (application specific integrated circuits) offer the benefits of both conventional ASICs (single chip and low power and price) and programmable logic devices (faster time to market plus reduced design and inventory risks). For customers requiring discrete programmable logic solutions, Actel's FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays) are secure, non-volatile and "live at power up." For customers requiring embedded programmable solutions, Actel's intellectual property cores will enable the integration of reprogrammable logic functions in ASICs or ASSPs (application specific standard products) on standard processes. Customers can further accelerate time to market by using Actel's Protocol Design Services Group. Actel is traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol ACTL and is located at 955 East Arques Avenue, Sunnyvale, California, 94086-4533. Telephone: 888-99-ACTEL (992-2835). Internet: http://www.actel.com.

About Synplicity

Synplicity, Inc. (Nasdaq:SYNP) is a leading provider of software products that enable the rapid and effective design and verification of semiconductors used in next-generation networking and communications hardware and other electronic devices. The company leverages its innovative logic synthesis, physical synthesis and verification software solutions to improve performance and shorten development time for complex programmable logic devices, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and system-on-chip (SoC) integrated circuits. Synplicitys fast, easy-to-use products offer extremely high quality of results, support industry-standard design languages (VHDL and Verilog) and run on popular platforms. As of the end of March 2001, Synplicity employed over 230 people in its 16 facilities worldwide. Synplicity is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif.

Forward-Looking Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements relate to future events and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Synplicity's actual financial results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. In some cases, you will be able to identify forward looking statements by terminology such as "anticipates," "intends," "may," "will," "expects," "potential," "continue" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are only predictions and the actual events or results may differ materially. Synplicity cannot provide any assurance that its future results will meet expectations. Synplicity's operating results could differ materially due to a number of factors, including the continued growth of demand for FPGAs, ASICs and SoCs, continued acceptance of Synplicity's existing products and the successful introduction and widespread market acceptance of Synplicity's new products. For additional information and considerations regarding the risks faced by Synplicity, see its Registration Statement on Form S-1, Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2000 and Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2000, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as periodic reports on Forms 10-Q and 10-K to be filed with the SEC. Although Synplicity believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, Synplicity cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. In addition, neither Synplicity nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of these forward-looking statements. Synplicity disclaims any obligation to update information contained in any forward-looking statement.