Adoption of VSIA Standards Showcased at Its Member Meeting in Munich; Synopsys, Design and Reuse, VCX, and AXYS Design Automation Explained Adoption of VSIA Standards at DATE2001.

Business/High-Tech Editors

LOS GATOS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 20, 2001

The VSI Alliance (VSIA) first Member Meeting of 2001 was well attended by System-on-Chip (SoC) professionals on March 12 at DATE 2001 in Munich.

Adoption of VSIA standards was explained and illustrated by Synopsys (Nasdaq:SNPS), Design and Reuse, the Virtual Component Exchange (VCX), and AXYS Design Automation in conjunction with Infineon Technologies (DAX/NYSE:IFX). The event was open to both VSIA members and non-members.

The speakers included: Heinz-Josef Schlebusch, Director of R & D, System-Level Design Tools at Synopsys; Gabriele Saucier, Chairman of the Board, Design and Reuse; Caroline O'Donnell, Marketing Manager for VCX, and Vojin Zivojnovic, President and CEO, AXYS Design Automation.

During the meeting, Dr. Schlebusch discussed how VSIA and SystemC collaborated on VSI's System-Level Data Types Standard and explained how this would benefit both SystemC and VSIA members. Professor Saucier reinforced Design and Reuse's support for VSIA's standards, in particular the "Virtual Component Attributes (VCA)" Standard by providing a compliant interface to their XML e-catalog system. Ms. O'Donnell talked about how VCX leveraged the work of VSIA's VC Transfer and IP Protection DWGs in the development of their VC exchange. In particular, she cited, improvement in transaction efficiency, transaction safety, and reduction of transaction cost as the key benefits for VCX's "as is" adoption of VSIA's VCA Standard(a). Dr. Zivojnovic stressed AXYS' need for VSIA to continue its work on the System-Level Design (SLD) Development Working Group's (DWG) proposed ISS API standard.

In addition, Larry Cooke, VSIA Technical Marketing Manager, gave an update on VSIA Compliance, and Larry Rosenberg, VSIA Technical Committee Chair, presented an update on the organization's technical progress.

"The complexity of silicon designs is increasing dramatically. The challenge in the industry is to bridge the gap between the millions of transistors that can be integrated on one chip and the productivity of the design engineer to design these SoC devices," said Timothy O'Donnell, VSIA President and President of ARM, Inc. (the U.S. subsidiary of ARM Ltd.). "The ability to use VCs from diverse sources is a requirement for electronic companies to reach the required complexity and time to market constraints necessary to compete in the electronics industry today. The companies presenting at this member meeting shows that the work of VSIA is being adopted by many successful companies who are leading the industry into the SoC world."

About VSIA

The Virtual Socket Interface Alliance (VSIA) is an open, international organization that includes representatives from all segments of the SoC industry: System houses, Semiconductor vendors, Electronic Design Automation (EDA) companies, and Intellectual Property (IP) providers. VSIA's vision is to dramatically accelerate system-chip development by specifying open standards that facilitate the mix and match of virtual components from multiple sources. Many companies have adopted the use of VSIA specifications, standards and documents. VSIA has wide industry participation with more than 170 member companies from around the world. Membership is open to any company with an interest in the development and promotion of open standards used in the design of System-on-Chip. For more information, visit the VSIA web site at www.vsi.org, or e-mail to [e-mail].

Adoption

Adoption and use of VSIA's documents, specifications, and standards is growing at many System-on-Chip companies. Some of the companies that have adopted VSIA specifications and standards include Alcatel; Aristo Technology, Inc.; ARM; Cadence Design Systems, Inc.; Fujitsu Limited; Hewlett-Packard Company; Infineon Technologies Corp.; Intel Corp; inSilicon Corp.; LogicVision, Inc.; LSI Logic Corp; Mentor Graphics Corp.; Motorola SPS; Nokia Mobile Phones; Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.; PalmChip Corp.; Philips Semiconductor; Schlumberger Semiconductor Solutions; Sican Microelectronics Corp.; STMicroelectronics Ltd.; Synopsys, Inc.; United Microelectronics Corp.; Virtual Component Exchange, and Xentec, Inc.

Editor's Notes: VSI Alliance is a trademark of the Virtual Socket Interface Alliance, Inc.

(a) Virtual Component Attributes (VCA) with Formats for Profiling, Selection, and Transfer Standard Version 2.2 (VCT 2 2.2)