CynApps Raises $8 Million In New Funding; `Validates the Vision' of C-based Design.

Business Editors/High Tech Writers

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 8, 2000

CynApps today announced it has raised $8 million in second-round funding from a &uot;who's-who&uot; of Silicon Valley technologists and investors. CynApps develops electronic design automation (EDA) software that provides a high-level design methodology for system and ASIC design teams.

&uot;Our investors' response validates our vision,&uot; said Dr. John Sanguinetti, president of CynApps. &uot;We continue to see very strong worldwide interest in our C++ tool suite based on the need for a transition from RTL design to a higher level of abstraction.&uot;

Investors in CynApps include Infinity Capital, L.L.C. and U.S. Venture Partners, as well as noted technologists Andy Bechtolsheim and Jon Rubinstein, and computer pioneer, Gordon Bell.

&uot;This is currently the most exciting area in EDA,&uot; said Atul Kapadia, managing director of Infinity Capital, L.L.C. &uot;There is clearly an urgent demand to address the growing complexity of system design, and CynApps is ideally positioned to capitalize on this methodology shift.&uot;

In addition to Mr. Bell and Mr. Kapadia, other CynApps board members include Lucio Lanza, U.S. Venture Partners, and Steve Blank, founder of E.piphany.

Rationale for Transitioning to C++

The majority of system architects use C/C++ for system modeling, although they are generally unfamiliar with hardware design. Logic designers would benefit from a higher-level abstraction language that enables refining, rather than rewriting, system models and algorithms already available in C/C++. CynApps offers a complete C++ design environment for simulation, verification and synthesis, which has evolved from a standard HDL design flow.

Since announcing availability of its Cynlib open-source C++ hardware design class library and simulator only four months ago, more than 1,000 engineers from around the world have downloaded the software. Additional momentum is clearly demonstrated by the fact that dozens of companies, including the biggest names in EDA, IP, semiconductors, and systems design, have now endorsed C++ as the only open, viable, next-generation design language.

About CynApps

CynApps was started in 1998 by Dr. John Sanguinetti, the founder of Chronologic Simulation (now part of Synopsys); Dr. J. Randy Allen, noted compiler expert and former vice-president of engineering at Chronologic Simulation; and Andy Goodrich, graphics expert and former chief technology officer at IXmicro. CynApps is located in Santa Clara, Calif. and can be reached at [phone], or on the web at www.cynapps.com.