Synopsys Opens Vera Language to Provide an Open Platform to Unify the Verification Market.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 2, 2001

Over Thirty EDA Vendors, IP Vendors and End Users Endorse Vera

Open Source Initiative to Solve Key System-on-a-Chip Challenges

Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq:SNPS) today announced the Vera Open Source Initiative and the availability of OpenVera(TM) as an open source hardware verification language. The initiative will benefit customers and the industry by fostering the growth and availability of tools and intellectual property (IP) around an open source language. More than thirty EDA, IP and system on a chip (SoC) design companies have endorsed OpenVera and the Vera Open Source Initiative. OpenVera 1.0 is available free of charge at http://www.open-vera.com.

"Sun Microsystems has always been a strong proponent of open standards," said Sunil Joshi, vice president, Design Automation and Compute Resources at Sun Microsystems. "There is a tremendous need for standardization of verification languages and the Vera Open Source Initiative is a step in the right direction. Sun was an early technology contributor to VERA(R) and incorporated it into our verification flow more than six years ago. The Vera Open Source Initiative should foster innovations enabling the creation of many verification tools around a standard language."

"The Vera Open Source Initiative presents an opportunity for the verification market to converge right away around a standard SoC verification language, thus avoiding the problems that multiple proprietary languages cause designers," stated Aart de Geus, chairman and CEO of Synopsys. "OpenVera will increase innovation and tool development and, most importantly, help users overcome the verification challenges of next-generation SoC."

SoC Verification Challenges

Functional verification is a resource-intensive task accounting for up to 70 percent of the total SoC development effort. Part of this verification bottleneck is testbench creation, which can be more complex than designing the hardware itself. Designers have turned to optimized verification languages that offer the high level of abstraction and features necessary for successful functional verification of complex SoCs. While this market has been growing rapidly, third party EDA tool vendors have been hesitant to build complementary solutions around these proprietary languages. Speeding up the adoption of a common hardware verification language through OpenVera is expected to allow EDA vendors to focus on tool innovation, and customers to get access to interoperable tools to solve their SoC verification challenges.

"Tensilica is the leading provider of configurable processors and a successful user of the Vera Testbench tool. We currently use Vera for verification of all our RT-level models and have been making Vera-based environments available to our customers for two years. We believe the Vera Open Source Initiative will enable the IP industry to have access to a broad set of tools and services around an open language and will encourage verification testbench portability for our customers," said Beatrice Fu, vice president of Engineering at Tensilica.

OpenVera is a proven language supported in the Synopsys VERA(R) testbench tool that has over 50 percent market share in the testbench automation market, according to the Dataquest/Gartner Group report titled EDA Market Trends, published in November of 2000. VERA has gained wide acceptance among SoC design teams in IP, processor, computer systems, networking and telecommunications companies.

"Redback Networks is successfully using the Vera testbench tool for ASIC verification and we welcome the Vera Open Source Initiative," said Mike Yamamura, vice president of ASIC Development at Redback Networks. "This initiative will help tool vendors and verification engineers by providing an opportunity to create interoperable tools based on an open and standard hardware verification language."

Industry Endorsement of OpenVera and the Vera Open Source Initiative

More than thirty EDA, IP and SoC design companies have expressed their endorsement of OpenVera and the Vera Open Source Initiative. These companies include 0-In Design Automation, Antrim Design Systems Inc., Aptix Corp., ARC Cores, ARM, Averant, Avici Systems Inc., Axis Systems Inc., Chronology Corp., Compaq, CoWare Inc., Denali Software Inc., GDA Technologies Inc., Hewlett-Packard Company, IKOS Systems, Innologic Systems, Innoveda, Interra Technologies, Intrinsix Corp., MIPS Technologies Inc., Novas Software Inc., Qualis Design, Real Intent, Redback Networks, Samsung Electronics, Stratus Technologies, Sun Microsystems Inc., SynaptiCAD, Tensilica Inc., Tharas Systems Inc., Toshiba Semiconductor Company, Verplex Systems Inc., and ZAIQ Technologies Inc. A complete list of these endorsements, as well as supporting quotes are available at http://www.open-vera.com.

How to Access OpenVera

SoC design teams, verification teams and EDA developers can access OpenVera by downloading the Language Reference Manual (LRM) from the OpenVera web site at www.open-vera.com. There are no licensing fees for OpenVera and there is unrestricted access to the language and documentation, subject to the OpenVera license. Synopsys will serve as the managing entity for OpenVera and guide the open language development. Developers can use the language and create complementary tools.

About Open Source Initiatives

Open source initiatives are quickly gaining popularity with proven successes such as Linux, Java(TM), Liberty(TM), SystemC, LEF and Synopsys Design Constraints (SDC). With Synopsys' open source model, the user community can enhance the standard and submit changes to Synopsys for incorporation in future revisions of the LRM, which speeds up development of a high quality, well-supported standard.

About OpenVera

OpenVera is an intuitive, high-level, object-oriented programming language developed specifically to meet the unique requirements of functional verification. The language enables users to describe the target application environment, including complex protocols and data objects, at a high level of abstraction, which dramatically increases productivity, readability and reusability.

About Synopsys

Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq:SNPS), headquartered in Mountain View, creates leading electronic design automation (EDA) tools for the global electronics market. The company delivers advanced design technologies and solutions to developers of complex integrated circuits, electronic systems and systems on a chip. Synopsys also provides consulting and support services to simplify the overall IC design process and accelerate time to market for its customers. Visit Synopsys at http://www.synopsys.com.

Forward Looking Statement

This release contains forward-looking statements under the safe harbor provisions of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 including, specifically, statements regarding the impact and benefits of the Vera Open Source Initiative. These statements are based on Synopsys' current expectations and beliefs. Actual results could differ materially from the results implied by these statements. Factors that could cause results to differ from these statements include the competitive nature of the electronic design automation industry, the development or adoption of alternative technologies or methods for addressing verification, and uncertainties inherent in the rate of which complex technology is adopted, as well as factors identified in documents filed by Synopsys with the Securities and Exchange Commission, especially the most recent report on Form 10-K.

Note to Editors: Synopsys, the Synopsys logo and VERA are registered trademarks of Synopsys, Inc. OpenVera and Liberty are trademarks of Synopsys Inc. All other brands or products are trademarks of their respective owners and should be treated as such.