From: wyle@synopsys.com (Mitch Wyle)
Newsgroups: biz.comp.software
Subject: (Sept 7) SYNOPSYS INC. ANNOUNCES DESIGNWARE
Date: 14 Sep 92 18:38:42 GMT
Organization: Synopsys Inc.

Today at EURO-DAC, Synopsys Inc. (Mountain View, Calif.), announced
DesignWare, a new business segment for the company, which consists of
methodology, tools, libraries and relationships that enable the smart
re-use of designs.

The first two products in the Synopsys DesignWare family are Synthetic
Designs and DesignWare Developer.

"Two major changes will significantly increase designer productivity in
the future: the first is to move to higher level descriptions such as
VHDL, and the second is to adopt strategies for smart design re-use,"
said Harvey Jones president and chief executive officer of Synopsys.

"DesignWare is the introduction of the second change. It plays an
important role in high-level design by enabling designers to take
advantage of existing designs and build upon them, rather than spending
valuable resources redeveloping existing functions.

"We are providing companies with the ability to leverage 
their investment - the thoughts, ideas and intellectual 
property of their designers - throughout their entire 
development organization. In a nutshell, we are enabling 
companies to now 'clone' their best designers."

Synthetic Designs are off-the-shelf component libraries of intellectual
property which are synthesizable, have been pre-verified with Synopsys'
VHDL System Simulator (VSS) and can be modified by changing parameters
such as bit width or register depth. Previous strategies for design
re-use have not taken advantage of synthesis as an enabling technology
and VHDL as the worldwide language standard.

After synthesis with Synopsys' Design Compiler, Synthetic Designs may be
written out in any supported netlist format. Synopsys' Test Compiler may
also be used on Synthetic Designs to generate manufacturing test vectors.

Synthetic Designs consist of advanced logic, advanced math, and sequential
designs. Several families of components are offered with Version 3.0,
in addition to the basic components included with Synopsys' Design
Compiler and VSS licenses.

More designs from Synopsys and outside organizations will be added in the
future. Each family of components consists of synthesis and simulation
models and compile directives. A Synthetic Designs data book contains
detailed descriptions of each component including VHDL and Verilog usage
guidelines, function summary and performance estimates.

DesignWare Developer enables system designers to capture their own
intellectual property by building inventories of components tailored
to their design requirements, and to manage and protect proprietary
design data.

A powerful feature of DesignWare is its ability to automatically
infer some DesignWare components, such as arithmetic functions, from
a high-level description. DesignWare Developers links these DesignWare
components to synthesis. Users no longer have to manually indicate in
the high-level description exactly which function to use.

DesignWare Developer also provides a structured methodology for design
management which helps users organize designs into libraries and report on
design characteristics. When adding components with DesignWare Developer,
users ensure that Synopsys high-level design tools can make full use of
their proprietary DesignWare. DesignWare Developer also keys and encrypts
designs to protect the user's DesignWare.

"DesignWare creates a new way for semiconductor suppliers to leverage
their competitive, proprietary components and differentiate their
products,' said President Harvey Jones. "By using DesignWare Developer,
they can make these component descriptions available at a higher level
of abstraction and thus significantly increase customer productivity."

"We expect third parties and end customers to use DesignWare Developer
to share their intellectual property with their leading customers and
with the general marketplace. For example, Texas Instruments (Dallas)
and Compiled Designs (Munich, Germany) have already announced DesignWare
support. As our customers implement increasingly complex systems in
silicon, being able to re-use design data will provide the reduction in
design time required to remain competitive."

Synopsys currently anticipates that DesignWare Developer and Synthetic
Designs will be available by end of calendar year 1992. U.S. pricing
for DesignWare Developer is expected to start at $45,000 under a license
agreement; and for Synthetic Designs at $5,000 to $15,000 per family.

Synopsys Inc. develops, markets and supports high-level design automation
software for designers of integrated circuits and electronic systems.  The
Company currently offers a comprehensive set of synthesis, simulation and
test tools, which are supported on the most widely used UNIX workstations.


				-=-


Please send flames, comments, and opinions to me:

wyle@synopsys.com

Mitch Wyle                     (415) 694 4076 (work)
Synopsys Inc
700 E. Middlefield Rd.         (415) 965 8637 (fax)
Mountain View, CA  94043-4033  (800) 843 5669 x4076 (VoiceMail)




Requests for press releases or other marketing information can be sent to:

Lois DuBois                    lois@synopsys.com
Synopsys Inc                   (415) 694 4255
700 E. Middlefield Rd.         (415) 965 8637 (fax)
Mountain View, CA  94043-4033  (800) 843 5669 x4255