Fujitsu Microelectronics America, Inc. and Synplicity, Inc., a supplier of software for the design and verification of semiconductors, have announced a joint development and marketing agreement to develop a custom physical synthesis product for Fujitsu AccelArray™ structured/platform ASIC devices. Fujitsu and Synplicity will work closely to produce an optimized version of Synplicity’s Amplify® physical synthesis software, specifically targeting the AccelArray architecture and enabling greater performance and faster overall timing closure for Fujitsu’s devices. “Synplicity's established expertise in deep synthesis technology and its excellent track record in the structured/platform ASIC market were key factors in our decision to choose the company as a recommended EDA synthesis supplier,” said Yoji Hino, general manager of ASIC, Network and Communication Products Division at Fujitsu Limited’s LSI group. “We believe Synplicity’s customized tool will set a new standard for designer productivity and will help our customers fully exploit the inherent benefits of our AccelArray devices, as well as achieve the performance and timing closure previously unattainable with other physical synthesis solutions.” "AccelArray leverages Fujitsu's decades of ASIC design expertise and can help significantly reduce the customer's total cost of ownership," said Keith Horn, vice president of marketing at Fujitsu Microelectronics America. "With its extensive sets of IPs such as embedded processor cores and high-speed SerDes, AccelArray's innovative and versatile design platforms are appropriate for a wide range of applications." Under the terms of this agreement Fujitsu and Synplicity will jointly define and Synplicity will develop the customized Amplify software for the AccelArray physical synthesis product. Upon its completion, Fujitsu will offer the Amplify software as the preferred physical synthesis solution to AccelArray customers. Fujitsu and Synplicity believe that bundling the Amplify physical synthesis software with the AccelArray platform will provide customers with a more complete ASIC solution. According to market research firm Gartner Dataquest, the structured/platform ASIC market will experience substantial growth in the next four years. In the company’s recent report entitled “Platform ASICs Jump-Start Market,” Bryan Lewis, research vice president and chief semiconductor analyst, contends that: “ASIC platforms have the potential to jump-start the ASIC industry because they can now serve an increasing number of customers that had been left behind because of the rapidly rising design costs of traditional ASICs.” In addition, Gartner Dataquest predicts there will be more than 1,000 structured ASIC design starts by 2007, representing 25 percent of all ASIC design starts. "This bright outlook from the analyst community on the industry confirms Synplicity's strategy to fully support the structured ASIC market," said Joe Gianelli, vice president of Business Development at Synplicity. "We are honored to work with such a well-respected company like Fujitsu and are excited that our support of its cell-based ASIC and AccelArray technologies is now expanding into the joint development of an AccelArray-optimized product. We believe this latest agreement aligns Synplicity with every major structured/platform ASIC vendor in the industry, further builds Synplicity's momentum in the structured/platform ASIC market, and enhances our reputation as the preferred EDA synthesis tool vendor for this emerging design platform."