SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- Synplicity Inc. (Nasdaq: SYNP), a leading supplier of software for the design and verification of semiconductors, today announced it has enhanced its FPGA synthesis software to provide optimized support for Actel’s FPGAs. The Synplify® 7.3 software with added support for the ProASIC Plus family is included within Actel’s Libero integrated design environment (IDE) v5.0, aiding in the design and development of Actel’s FPGA families. With increased performance and area optimization improvements, Synplicity believes customers using the latest version of the Synplify software can increase the performance of their flash-based ProASIC Plus devices by an average of 19 percent while efficiently optimizing the device for increased area utilization. For customers requiring additional circuit performance, the Libero IDE v5.0 also features an expanded interface to Synplicity’s Synplify Pro® software. The latest version of the Synplify Pro software adds additional features for ProASIC Plus devices, including a re-timing feature, further boosting device performance.

“With ASIC-like architectural characteristics and the flexibility of an FPGA, we’ve seen an increasing demand for support for Actel’s ProASIC Plus devices among our customers,” said Jeff Garrison, director of marketing for FPGA products at Synplicity. “We have worked closely with Actel to develop optimized synthesis support and we believe our mutual customers will experience significant performance benefits using our Synplify software within Libero IDE v5.0. Additionally, we believe the area optimizations that have been added to our Synplify software enable efficient area utilization for the ProASIC Plus devices and can help reduce overall system costs by lowering speed grade requirements.”

“Our Libero IDE v5.0 was developed to provide our customers with a complete, easy-to-use design flow from synthesis to place and route and Synplicity’s Synplify synthesis software fits nicely into this flow,” said Saloni Howard-Sarin, tools marketing director at Actel. “The Synplify software enables our customers to quickly synthesize their ProASIC Plus devices and significantly increase their device performance. Additionally, with the new interface to Synplify Pro within the Libero IDE v5.0, we give our customers the option to use an alternate, industry-leading synthesis tool from Synplicity when designing Actel FPGAs.”

The Synplify 7.3 software provides users with a unique true timing-driven approach to synthesis. The software enables users to more easily optimize for area after their speed goal is met, potentially reducing device size and saving tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars in device costs. The Synplify software supports all Actel FPGA device families. Features such as triple module redundancy (TMR) in the Synplify software make it well suited for the design of systems that require high-performance and high reliability, such as military and avionics.

Synplicity Inc.

Actel Corp.