OpenVera Momentum Drives Industry Adoption of a Complete Solution Around A Non-Proprietary Hardware Verification Language

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA, April 15, 2002 - Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq:SNPS), the technology leader for complex integrated circuit (IC) design, today announced the availability of nine new OpenVera™ verification intellectual property offerings from Catalyst Program members, plus product support from three additional companies, and the introduction of an online discussion forum. Synopsys also announced the addition of 11 new members to the OpenVera Catalyst Program. Combined with the launch of OpenVera 2.0, these developments mark a significant step forward in reaching the OpenVera objective of easing the verification bottleneck by enabling the development of a complete solution around an open, non-proprietary hardware verification language (HVL).

"From the beginning, we envisioned OpenVera as a non-proprietary, open hardware verification language, freely available to the entire design community to provide solutions to address today's verification challenges," said Jim Watts, OpenVera program manager at Synopsys, Inc. "These recent developments show that in one year OpenVera has made significant progress in meeting its objective. It is providing a strong foundation for tool providers to deliver innovative solutions, for IP vendors to provide powerful and complete verification IP, and for users to benefit from a complete solution built on an open-source standard."

Rich Portfolio of OpenVera Verification IP Available
OpenVera verification IP accelerates the development of a complete verification environment to cut down the time to first test. OpenVera verification IP solutions are reusable verification modules that typically consist of bus functional models, traffic generators, protocol monitors, and functional coverage blocks. OpenVera verification IP solutions are available from the following companies:

"With the significant momentum surrounding OpenVera, ControlNet India is seeing a strong demand for high-quality OpenVera verification IP," said P. Sridhar at ControlNet India. "Participation in the OpenVera Catalyst Program allows us to develop and distribute OpenVera verification IP, such as IEEE 1394, to meet the growing needs of our customers. Our IEEE 1394 OpenVera verification IP enables users to cut down verification time by providing pre-packaged stimulus generators and functional coverage analyzers."

Latest OpenVera Integration
Three additional companies have announced that they have integrated their products with Synopsys' VERA® testbench solution to enhance verification productivity for OpenVera users. Forte Design Systems now supports VERA for its verification results analysis product, Perspective. Novas Software, a leader in debug systems for complex integrated circuit designs, announced a tight integration between its Debussy® knowledge-based debug system and VERA. Also, Verilab announced the integration of vzDoc with VERA to enable OpenVera users to quickly generate documentation from the testbench source code.

11 New Members Join Catalyst Program
The OpenVera Catalyst Program includes a broad network of companies with expert tool and methodology knowledge in Synopsys' leading verification solutions. The Catalyst Program complements Synopsys Professional Services' existing design and verification offerings by expanding the support and services options available to customers for meeting their SoC verification challenges. Catalyst members offer methodology consulting and training for OpenVera users, in addition to creating and distributing OpenVera verification IP. The new OpenVera Catalyst Program members are Acuitus; Audio Video Millennium; Cold Spring Engineering, Inc.; Gold Mountain Technology; Emulation & Verification Engineering (EVE); Exanet Technologies; IAM-1; Integnology; Jambo Systems, Inc.; Verilab; and Verification Central. The addition of these 11 companies to the Catalyst Program brings the total member list to 30 companies.

"The functional verification of complex designs is core to our business," said Faisal Haque, author of the best-selling book "The Art of Verification with VERA" and a principal in Verification Central. "We see a significant need for OpenVera-based verification methodology in the industry. Synopsys' OpenVera Catalyst Program enables us to efficiently deliver this methodology, as well as OpenVera-based verification IP solutions for this rapidly growing market."

Building an Online User Community
The design community can now access the OpenVera discussion forum at no charge at http://www.open-vera.com/forum. The discussion forum provides a convenient way to bring the rapidly growing OpenVera community together. It can be used for posting questions, sharing new techniques and code, exchanging ideas and sharing expert advice. Users can also keep abreast of the latest OpenVera developments and solutions.

About OpenVera
OpenVera is an open source hardware verification 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. The latest OpenVera developments will be featured at the ninth semiannual Synopsys EDA Interoperability Developers' Forum in Sunnyvale, CA on Tuesday, April 16, 2002. For more information on OpenVera and OpenVera verification IP solutions, visit http://www.open-vera.com.

About Synopsys
Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq:SNPS), headquartered in Mountain View, California, 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.

Synopsys and VERA are registered trademark of Synopsys, Inc. OpenVera is a trademark of Synopsys, Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks mentioned in this release are the intellectual property of their respective owners.