Forte Design Systems' SystemC High-Level Synthesis Selected for Fujitsu Semiconductor's ASIC Reference Flow

To Be Used for New 40nm Process Technologies, Along With 90-, 65nm

SAN JOSE, CALIF. –– December 8, 2010 –– Forte Design Systems announced today that Cynthesizer™ high-level synthesis software has been selected for use in Fujitsu Semiconductor Limited’s application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) Reference Flow for the new 40-nanometer (nm) process technologies, along with 90- and 65nm.

“Forte continues to prove its value as a provider of high-level synthesis,” remarks Takashi Hasegawa, general manager, SoC Solutions Division, Fujitsu Semiconductor Limited.  “Cynthesizer met or exceeded our stringent requirements, giving internal and external design teams a SystemC-based, high-level synthesis tool for register transfer level sign off.”

Cynthesizer was selected after extensive testing using the advanced process technology of a 40nm library to ensure high quality of results.  It is available to internal and external design teams worldwide for functional validation and timing for hand-off examples.  Forte and Fujitsu Semiconductor will jointly develop the high-level synthesis library for the latest technology.

“It gives us a great deal of pleasure to be working with Fujitsu Semiconductor, a company with forward-thinking initiatives,” says Sean Dart, president and chief executive officer of Forte Design Systems.  “Fujitsu Semiconductor recognized early on that in order to improve time to market and design quality, it needed to deploy a SystemC-based high-level synthesis tool like Cynthesizer.”

About Cynthesizer

Forte’s flagship Cynthesizer SystemC-based high-level synthesis software has been used for more than 300 production ASIC and system-on-chip (SoC) silicon tapeouts since 2002.  Designers create abstracted models of their hardware using a high-level SystemC description.  Cynthesizer processes the SystemC model, automatically creating the datapath and finite state machine.  Designers can easily generate a number of candidate register transfer level (RTL) implementations by varying tool directives to specify latency, performance or area constraints.

About Forte Design Systems

Forte Design Systems is a leading provider of software products that enable design at a higher level of abstraction and improve design results.  Its innovative synthesis technologies and intellectual property offerings allow design teams creating complex electronic chips and systems to reduce their overall design and verification time.  More than half of the top 20 worldwide semiconductor companies use Forte’s products in production today for ASIC, SoC and FPGA design.  Forte is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., with additional offices in England, Japan, Korea and the United States.  For more information, visit www.ForteDS.com.