GUC and Synopsys Achieve Design Milestone

High-quality IP, 30 customer tape-outs contribute to Flexible ASIC success

HSINCHU, Taiwan and MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., March 13, 2012 -- Global Unichip Corp. (GUC; TW:3443), the Flexible ASIC Leader™ and Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNPS), a world leader in software and IP used in the design, verification and manufacture of electronic components and systems, today announced the tape out of 30 customer devices during the past four years using a combination of Synopsys' DesignWare® IP and GUC's ASIC design services.

This milestone marks GUC's emergence as an ASIC industry leader, demonstrates the quality and breadth of Synopsys' IP portfolio and underscores the successful partnership between the two companies.

Under its Flexible ASIC™ business model, GUC brings custom ASIC products to market from nearly any point in the design chain. As a dedicated ASIC company without its own products or the burden of owning hard assets, such as foundries or tooling, GUC minimizes design barriers and speeds time-to-volume.

GUC and Synopsys have enabled the successful tapeout of 30 customer devices covering networking, wireless communication, consumer and computer markets based on 130-, 90-, 65- and 40-nanometer (nm) manufacturing process nodes. The resulting designs have been implemented into a variety of products including digital cameras, PDAs, surveillance equipment, digital TVs and hard disk drives.

As a member of Synopsys' IP OEM Partner Program, GUC has access to Synopsys' extensive portfolio of proven DesignWare IP and technical support. The DesignWare IP portfolio consists of complete, silicon-proven IP for widely used interfaces such as PCI Express, USB, DDR, SATA, HDMI, MIPI, and Ethernet, as well as a broad range of analog IP, embedded memories and standard cell libraries.

"We're seeing a huge shift in the market, with more companies creating product differentiation through custom ASICs," said Jim Lai, president of GUC. "To successfully deliver customized SoCs, we must be nimble enough to create differentiation and fast enough to enable customers to take advantage of that differentiation in the market place. Synopsys plays a pivotal role in this strategy."

"For more than 15 years, Synopsys has been providing SoC designers with a broad set of silicon-proven IP solutions that help reduce integration risk and speed time-to-market, including interface, analog, standard cells and embedded memory IP," said John Koeter, vice president of marketing for IP and systems at Synopsys. "Achieving this [customer] tape out milestone is a testament to our long-standing partnership with GUC and our shared commitment to helping mutual customers get their products to market faster with the performance and functionality they need to be successful."

About GUC

GLOBAL UNICHIP CORP. (GUC) is the Flexible ASIC Leader™ whose customers target IC devices to leading edge computing, communications and consumer applications. Based in Hsin-chu, Taiwan, GUC has developed a global reputation with a presence in China, Europe, Japan, Korea, and North America. GUC is publicly traded on the Taiwan Stock Exchange under the symbol 3443. For more information, go to www.globalunichip.com.

About DesignWare IP

Synopsys is a leading provider of high-quality, silicon-proven IP solutions for SoC designs. The broad DesignWare IP portfolio includes complete interface IP solutions consisting of controllers, PHY and verification IP for widely used protocols, analog IP, embedded memories, logic libraries and configurable processor cores. To support software development and hardware/software integration of the IP, Synopsys offers drivers, transaction-level models, and prototypes for many of its IP products. Synopsys' HAPS® FPGA-Based Prototyping Solution enables validation of the IP and the SoC in the system context. Synopsys' Virtualizer™ virtual prototyping tool set allows developers to start the development of software for the IP or the entire SoC significantly earlier compared to following traditional methods. With a robust IP development methodology, extensive investment in quality, IP prototyping, software development and comprehensive technical support, Synopsys enables designers to accelerate time-to-market and reduce integration risk. For more information on DesignWare IP, visit: http://www.synopsys.com/designware.

About Synopsys®

Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq:SNPS) is a world leader in electronic design automation (EDA), supplying the global electronics market with the software, intellectual property (IP) and services used in semiconductor design, verification and manufacturing. Synopsys' comprehensive, integrated portfolio of implementation, verification, IP, manufacturing and field-programmable gate array (FPGA) solutions helps address the key challenges designers and manufacturers face today, such as power and yield management, system-to-silicon verification and time-to-results. These technology-leading solutions help give Synopsys customers a competitive edge in bringing the best products to market quickly while reducing costs and schedule risk. Synopsys is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and has approximately 70 offices located throughout North America, Europe, Japan, Asia and India. Visit Synopsys online at http://www.synopsys.com.