NEC Electronics Provides ISSP Structured ASIC Customers

Customized Amplify ISSP Pro Physical Synthesis Software Speeds Time to Market and Enables Optimal Performance

KAWASAKI, Japan, SANTA CLARA, Calif., DÜSSELDORF, Germany, June 13, 2005 —NEC Electronics Corp. (TSE: 6723), a leading semiconductor solutions provider, and its subsidiaries in the United States and Europe, NEC Electronics America, Inc. and NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH, respectively, today announced that the company will now provide customers of its Instant Silicon Solution Platform™ (ISSP™) structured ASICs with a six-month license of Synplicity’s Amplify® ISSP Pro physical synthesis software. The Amplify ISSP Pro software will be offered as part of NEC Electronics’ OpenCAD® tool suite, effective immediately. Through this strategic agreement, NEC Electronics extends to customers the fast time-to-silicon benefits that the ISSP methodology and architecture provide, and combines this with a low, up-front design investment.

“We’ve worked closely with Synplicity over the past several years to provide our mutual customers with highly optimized physical synthesis solutions customized for our ISSP1 and ISSP90 structured ASICs,” stated Takatoshi Koga, general manager, Communication Systems Division, NEC Electronics Corporation. “The availability of the Pro version of the Amplify ISSP software will provide users with even greater functionality and result in increased performance and faster overall timing closure. In addition, by providing our customers with the optimum tools available, we’re enabling them to achieve higher productivity, which results in lower overall development costs. Customers can enjoy all the benefits of the Amplify ISSP Pro tool for six months¯enough time to complete most ISSP designs¯at no additional cost.”

“Synplicity has partnered with NEC Electronics to deliver the only placed gates handoff physical synthesis solution for ISSP architectures,” said Andy Haines, vice president of marketing, Synplicity, Inc. “With the Amplify ISSP Pro software, a designer can quickly meet performance targets using integrated floorplan editing combined with ISSP-specific physical synthesis tuned for extremely high quality of results and interactive analysis. Fully integrated with the NEC Electronics OpenCAD tool suite, the software reads ISSP physical and logical libraries from the ISSP design kit and completes a timing-correlated, legally placed design ready for handoff to NEC Electronics.“

Under the terms of the agreement, NEC Electronics will bundle and distribute a license for Synplicity's Amplify ISSP Pro software within NEC Electronics' OpenCAD design environment for use in the development of ISSP structured ASICs. For parallel design efforts requiring multiple design seats or for designs requiring an extension beyond the initial six months, customers can work directly with Synplicity to meet additional license needs.

NEC Electronics’ OpenCAD tool suite provides customers with access to many of the design tools needed to easily and efficiently complete ISSP design (RTL to placed-gates) for handoff to NEC Electronics-authorized design centers for back-end detailed routing. The integration of the Amplify ISSP Pro software within the OpenCAD design environment provides customers with a highly productive physical synthesis solution that delivers optimal results, enabling a “one-pass” placed gates design handoff flow for NEC Electronics’ ISSP customers.

The Amplify ISSP Pro software is the latest result of joint R&D efforts between NEC Electronics and Synplicity that began in June 2002. The software performs automatic memory and macro block placement, concurrent full-chip (top-down) legalized placement and customized physical synthesis, timing analysis, embedded ISSP clock tree configuration, and ISSP-specific data path and arithmetic operator generation. The software is capable of handling ISSP designs of any size without having to partition the design for synthesis, leading to substantially improved area and run time. New features specific to the Pro version include a block-based design flow that allows different groups of designers to work on different blocks in parallel and legal floorplan editing to further improve results. The tight correlation to NEC Electronics’ place-and-route environment provides a one-pass flow for users of the Amplify ISSP Pro software.

About NEC Electronics’ ISSP Structured ASICs
NEC Electronics’ ISSP architecture was designed to serve the growing number of applications that require higher complexity and performance than an FPGA but cannot bear the high development costs associated with cell-based ASICs. ISSP structured ASICs also offer a compelling time-to-market advantage over cell-based ASICs, with development typically taking as little as four to six months as opposed to the 12 to 18 months required for most cell-based ASICs. Each NEC Electronics ISSP design begins with a prefabricated master composed of an array of complex multi-gates, embedded IP cores, built-in test circuits, clock domains and power lines. Two custom metal layers are easily and quickly placed, routed and fabricated to satisfy the unique requirements of each individual design. ISSP-based products consume much less power than a comparable FPGA and also have lower NRE costs than cell-based ASIC devices. Currently available families of ISSP structured ASICs include the 150-nm ISSP1-STD and ISSP1-High-Speed Interface (HSI) devices and the 90-nm ISSP90 devices. Further information can be found at www.necelam.com/issp.

About NEC Electronics
NEC Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723) specializes in semiconductor products encompassing advanced technology solutions for the high-end computing and broadband networking markets, system solutions for the mobile handset, PC peripherals, automotive and digital consumer markets, and multi-market solutions for a wide range of customer applications. NEC Electronics Corporation has 26 subsidiaries worldwide including NEC Electronics America, Inc. (www.necelam.com) and NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH (www.eu.necel.com). For additional information about NEC Electronics worldwide, visit www.necel.com.

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NEC Electronics America, Instant Silicon Solution Platform, ISSP and OpenCAD are either trademarks or registered trademarks of NEC Electronics Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Synplicity and Amplify are registered trademarks of Synplicity Inc. Other product or brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.