Synopsys IC Validator Adopted by NVIDIA for Sign-off Physical Verification

IC Validator Delivers 20x Faster Physical Verification Using 25 CPUs

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., May 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Synopsys, Inc.
(Nasdaq: SNPS), a world leader in software and IP for semiconductor design and
manufacturing, today announced that NVIDIA Corporation has adopted Synopsys'
recently announced IC Validator physical verification solution. The IC
Validator DRC/LVS solution has been specifically developed for advanced
designs at 45 nanometers (nm) and below to offer in-design physical
verification as well as signoff. As the inventor of the Graphics Processing
Unit (GPU) and the world leader in visual computing technologies, NVIDIA
designs multi-billion transistor processors that require the highest level of
tool performance and productivity. By achieving near-linear scalability, such
as the 20x speedup observed by NVIDIA using 25 CPUs, IC Validator provides
accelerated time to tapeout.

"We continue to push design complexity to meet our customers' visual computing
needs. To validate such large designs in a timely fashion, we require a
high-performance, high-capacity physical verification engine. IC Validator
demonstrated that we can verify our largest designs overnight using our
standard hardware configurations," said James Chen, manager of VLSI technology
at NVIDIA. "In addition, the flexibility offered by IC Validator's highly
programmable language will help us customize design flows to improve
productivity. Working closely with our foundry partners, we are deploying IC
Validator for our designs."

IC Validator has been architected to address the challenges physical designers
of complex designs at advanced process nodes face today. IC Validator delivers
the high accuracy necessary for leading-edge process nodes, excellent
scalability for efficient utilization of available hardware, superior
ease-of-use for the physical designer, and high programmability for easier
runset development. The solution deploys intelligent auto detection techniques
to identify available hardware resources by taking advantage of existing
compute job scheduler configurations. This includes configuring an intelligent
mix of distributed processing and multithreading to provide the industry's
best scalability without special hardware setup. For the runset writers and
CAD managers, IC Validator offers a flexible programming language that can cut
runset size from 2-10x, lowering the cost of setting up, maintaining and
modifying the physical verification environment. Already in production at a
world-leading IDM and qualified at leading foundries, IC Validator offers
incremental capabilities, significant automation and innovative features such
as DRC error classification, multi-user collaboration, customized reporting
and on-the-fly error reporting.

"As a leading semiconductor company focused on cutting-edge designs, NVIDIA
has repeatedly set the bar for physical verification tool performance,
capacity and programmability," said Antun Domic, senior vice president and
general manager, Implementation Group at Synopsys. "NVIDIA's adoption of IC
Validator is a significant endorsement of its benefits and Synopsys'
technology addressing the requirements for the industry's most advanced
designs."

About Synopsys
Synopsys, Inc. (NASDAQ: SNPS) is the world leader in electronic design
automation (EDA), supplying the global electronics market with the software,
intellectual property (IP) and services used in semiconductor design 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 more than 60 offices
located throughout North America, Europe, Japan, Asia and India. Visit
Synopsys online at http://www.synopsys.com/.

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

Editorial Contacts:

Sheryl Gulizia
Synopsys, Inc.
650-584-8635
sgulizia@synopsys.com

Lisa Gillette-Martin
MCA, Inc.
650-968-8900 ext. 115
lgmartin@mcapr.com

SOURCE Synopsys, Inc.

Sheryl Gulizia of Synopsys, Inc., +1-650-584-8635, sgulizia@synopsys.com; or
Lisa Gillette-Martin of MCA, Inc., +1-650-968-8900, ext. 115,
lgmartin@mcapr.com, for Synopsys, Inc.