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UK signs semiconductor memorandum with ISA

he UK business support group East of England International (EEI) has signed a major trade agreement with India.

The memorandum of understanding with the India Semiconductor Association (ISA) will boost co-operation in chip design, embedded software and solar photovoltaics.

Business visits and the exchange of industry reports and delegations are a core focus of the memorandum.

It will foster relationships and develop a mutually beneficial framework for developing business alliances in the UK and India semiconductor sectors.

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-- 2009-03-22 06:33:20

ISA ‘Technovation Awards’ ceremony to be held in July 2009

To honor and recognize talent in the semiconductor driven research

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The India Semiconductor Association (ISA), the trade body representing the Indian semiconductor driven industry, is inviting nominations and applications from members of the semiconductor research and development fraternity in India to apply for its “Technovation Awards” Ceremony to be held in July 2009. As one of the most prestigious research awards in the semiconductor industry, Technovation recognizes individuals and exemplary semiconductor research in industry and academia. Dr. Sunit Tyagi, Chairman- Technovation Awards Core Committee 2009, ISA Executive Council member and Director- Technology, Intel India, said, “In today's knowledge-intensive world, a nation's strength lies in its capability to innovate in its core technology areas. Therefore it is imperative for us to have a strategy and put in sustained effort to promote and propagate semiconductor driven research in our R&D institutions.” ISA, instituted the Technovation Awards in the year 2007. This initiative touches upon many facets to provide continuous momentum towards promoting innovation in semiconductor research. The Technovation awards are in five categories, i.e. TechnoVisionary, TechnoMentor, TechnoShield, TechnoInventor and Technovation Karnataka. The categories are for faculty, recent graduates and the engineering schools. “This is an innovative approach to encourage participation in the semiconductor world from education and research perspectives. As an industry body, the ISA wants to promote and encourage the academic fraternity and reward role models.” said Ms. Poornima Shenoy, President, ISA. The jury for the Technovation Awards, 2009 comprises of renowned personalities from industry & academia across the globe. The beneficiary of the Awards will be selected after a rigorous process of evaluation. The Awards include a trophy and monetary reward. Last date for sending your filled application/nomination forms: March 15, 2009. For more details on ISA Technovation 2009, contact: technovation@isaonline.org or visit: http://www.isaonline.org/technovation/ --Rasick Gowda 2009-03-22 06:35:31

EETimes.com - India: All paths lead upwards

It's portion of a $250 billion semiconductor market is marginal, it has only two fabless startups, its innovation record as measured by the number of patents granted is dismal, it suffers from a dearth of Ph.Ds and high attrition rates, what talent it does have is undisciplined and it let China dominate completely in systems manufacturing.

Yet for Abhi Talwakar, president and CEO of LSI Logic, India remains firmly in the driver's seat of its own semiconductor and engineering design destiny.

"India possesses a unique combination of enablers that can greatly elevate its role into the future," he said during his kick-off keynote for this year's VLSI2009 Conference taking place in New Delhi this week.

"There's no reason it can't get on the map [next to Europe and China]," he said, though the US remains clearly in the lead with 48 percent of the market share, based on the number of companies headquartered there. India currently enjoys a meager $7.3 billion of that $250 billion market, or 2.92 percent.

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-- 2009-03-22 06:35:38

Booming Israeli semi-conductor industry eyes Indian companies

The Indian Semiconductor Association (ISA) today hosted the delegation, comprising senior managers of Israeli fab and fabless companies, as well as academicians from Israeli technical institutes. The delegation will explore the possibilities of chip designing in two Indian cities, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Possible areas of collaboration are RTL-GDSII design, verification, physical design and embedded system software.

The delegation head and chairman of the Israeli high-tech CEO forum, Sol Gradman, said, "We have come here to explore capabilities in India. There are about 150 design centres in Israel. However, some of the design-related work like RTL-GDSII design, verification, physical design and embedded software could be outsourced. We believe that several Indian companies have very good capabilities as well as with Israel companies."

ISA president Poornima Shenoy said, "This is the first time we are seeing a delegation of design companies coming from Israel to India. In the past, we have had equipment manufacturers coming; I think it’s a positive step as they are hardcore chip design companies. There are lots of potential domestic companies as well as Israeli companies."

She added, "Israel comes third in fabless after US and Taiwan and Indian design industry is about $6 billion. They will see some companies in Bangalore and Hyderabad and let’s see where it goes from here."

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-- 2008-11-19 03:18:49

NASSCOM Innovation Awards 2008 - The fifth edition..

he award categories are

Market facing innovation - New technology advancement - Creation of ‘new to the world’ or ‘new to the market’ technology that will help a customer realize value. E.g.

* Products and solutions for 3G telecom networks.

* Natural language processing solutions for customer care offerings

Market facing innovation - Business model and business process - Services and products that have enabled customer value creation through transformation of business model or business processes or other structural change E.g.

* Software as a service offering

* Design processes and business models for system-on-a-chip hardware

Business innovation - Business model and business process - Innovations to company’s own business processes, models, inputs, go-to-market strategies, delivery models etc. to realize significant value to itself. E.g.

* Extreme programming (XP) or Agile techniques1 for software development

* Talent sourcing, training and retention approach and strategies

Start-up

* Market facing innovation – new technology advancement

* Market facing innovation – business model and / or business process

* Business innovation – business model and / or business process

2007 Winners to be changed to Finalists for 2007 and the companies are mentioned below:

* Comat Technologies

* Financial Technologies India Ltd

* Mango Technologies Pvt Ltd

* MediaLab Asia

* MindTree Consulting

* Mistral Solutions Pvt. Ltd

* MeritTrac Services Private Limited

* Texas Instruments

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-- 2009-03-22 06:34:19

Is China's IC Industry Nearly Maxed Out?

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China's IC industry underwent significant growth in 2007, with sales revenues reaching US $18.23 billion--a 24 percent increase over 2006. While revenues from IC design and chip manufacturing fell slightly, they were more than made up for by an uptick in packaging and testing--for which China's global market share surpassed the 50 percent mark. But market research company CCID Consulting predicts that after another year of growth in 2008 (due mainly to the arrival of digital TV and 3G mobile telecommunications), China's IC industry will have reached its peak and will begin to see a slowdown in growth. Read on at: -- 2009-03-22 06:33:46

A story on the entry of Reliance,videocon,Moser Baer in the semiconductor manufacturing side

As Companies like Reliance, Moser Baer and Videocon Industries unveil plans to invest about Rs 65,000 crore in chip manufacturing. Most thought India had missed the bus when Intel decided to put off its plans to set up a plant in India to manufacture, assemble and test silicon processors. Instead, it went to China with a $2.5-billion fabrication facility. Ironically, it had sought a $50-million upfront subsidy from the government. The much-talked about chip manufacturing forays of

SEMIndia or Hindustan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp’s seem nowhere near completion. Stung by the setback, the government framed a special incentive package scheme last year for semiconductor manufacturing—following the trend of many Asian countries—offering a capital subsidy to investors setting up chip manufacturing units. The recent investment proposals are an outcome of that.

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-- 2008-04-14 02:15:24

Fairchild Establishes R&D Center in Pune, India

Fairchild Semiconductor has opened a design center in Pune, India. This R&D center will be responsible for designing and developing the company's new generation of power MOSFETs and IGBT technology to support applications such as solar inverters, uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), automotive, lighting and ballast applications.

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-- 2008-02-25 01:19:55

"India Design Services, Moving Ahead and Building Strengths

The Indian design services industry will maintain an impressive growth rate of 20.2% during the 2007–2012 timeframe, and will reach US$3.4 billion by 2012. The captive centers of the IDMS in India currently work on cutting edge technologies and the latest process nodes. However, the industry is facing a lot of challenges, like increasing salaries and lack of analog/mixed signal expertise in the country. The companies are building strengths to overcome these challenges and explore new opportunities.

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-- 2008-02-14 00:57:27

Fairchild Opens Design Center in Pune

Chip maker Fairchild Semiconductor International Inc. said Monday it opened a design center in Pune, India, which will develop new transistors for uses that include power supplies and automative applications.

Employees at the center will work on new metaloxidesemiconductor field-effect transistors, or MOSFETs, and insulated-gate bipolar transistors, or IGBTs. Fairchild said the workers will have experience in design, and particularly designs that use low-voltage power.

The company said the Pune area is home to several research institutions and colleges that focus on engineering.

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-- 2008-02-05 06:39:34

?We will incubate companies selectively?

Bangalore-based NEA IndoUS Ventures set up a $189 million (Rs745 crore) fund in July last year. Formed by a trio of past entrepreneurs—Vinod Dham, Vani Kola and Kumar Shiralagi—the firm has invested in nine companies, including semiconductor design company InSilica Inc. and telecom component manufacturer Microqual Techno Pvt. Ltd. Last week, the firm invested $2.5 million in Chennai-based Bay Talkitec (P) Ltd, a mobile value-added services (VAS) provider that started as an IVRS (interactive voice recognition systems) company in 1991.

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An interview with Kumar Shiralagi -- 2008-02-04 23:14:07

Europe introduces Blue Card to compete against America's Green Card

While the United States continues to argue about whether to raise the H-1B visa cap and reform green-card processes to allow more foreign tech workers into the country, the European Union wants to make it much easier for highly skilled workers from abroad to land jobs in the EU's 27 member countries.

The EU, which is predicting a severe workforce crisis over the next several decades as its Baby Boomer generation retires, aims to attract 20 million workers from the outside in the years to come.

The EU hopes that a new proposed "blue card" will help fill that void, providing a more attractive alternative to the U.S. green-card program, which critics say is plagued by backlogs, cumbersome processes, and insufficient quotas.

The blue card would provide educated immigrants, including tech professionals, with a two-year, renewable permit to work and reside in an EU member nation. Because the EU aims for a worker's blue-card application process to take less than three months, the visa would provide a fast track for foreign-born individuals to land jobs in EU member countries.

By contrast, the U.S. green-card process can take anywhere from five to 10 years for an individual to gain permanent residency. And the 85,000 annual quota on H-1B visas for temporary foreign tech workers has been running out quickly for the last few years, forcing many prospective workers to take jobs elsewhere.

In addition to being an alternative to the U.S. green card, the blue-card program will also provide an option to foreign-born individuals who might have considered taking jobs in Canada or Australia, two other favorite destinations for the highly-skilled international workforce.

The EU's unveiling of the blue-card program this week comes at the same time that the U.S. Senate approved a spending bill amendment that could raise employers' H-1B visa fees to $5,000 per worker from $1,500. The additional fees will be used to fund new scholarship programs for U.S. students pursuing technology, math, and science-related degrees.

Compete America, a coalition of technology companies that has been lobbying Congress for several years to raise the H-1B visa cap and make green-card reforms, blasted the fee hikes and expressed worry about the blue card's potential impact on the U.S. tech workforce. "Europe has sent a message. They're aggressively pursuing the professional talent they need to compete on the global stage," said Robert Hoffman, VP for government and public affairs at Oracle and co-chair of Compete America, in a statement.

"The Senate has unfortunately also sent a message, and it doesn't bode well for the U.S. economy," Hoffman said.

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-- 2008-01-10 00:47:39

AMD Eyes India for New Chip Plant - New York Times

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is warming to the idea of building a chip manufacturing plant in India, which would be a significant breakthrough for the country's high-tech ambitions.

Hector Ruiz, AMD's chairman and CEO, was in India Thursday to announce the opening of a new, 52,000 square-foot AMD design facility in Bangalore that will house up to 350 engineers. The company has outgrown its previous design facility, which opened in 2004.

Ruiz said at the event that it is critical to have manufacturing operations in close proximity to research and development. "A fab in India is under consideration," he said.

AMD's chip production efforts in India have been limited so far to its involvement with SemIndia Inc., a consortium of investors that plans to set up a wafer fabrication, and assembly and test operation in India.

AMD said in 2005 that it would transfer some of its manufacturing process technologies to SemIndia, but that project has been delayed, in part because the Indian government was slow to announce its semiconductor policy and a package of incentives for the chip industry. Both were finally announced earlier this year.

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-- 2007-11-30 09:00:19

Indian Institute of Science buys IBM SuperComputer

Bangalore based Indian Institute of Science has just purchased a supercomputer from IBM.This supercomputer will be used for high-end research projects. The full Blue Gene/L machine was designed and built in collaboration with the Department of Energy's NNSA/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, and has a peak speed of 360 Teraflops. Blue Gene systems occupy the #1 (Blue Gene/L) and #3 (Blue Gene Watson) positions in the TOP500 supercomputer list announced in November 2006 and a total of 27 of the top 150.

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-- 2007-11-26 10:28:40

Tower in talks with SemIndia, HSMC

Rafi Nave, Tower's chief technology officer, told EE Times that "Tower brings to the cooperation with the Indian companies an offering which includes special areas such as CMOS sensors, which can be found in mobile phones, alongside automotive and medical applications. Other expertise we have is in radio frequency, where we have simulation and process capabilities and intellectual property for areas such as RFID." SemIndia (New Delhi, India), has been formed by expatriate Indians in California to work with the Indian government, state governments, and other strategic partners and customers to create a wafer fab in India. SemIndia is planning to build a fab in Hyderabad or in Bangalore.

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-- 2007-09-27 01:28:23

TaiwanSemiconductor Industry Association and Indian semiconductor associations sign MOU

The India Semiconductor Association (ISA) has signed a memorandum of understanding in Taipei with the Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association (TSIA). The pact, signed by ISA chairman S. Janakiraman and TSIA chairman Frank C. Huang, is aimed at improving business links between semiconductor companies in the two nations.

The TSIA has 150 members, including companies engaged in semiconductor R&D, design, manufacturing, packaging, testing, equipment and materials, while the ISA membership is dominated by design services companies.

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-- 2007-09-07 01:46:31

Chip design IP Certification Lab delayed by a year

NEW DELHI: Semiconductor chip designers may have to wait for some more time to get exclusive rights for their new chip designs. The government is likely to take at least one more year to set up the infrastructure for testing the originality of designs.

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-- 2007-08-24 09:40:10

Want to Get Ahead at the Office? Avoid These Common Blunders

You go in early, stay late, finish all your assignments on time and come in below budget, but you still haven't got the recognition you deserve at work. What gives?

According to Cynthia Shapiro, author of the book "Corporate Confidential," it doesn't matter how adept you are at your job because if you make these five common mistakes, you'll never be a star:

1. Following your personal agenda. Many of us assume we know how best to approach our jobs, but letting your own judgment dictate your actions is unlikely to get you noticed or rewarded. If you're not working on what your company or your boss thinks is important, you are never going to be seen as a valued asset, warns Shapiro. If your goal is to move up the ranks, drop your own agenda and do what you can to further theirs, no matter how misguided you think it is.

2. Voicing negative thoughts. Are you the office kvetch, always ready to badmouth your boss or ridicule the company's latest venture? Watch out: You may be ruining your career. "When it comes to business, being positive is more important than being skilled," says Shapiro. The next time you notice yourself griping, ask yourself: Is it more important to say what's on mind, or to get that next promotion?

3. Complaining to HR. Companies tend to portray HR as a service for employees, but that isn't strictly true. "The HR people are really there to protect the company from you and they do that by keeping you close," says Shapiro. If you bring an issue to HR, they will only work to address your concerns if it is in the best interest of the company to do so. If your problem threatens the company or your job performance, the "help" they offer may, in fact, be an attempt to minimize the company's liability or to collect the evidence they need to push you out of your job, cautions Shapiro.

4. Being too smart. You may believe that the smarter you are, the more likely you are to gain recognition, but that's not always the case. Showcasing your smarts can make you appear like more of a threat than an asset if it isn't done with finesse. "If you want to be promoted then use your smarts in support of your boss and your peers," Shapiro counsels. Word to the wise: Never point out what could be done better unless your supervisor specifically asks for your opinion, and even then you should tread carefully.

5. Not knowing when to jump. There are a number of ways to gauge whether you're in danger of being fired: You have a contentious relationship with your boss; you haven't gotten a raise in a long time; you're consistently given the clients or projects no one else wants. If any of this sounds familiar, start looking for a job as soon as possible, warns Shapiro. It always better to jump to a new position than to get terminated. "You are 10 times more appealing to an employer if you're still employed," Shapiro says, "And if you get a job while you still have a job, it prevents your new firm from calling your current employer, and creates a seamless jump on your resume."

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-- 2007-08-23 03:02:55

Open Silicon's major business model is outsourcing to India

Open Silicon's innovation was its strategy to outsource chip design to lower-cost workers in India. The company designs and contracts to build specialized ASICs — or application specific integrated circuits — for use in cell phones, networking gear and video game machines.

Customers who don't want to create chips in-house turn to Open Silicon, which sends the project to its design teams in Bangalore, where it employs 60 of its 105 workers.

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-- 2007-07-20 02:56:43

ST Micro to shut tho cut cost-Hardware-Infotech-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times

STMicroelectronics on Wednesday announced that as part of its decision to deconsolidate its Flash memory businesclose down three of its manufacturing operations in the US and in Morocco.


However, the decision would not impact its Indian operations, which basically is about chips designing.


"This is STs global strategic initiative related with Manufacturing. It does not impact ST India as the local focus remains on design engineering and business growth," Vivek Sharma, Vice President EMR and Director India Design Center said.

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-- 2007-07-12 01:23:56

Joining Startup's:Winners, losers and how to spot them

Choosing the right company can have a huge impact on the trajectory of your

career. A New Scientist article discusses the tips and tricks scientists in

the biotech industry use to decide which offers to accept, but the advice is

almost universally applicable. For example, you can steer clear of companies

unlikely to have long-term viability by trusting your instincts. "You can go

into a car showroom and know some cars are better quality than others just

by looking at them," says Stephen Jackson, founder of Kudos Pharmaceuticals,

a UK biotech company developing cancer drugs. "In the same way, if you're a

scientist in the appropriate field you will normally have a very quick

response as to whether [the company's research avenues are] good or

not--it's instinctive." Even if a company benefits from good-quality

science, it can go in the bin if it's not run by experienced managers with

links to other companies and academic institutions. So it makes sense to

check up on your future bosses.

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-- 2007-07-02 01:16:26

Resume for Newbie's

One of the biggest problems for recent graduates is what to put on their resume. This is especially true for those individuals who have not yet held jobs with significant responsibility. But entry-level jobseekers need not have outstanding job experience to make their resume exciting and attractive to prospective employers.

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-- 2007-07-02 01:13:22

Centillium eyes India for growth

With Indian telecommunications sector witnessing a fast pace of growth, US-based Centillium Communications, a provider of broadband access solutions, is betting big on the country for growth. The company launched two broadband access solutions for the Indian market.

Centillium’s products include mixed-signal integrated circuits and related hardware and software applications for Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) and Optical Networking equipment deployed in central offices and customer premises, and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) products for carrier and enterprise class gateways and consumer telephony.

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-- 2007-06-29 08:50:03

SiRF looking for buyout targets

SiRF Technology, the US-based provider of semiconductor and software for mobile devices largely for geographical positioning system (GPS), is keen on further acquisitions in India.


SiRF had in the recent past acquired Bangalore-based Impulsesoft, a bluetooth solution firm, for $18 million in a cash and stock deal. It also acquired TrueSpan, which had a development centre in Bangalore.


Kanwar Chadha, VP-marketing, SiRF Technology, said the company would actively look at inorganic route in India to expand its technology portfolio. SiRF currently has development centres in Bangalore and Noida having around 150 people.

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-- 2007-06-27 01:17:18

Intel rules out assembly test unit in India

Mumbai, June 24: World's largest chip manufacturer Intel has decided not to set up any new assembly test facility for now, a decision that dents India's hope to have a plant.

The decision, however, is not just for India but for all geographies, an Intel spokesperson said.

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-- 2007-06-25 01:08:56

Papers on implementation of DSP algorithms/VLSI structures using Vedic Mathematics

Applications of Vedic Mathematics in the field of Information Technology. We bring to light for the first time the works and papers of students who have used Vedic Math in fields of Digital Signal Processing (DSP), Chip Designing, Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT), High Speed Low Power VLSI Arithmetic and Algorithms,RSA Encryption System etc. All the papers presented here on various IT topics have used the Vedic Math Methods such as Multiplication, Division, Squares, Cubes some even claim to have used Geometry and Calculus in their programming structure.


List of Papers

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-- 2007-06-20 00:53:25

Synplicity to Acquire HARDI Electronics AB

Bangalore, June 7, 2007 —Synplicity, Inc. (Nasdaq:SYNP), a leading supplier of software for the design and verification of semiconductors, today announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire all of the outstanding shares of HARDI Electronics AB, a leading developer of off-the-shelf ASIC prototyping boards, for $24.2 million in cash. The ASIC prototyping market is one the fastest growing segments of the EDA industry, and this acquisition makes Synplicity the leader in this part of the ASIC verification market.

HARDI's ASIC Prototyping System (HAPS) is used world-wide by industry-leading companies such as Broadcom, Conexant, LG, LSI Logic, Marvell, Matsushita, Nokia, NXP, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, and TI.

Gary Meyers, CEO of Synplicity, stated, “This is a major strategic move for Synplicity. We will be able to immediately leverage our existing ASIC verification products (Certify, Synplify Premier, Identify, and Identify Pro) by selling them together with the HARDI ASIC prototyping boards. We’re particularly excited about 2008 when we anticipate combined revenues in excess of $80 million.”

HARDI’s ASIC prototyping systems work seamlessly with Synplicity’s Certify and Synplify Premier synthesis products and its Identify and Identify Pro RTL debugging solutions. ASIC verification teams can use the combined Certify, Synplify Premier and HAPS system to quickly create multi-million gate FPGA systems to verify ASIC functionality in real time while enabling comprehensive software verification with interfaces to real-world stimuli. Synplicity's Identify and Identify Pro RTL debug products permit designers to conveniently debug these systems at the RTL level instead of with timing-consuming gate level interfaces.

“We at HARDI are excited about joining forces with Synplicity,” said Lars-Eric Lundgren, Founder and CEO at HARDI Electronics AB. “With Synplicity’s product line and the combination of our sales channels, we now have the opportunity to offer a comprehensive best-in-class solution to the ASIC design community. We are committed to a successful integration of our companies.”

Synplicity will continue to support its world-wide customer base using FPGA prototypes built from custom-designed prototyping boards and those using off-the-shelf boards from other manufacturers through the Partners in Prototyping program.

The acquisition is expected to close in June 2007, subject to customary conditions of closing. Updated 2007 financial guidance will be provided in Synplicity’s second quarter earnings call.

Investor Conference Call

Synplicity will be holding an investor conference call from the Design Automation Conference on Monday, June 4 at 2PM PDT to discuss the acquisition. A live webcast of the call will be available on Synplicity’s Web site at http://investor.synplicity.com.

Following completion of the call, a rebroadcast of the webcast will be available at http://investor.synplicity.com through June 30, 2007. For those without access to the Internet, a replay of the call will be available from 5:00 p.m. Pacific on June 4, 2007 through midnight June 18, 2007. To listen to a replay, call 719-457-0820, access code 7754523.

About HAPS

HAPS is a modular, high performance and high capacity FPGA-based system for ASIC prototyping. HAPS comprises multi-FPGA motherboards and standard or custom-made daughter boards which can be combined in a wide variety of ways in order to quickly assemble ASIC prototyping systems. Rapid assembly is facilitated by the availability of many standard daughter boards including video processing, memory and interfaces to Ethernet, USB, PCI Express and ARM® core modules. Customers prefer the time-to-market advantage of using an off-the-shelf prototyping solution which can save months in the critical verification phase.

About HARDI Electronics


Founded in 1987, HARDI Electronics AB is a pioneer in the field of advanced electronic design. The company's knowledge and experience ranges from SoC design using full custom ASICs to a wide variety of designs with programmable logic. HARDI introduced its first ASIC prototyping product in 2000 and today has many successful installations worldwide. The company is headquartered in Sweden and was incorporated in the USA in 2005. The majority of the company is owned by the founders and a minority is owned by the Swedish investor Malmöhus Invest AB.

About Synplicity

Synplicity® Inc. (Nasdaq:SYNP) is a leading supplier of innovative software solutions that enable the rapid and effective design of Programmable Logic Devices (FPGAs, PLDs and CPLDs) that serve a wide range of communications, military/aerospace, consumer, semiconductor, computer and other electronic systems markets. Synplicity's tools provide outstanding performance, cost and time-to-market benefits by simplifying, improving and automating key design planning, logic synthesis, and physical synthesis and verification functions for FPGA, FPGA-based ASIC verification and DSP designers. Synplicity is the number one supplier of FPGA synthesis solutions and has been rated #1 in customer satisfaction since 2004 in EE Times' Annual FPGA Customer Survey. Synplicity products support industry-standard design languages (VHDL and Verilog) and run on popular platforms. The company operates in over 20 facilities worldwide and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information visit http://www.synplicity.com.

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--Rasick Gowda 2007-06-13 11:44:03

Synplicity Unveils Confirma Platform for ASIC/ASSP verification

Bangalore, June 08, 2007 — Synplicity Inc. (Nasdaq: SYNP), a leading supplier of software for the design and verification of semiconductors, today unveiled the Confirma™ platform, a next generation, high-performance verification solution that dramatically improves the traditional ASIC and ASSP verification process. The Confirma platform brings together best-in-class hardware and software tools, creating a tightly integrated, hardware-assisted verification solution that helps customers address today and tomorrow’s ASIC and ASSP verification challenges. The Confirma platform includes Synplicity’s Certify® tool, the industry standard for multi-FPGA partitioning and implementation; as well as the company’s recently introduced Identify® Pro software with TotalRecall™ technology providing full visibility into the design under test; and, the HAPS (HARDI ASIC Prototyping System) FPGA-based prototyping hardware, the most flexible prototyping boards on the market today.

Demand from ASIC and ASSP designers for considerably more verification horsepower and the availability of a new generation of high-density devices, make FPGA-based prototyping one of the fastest growing verification methodologies today. To date, however, designers are still challenged with piecing together their own solutions. The current choice involves selecting different hardware and software tools from various vendors, ensuring these tools are adequate to address a designer’s particular verification needs, and finally, creating an ad-hoc flow for tool interoperability. Synplicity’s solution takes FPGA-based prototyping to the next usability and productivity level by transforming it into a tightly integrated, comprehensive at-speed verification

solution — the Confirma platform.

“The Confirma platform allows designers to approach verification differently,” said Juergen Jaeger, senior director of ASIC verification marketing at Synplicity. “Instead of thinking ‘how can I reduce verification and cut corners to meet the product schedule’, users can now start thinking ‘what additional verification can I run to improve design and product quality’. Synplicity is uniquely positioned to address, for the first time, all the major steps needed to successfully leverage the performance of FPGA-based prototypes as a viable and productive ASIC and ASSP verification solution— from implementation to at-speed execution and debug of the design under test. The Confirma platform makes prototyping easy to use and highly productive.”

The three major components of the Confirma platform, as stand-alone tools, are already considered best-in-class: the Certify software takes an existing ASIC design and partitions it into multiple FPGAs; the HAPS prototyping boards are the hardware execution engine; and Identify Pro software, with its revolutionary TotalRecall technology, provides full visibility and a seamless interface into industry-standard software simulators for easy debugging. When used together, the tools provide the highest-performance ASIC and ASSP verification platform available today. In addition, The Confirma platform’s modular and scalable architecture deploys prototypes as replicates, thus significantly reducing overall system verification time for software developers and systems integrators by enabling them to run actual software applications.

About Certify

The Certify software is the leading product for ASIC/ASSP prototyping using multiple FPGAs. The Certify tool combines RTL multi-chip partitioning with best-in-class FPGA synthesis. Using the Certify tool makes FPGA-based prototyping significantly easier, shortens prototype development time, improves prototype performance, and enables faster time-to-market.

About Identify Pro

The Identify Pro tool is a revolutionary new ASIC and ASSP verification solution. The Identify Pro software, featuring Synplicity’s TotalRecall technology, provides designers with full visibility into FPGA-based ASIC and ASSP prototypes, thus enabling users to find, fix and verify functional errors at speeds approaching that of the real chip. The Identify Pro software improves the productivity of existing verification methodologies, such as assertion-based verification, simulation and emulation, resulting in a significantly reduced overall verification time while at the same time improving verification coverage and quality.

About HARDI Electronics

On June 1, 2007 Synplicity announced the acquisition of HARDI Electronics AB (see release, Synplicity Announces Agreement to Acquire HARDI Electronics AB). Founded in 1987, HARDI Electronics AB is a pioneer in the field of advanced electronic design. The company's knowledge and experience ranges from SoC design using full custom ASICs to a wide variety of designs with programmable logic. HARDI introduced its first ASIC prototyping product in 2000 and today has many successful installations worldwide. The company is headquartered in Sweden and was incorporated in the USA in 2005. The majority of the company is owned by the founders and a minority is owned by the Swedish investor Malmöhus Invest AB.

About HAPS

HAPS (HARDI ASIC Prototyping System) is the first modular FPGA board system providing high speed, high capacity, real-time debugging and full ASIC functionality for ASIC prototyping designers. The system is composed of multi-FPGA motherboards and standard or user developed daughter boards. To accommodate very large designs, users can connect several mother­boards in many different ways. HAPS boards give designers virtually the same functionality as the ASIC, at speeds approaching that of the ASIC.

About Synplicity

Synplicity®, Inc. (Nasdaq: SYNP) is a leading supplier of innovative software and hardware solutions for the design and verification of semiconductors that serve a wide range of communications, military/aerospace, consumer, semiconductor, computer, and other electronic systems markets. Synplicity's tools provide outstanding performance, cost and time-to-market benefits by simplifying, improving and automating design planning, logic synthesis and physical synthesis for FPGA and DSP designs, as well as at-speed verification and prototyping for ASIC & ASSP designs. Synplicity is the number one supplier of FPGA synthesis solutions and has been rated #1 in customer satisfaction since 2004 in EE Times' Annual FPGA Customer Survey. Synplicity products support industry-standard design languages (VHDL and Verilog) and run on popular platforms. The company operates in over 20 facilities worldwide and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information visit http://www.synplicity.com.

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--Rasick Gowda 2007-06-13 11:41:25

Analog Devices Offers Industry’s Most Complete RF Portfolio

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Bangalore, June 05 — Analog Devices, Inc. (NYSE: ADI), a global leader in high-performance semiconductors for signal processing applications, expands its industry-leading RF (radio frequency) solutions with the introduction today of an RF amplifier portfolio of 12 new devices covering the complete RF signal chain. Combined with ADI’s industry-leading power detectors, modulators, demodulators, mixers, and synthesizer products, this offering allows designers to implement complete signal chain solutions using Analog Devices’ high-performance ICs, thereby simplifying the design process, streamlining supply chain logistics, and shortening time to market. The new RF amplifiers are fully characterized and specified for both broad-band and narrow-band applications. When coupled with ADI’s other RFICs, they enable the design and implementation of advanced RF radio architectures for a wide range of performance-driven applications, such as communications infrastructure equipment, marine radar and RFID readers. With unprecedented levels of performance, the four RF amplifier product families include, LNAs (low-noise amplifiers), IFAs (intermediate frequency amplifiers), driver amplifiers, and RF gain blocks, all of which are fully specified for operation over temperature, supply voltage and operating frequency, thereby easing the selection and design-in process. Within each RF amplifier family, Analog Devices optimized the performance to cover both broadband and narrowband applications with the minimum number of external passive components, providing considerable savings in board area and design complexity. “The RF amplifiers support the higher performance and wider bandwidth applications within next-generation broadband access systems, without sacrificing the cost, size or power consumption. Each RF amp family provides leading linearity performance, minimizes external component count, and is fully specified and characterized to simplify the design in process,” said Peter Real, product line director for RF and Networking Components, Analog Devices. “Analog Devices is providing the highest performance RF ICs that enable designer’s creative freedom to implement new cost efficient radio architectures across the many markets and air interface standards.” LOW NOISE AMPLIFIERS (LNAs): As the first amplifier in the receive path, LNAs are a critical component for defining overall system performance and must be able to successfully amplify very low-level signals without adding a significant amount of noise. ADI’s ADL552x family sets an industry performance benchmark by operating from 400 MHz to 4 GHz while achieving a low noise figure with the optimum amount of gain and current consumption. The ADL5521 provides 0.8 dB NF with a gain of 15 dB while the ADL5523 provides 1.1dB NF with a gain 17.5 dB. The new LNA family includes on-chip bias circuitry and requires minimal external matching components, thereby reducing cost and board space compared to discrete low-noise amplifiers. For more information, visit www.analog.com/rfamps. INTERMEDIATE FREQUENCY AMPLIFIERS (IFAs): Designed to operate in the IF frequency range typically below 500 MHz, ADI’s ADL553x family of single- and dual-channel IFAs are fully specified and characterized to support applications across the most commonly used IF frequencies of 70, 140, 190, 240, and 380 MHz. The new IFAs provide industry’s highest linearity of 41 dBm while maintaining a noise figure as low as 2.5 dB for optimal signal dynamic range. Compared to competing products, the new IFA family provides the highest linearity specifications and is offered within space saving surface mount LFCSP packages. Furthermore, Analog Devices’ IFAs integrate on-chip bias circuitry, require minimal external matching components and support 1KV Class 1C ESD. For more information, visit www.analog.com/rfamps. DRIVER AMPLIFIERS: Analog Devices’ ADL532x driver amplifier family offers the highest linearity for a given output power to enable low distortion, high-output drive directly to the power amplifier stages. The ADL5320 driver provides broadband operation from 400 MHz to 2.7 GHz and requires minimal external matching for a chosen band of operation. The ADL5320 provides an output linearity of 42 dBm and 26 dBm output compression point while consuming just 104 mA of supply current. The ADL5322 and ADL5523 drivers are optimized to work over frequency bands of 700 MHz to 1 GHz and 1.7 GHz to 2.4 GHz, respectively and provide the highest linearity with an output IP3 of 45dBm and output compression point of 28dBm. The ADL5322 and ADL5323 are internally matched and can eliminate the need for up to 10 external components required. Both devices provide exceptional adjacent channel power ratio for CDMA and W-CDMA applications. For example the ADL5323 provides better than 70dBc ACPR while delivering greater than +10dBm output power. Compared to competing devices, Analog Devices’ driver amplifiers integrate on-chip bias circuitry, minimize the need for external matching components, and support the highest linear output drive levels for the transmitter output power stages. For more information, visit www.analog.com/rfamps. Gain Blocks: The ADL5541 and ADL5542 are broadband gain blocks that operate from low frequencies up to 6 GHz. Both devices are 50-ohm internally matched with integrated internal bias circuitry minimizing the need for external components. The ADL5541 provides 15 dB gain with output linearity of 40dBm and the ADL5542 provides 20 dB of gain with an output linearity of 40dBm. Both devices are fully ESD protected and available in small footprint LFCSP packages. Compared to competing devices, the ADL5541 and ADL5542 offer the highest linearity and lowest noise figures across a broader operating frequency range, while saving board area and cost due to the smaller footprint surface mount packaging. For more information, visit www.analog.com/rfamps. ADI in Radio Frequency ICs Using a unique combination of design skills, process technologies, and system understanding, Analog Devices offers a broad portfolio of RF ICs, including complete chipsets and a full range of high-performance RF function blocks. ADI’s extensive offerings include: direct digital synthesizers (DDS); phase-locked loop synthesizers (PLLs); detectors and logarithmic amplifiers; X-AMP® fixed and variable gain amplifiers (VGAs); TruPwr™ RF power detectors; mixers, modulators, and demodulators; integrated IF amplifiers; and the Othello® family of single-chip transceivers for cellular terminals. For more information, visit www.analog.com/rfamps. --Rasick Gowda 2007-06-07 22:54:20

Cadence Design Systems Said to Be in Buyout Talks

Cadence Design Systems, one of the largest makers of the software used to design computer chips, is in talks with at least two buyout firms about a possible sale of the company, two people close to the matter said yesterday.


The company has held talks with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and the Blackstone Group, and other suitors may emerge, those people said. But they warned that a deal may not happen because of the complicated risks in the company's business. Other private equity firms took a look at Cadence but passed.

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-- 2007-06-07 22:55:07