Synfora Announces New Release of PICO Express -- Application Engine Synthesis for Fastest SoC Design

Leader in Application Engine Synthesis Delivers Faster, More Powerful Version of Its Tool for System-on-Chip Design

Mountain View, Calif. — October 26, 2004 — Synfora™, Inc. announced the new release of PICO Express™, the first-ever product for application engine synthesis (AES). PICO Express dramatically reduces the cost, time, and risks of system-on-chip (SoC) design by enabling designers to automatically explore alternative implementations, and then generate efficient hardware for their algorithms. Synfora, the leader in the emerging market for AES, targets SoCs used in the audio, video, imaging, wireless, security, and other segments of the integrated circuit (IC) design market.

Introduced in March 2004, PICO Express combines configurable IP with tools that explore and build RTL directly from algorithm C descriptions. It takes algorithm descriptions expressed in terms of sequences of nested loops and maps them to a highly optimized pipeline processor array (PPA) architecture that uses previously verified blocks and correct-by-construction configuration. PICO Express creates a pipeline of rate-matched RTL blocks with streaming data automatically from sequential loop nests expressed in C. PICO Express supports multiple local memories and powerful compiler analysis to minimize memory and bus bandwidth bottlenecks, and to ensure first-pass RTL timing closure. PICO Express also includes extensive capabilities to ensure that verification and integration are minimized along with RTL creation.

"This new release of PICO Express was developed to satisfy the increasing demand for application engine synthesis to replace manual design methods," said Simon Napper, CEO of Synfora. "SoC designers face the triple challenges of increased design complexity, aggressive schedules, and increasing costs. Automatically synthesizing application engines is the only way to meet all of these challenges. The new, higher-performance release of PICO is easier to use and deploy, so even more designers can adopt AES and achieve the fastest SoC design cycles. It is also nearly five times faster than before."

The New Release of PICO Express
The new version of PICO Express reflects input from users who are designing video, imaging, and wireless products. It provides for faster intellectual property (IP) integration and verification, which are enabled with automatically generated SystemC simulation models with transactionlevel interfaces. It includes FPGA synthesis scripts for industry-standard tools to support FPGA prototyping for faster system verification.

PICO Express enables simplified coding through features such as function in-lining and automatic loop unrolling. In addition, a designer can find better design implementations with improved feedback to find and eliminate algorithm bottlenecks. PICO Express simplifies hardware integration by supporting an extended range of hardware interfaces; for example, configuration parameters can now be passed either using memory-mapped registers or as direct signal ports. The new version also delivers tuned run-time performance that's approximately five times faster than the original version.

Pricing and Availability
PICO Express 1.3 is available now and priced starting at U.S. $125,000 for a design project license. Synfora customers who own earlier releases of PICO Express will receive the new release at no charge. For details or to order, call 650-314-0500, ext. 111.

About Synfora, Inc.
Founded in 2003, Synfora, Inc. of Mountain View, Calif. is the leading provider of application engine synthesis (AES) software used to design complex systems-on-chips (SoCs). Synfora's patented technology helps to reduce fixed design costs and dramatically speed chip development and time-to-market. Synfora targets companies in the audio, video, imaging, wireless, and security segments of the IC design market. The company's investors are ATA Ventures, Foundation Capital, and U.S. Venture Partners. For the latest news and information on Synfora, visit www.synfora.com.

Synfora, the Synfora logo, and PICO Express are trademarks of Synfora, Inc. All other names mentioned are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of their respective companies.

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Synfora and the Synfora logo are trademarks of Synfora, Inc. All other names mentioned are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of their respective companies.