NEWS BRIEFS

Las Vegas, NEV. — Synopsys, Inc. and Sun Microsystems, Inc. announced a joint marketing alliance to advance the opportunity for complex IC design via the Internet. Under the alliance, the two companies will combine their technology and expertise to provide DesignSphere access customers with one of the most productive IC design environments available. Sun will be the primary provider of Unix servers and the exclusive provider of storage components for designsphere access. Customers benefit from the alliance by having continuous access to the latest technology available from both companies to meet their ever-expanding computational requirements and time-to-market demands.

“Sun is the leading provider of workstations and servers used for IC design,” said Dave Burow, senior vice president, Internet Design and Services Group at Synopsys. “With this cooperative agreement, Synopsys is providing access to the familiar tools and hardware platform design engineers know best via the Internet. This creates a time-to-market advantage as companies can now access the most productive IC design environment without the investment and effort required to procure, install, maintain, and upgrade it themselves.”

DesignSphere Access customers now have the ability to continually upgrade to the latest technology from Sun, such as the recently announced UltraSPARC III microprocessor-based Sun Fire 280R server, as soon as the technology reaches production. This helps ensure that users have access to the most efficient compute resources available.

Designsphere access’ primary compute infrastructure includes Sun’s Netra T1 servers with sun enterprise 420r and 4500 servers running the Solaris operating environment. In addition, sun Storedge arrays, including the new highly scalable sun storedge T3 arrays, provide the exclusive storage for designsphere access, which provides users a high-performance, reliable storage solution. Expandability, scalability and security are built-in features as base configurations have expansion options and are dedicated to each customer.

“Network technology is the catalyst for a new wave of business opportunities. Synopsys is clearly ahead of the curve in the EDA industry with their Internet-accessible DesignSphere Access offering,” said Doug Kaewert, vice president, Market Development, Sun Microsystems, Inc. “By implementing DesignSphere Access with Sun(tm) technologies, Synopsys has demonstrated how advanced engineering can be done securely over the Internet. Imagine a Web browser and an Internet connection giving engineers access to a secure hosted design environment that contains all the compute resources, software tools and design data required for their projects.”

DesignSphere Access is an Internet-accessible hosted design environment for complex ICs featuring EDA tools from Synopsys and Avant!. Customers who choose DesignSphere Access are free to focus on their key design challenges rather than expend the effort to set up and maintain a design environment themselves. Design projects are completed in a shorter amount of time due to a more productive and reliable environment, rapid scalability, available 24/7 IT support and the anywhere/anytime access afforded by the Internet. Geographically dispersed teams benefit from common access to the data center and the powerful collaborative design and debug capabilities of DesignSphere Access. Further information about DesignSphere Access can be found at http://www.designsphere.com .

Synopsys, Inc., headquartered in Mountain View, California, creates leading electronic design automation (EDA) tools for the global electronics market. The company delivers advanced design technologies and solutions to developers of complex integrated circuits, electronic systems and systems on a chip. Synopsys also provides consulting and support services to simplify the overall IC design process and accelerate time-to-market for its customers. Visit Synopsys at http://www.synopsys.com .

Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision – “The Network Is The Computer” – has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc., to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that power the Internet and allow companies worldwide to dot-com their businesses. With $17.6 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 170 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://sun.com .

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