Synfora and Esterel Technologies Simplify Integration of Application Engines into SoCs

Mountain View, Calif. — November 5, 2007— Synfora, Inc., a provider of application engine synthesis tools and IP used to design systems-on-chips (SoCs); and Esterel Technologies, the supplier of Esterel Studio, the leading solution for ESL synthesis of control-intensive IP blocks; today announced a joint solution that simplifies the integration of application engines into SoCs.

An application engine is a specialized subsystem on a SoC that executes a given algorithm or set of algorithms such as a multi-standard video codec or wireless modem. Electronics companies need to be able to quickly develop these application engines and seamlessly integrate them into their SoCs .

Synfora’s PICO-generated application engines must be integrated into the SoC for which they are designed. One way to accomplish this is to manually design hardware for controlling the application engine as well as for matching its interfaces with the interfaces used by other blocks on the SoC.

The joint Synfora-Esterel solution automates the process using “interface transactors” and hardware controller written in Esterel. Designers use PICO Express to synthesize the application engine and use Esterel Studio to generate RTL for the hardware controller and interface transactors. The joint solution ensures that the RTLs work seamlessly.

Customers, such as Texas Instruments (TI) has used this joint solution to design SoC s for their wireless terminal business .

“By combining the complex application engines produced by PICO with interface transactors and controllers written in Esterel, we can deliver tremendous savings to our joint customers,” said Simon Napper, Synfora president and CEO.

“The integration of PICO Express and Esterel Studio will enable our common customers to be more productive,” said Eric Bantegnie, Esterel Technologies president and CEO. “Esterel Studio handles interfaces most commonly used in PICO-produced RTL, and complements PICO application engines’ design productivity with considerable time savings for the development of controllers, such as Direct Memory Access (DMA), Cache, and Bus Interfaces.”

About Synfora’s PICO Platform
Synfora’s PICO platform is a system of tools and intellectual property (IP) that create complex application engines from sequential, untimed C algorithms. PICO enables design teams to predictably deliver complex consumer SoCs by reducing design cycle time, improving the ability to respond to late changes in specifications and partitioning the design into manageable sub-systems, all within budget.

About Esterel Technologies
Esterel Technologies is a worldwide supplier of model-based design, validation, and code generation tools for safety-critical software and hardware applications . Esterel Technologies is a privately held company with headquarters in Elancourt , France and Mountain View , California , USA , and with direct sales offices in Germany , the United Kingdom , and China . For additional information, visit the Esterel Technologies website at http://www.esterel-eda.com/.

About Synfora
Synfora, Inc. of Mountain View, California, 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, U.S. Venture Partners, Wafra partners and Xilinx, Inc. For the latest news and information on Synfora, visit www.synfora.com.

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Esterel Studio is a trademark of Esterel Technologies, Inc. Synfora, the Synfora logo, and PICO Express are trademarks of Synfora, Inc. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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