March 31, 200 – Synplicity Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, a supplier of design and verification software, said that it will refocus its R&D investments and infrastructure toward “growth opportunities” in FPGA implementation and ASIC verification.

Gary Meyers, president and CEO, stated the move comes as a result of LSI Logic’s recently announced plans to drop work on its RapidChip ASIC development and sell off its digital-signal processor (DSP) business, which licenses ASIC technology for broadband and wireless communications. The impact of their withdrawal delays the estimated time at which our ASIC software business could become profitable,” he stated.

“While we continue to see growth potential in the structured ASIC market, we see a greater return in our FPGA implementation, ESL synthesis for DSP, and ASIC verification products. He continued: “Our decision, then, is to withdraw from the cell-based and structured ASIC markets while we continue to support our existing customers and honor our ongoing obligations with Fujitsu Microelectronics, LSI Logic and NEC Electronics.”

Synplicity’s plan involves shifting about half of its ASIC R&D team to these other areas and reducing overall workforce by about 8%, costing about $900K in the current quarter but saving approximately $4.5 million/year.