MOUNTAIN VIEW, USA: Exar Corp., a leading provider of analog and mixed-signal solutions for connectivity and power management, has signed an expanded business agreement to establish Synopsys as its leading EDA partner.

As a result of the new multi-year agreement, the Synopsys' Galaxy Implementation and Discovery Verification platforms will be Exar's key design environment for designs at 65nm and below.

"We conducted an extensive evaluation process to select an EDA partner to not only support our current project needs, but our future design horizon as well, and Synopsys was the clear choice," said George Apostol, senior vice president and CTO, Exar.

"Over the years, Synopsys has demonstrated the technology leadership and outstanding technical support that is vital to helping us deliver highly differentiated silicon solutions to our customers. Synopsys tools, especially for mixed-signal designs, are ideal for our forthcoming data communications, storage, interface and power management products," he added.

With the most recent agreement, Exar has chosen products that span Synopsys' broad portfolio. These products include Synopsys' Galaxy implementation platform featuring IC Compiler place-and-route technology, Design Compiler Graphical synthesis, PrimeTime PX timing and power analysis, PrimeRail power network analysis, Star-RCXT parasitic extraction, Hercules physical verification, TetraMAX automatic test pattern generation, and DFT MAX adaptive scan compression; Synopsys' Discovery verification platform featuring the VCS, HSPICE, HSPICE RF and CustomSim simulators for analog and digital verification, MVRC static voltage-aware verification, and MVSIM voltage-aware simulation; and DesignWare Library IP.