Synplicity's stock closed its first day 42 percent above its $8 offering price. More and more chip designers described circuits in code instead of drawing them gate by gate. Synthesis software turned that code into a real design. Synplicity, based in Sunnyvale, built fast synthesis tools for FPGAs, programmable chips that engineers could configure after manufacturing. It went public in October 2000, in a record year for the chip industry, when demand for design tools was high.

A Neutral Tool for FPGAs

Synplicity bet that FPGAs would grow from prototyping tools into chips used in real products. Their designers, it figured, would want specialized software. Its tools were quick and worked with chips from many vendors, which gave engineers a neutral choice. The company later added tools for verifying and prototyping larger custom chips. Many hardware engineers came to use its tools in their daily design work.

Folded Into Synopsys

Synplicity priced its IPO at $8 a share in October 2000, below the $10 to $12 range it first expected, and listed on Nasdaq as SYNP. The chip downturn of 2001 slowed its growth, and the company kept a loyal base of engineers. In 2008 Synopsys, one of the largest chip design software companies, acquired Synplicity and added its tools to its own line.

Cover: The Young Draftsman, Gilles Demarteau. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a young draftsman (drawing circuits).