Saturday, February 01, 2003

Faraday Validates Multiple Silicon Intellectual Properties for UMC's 90-nm Process Using Magma Design Flow

Faraday Technology Corporation, a leader in silicon intellectual properties (IP) and ASIC design service, and UMC, a world-leading semiconductor foundry, today announced the readiness of 90-nanometer silicon-proven IPs and related design services. Faraday recently taped out several test chips manufactured on UMC's 90-nanometer process using design solutions supplied by Magma Design Automation Inc., including Blast Fusion(TM) and Blast Noise®. This marks the initial completion of a comprehensive set of IP and library modules optimized for UMC's 90-nanometer process.

The IP test chips developed by Faraday are fully compliant with UMC's design rules and leverage both Magma's single-executable RTL-to-GDSII flow and its patented Glassbox(TM) modeling technology to combine logical, timing, physical and electrical aspects of Faraday cores to enable designers to accelerate their time to silicon.

"The speedy readiness of silicon IPs for 90 nanometers is a result of Faraday's close collaboration with its long-term foundry partner, UMC, and a world-class EDA tool partner, Magma. This achievement also reinforces Faraday's commitment to provide our customers with the most sophisticated and reliable system-on-chip (SoC) design services and technologies," said H.P. Lin, president of Faraday. "The great partnership between Faraday, UMC and Magma further confirms our leadership in leading-edge silicon process technology."

"The availability of Faraday's 90-nanometer IP represents another important step towards making this technology widely accessible to customers who require the highest performance process for their products," said Dr. Fu Tai Liou, president, America Business Group for UMC. "We value our long and productive partnership with Faraday, and are pleased that our cooperative efforts have again proved fruitful with the early introduction of IP for our most advanced foundry technology offering."

"We're thrilled to be working with UMC and Faraday and to be the EDA tool of choice to complete Faraday's first 90-nanometer design tape-outs. Common customers can now benefit from the cooperation," said Rajeev Madhavan, CEO of Magma Design Automation. "We look forward to continuing our alliance with both companies to provide further synergistic solutions for joint customers."

About Faraday

Faraday Technology provides leading ASIC / SoC design services and production-proven IPs to customers ranging from system houses and IDMs to IC design houses. The company's broad portfolio of IPs and libraries are offered in advanced technologies. Some of the key IPs include 32-bit RISC CPU, 16 / 20 / 24-bit DSP, USB 2.0, gigabit Ethernet, DAC and ADC, PLL and serial-ATA. These IPs are widely used in PC peripherals, communication and consumer products. Headquartered in Hsinchu, Taiwan, Faraday offers service and support branch offices around the world, including the United States, Japan, Europe and China. For more information on Faraday, please visit http://www.faraday-usa.com or http://www.faraday.com.tw.

About UMC

UMC is a leading global semiconductor foundry that manufactures advanced process ICs for applications spanning every major sector of the semiconductor industry. UMC delivers cutting-edge foundry technologies that enable sophisticated system-on-chip (SoC) designs, including 0.13-micron copper, embedded DRAM and mixed signal/RFCMOS. UMC is also a leader in 300mm manufacturing; Fab 12A in Taiwan is currently in volume production for a variety of customer products, while the Singapore-based UMCi joint venture with Infineon Technologies will begin pilot production later this year. UMC employs over 8,500 people worldwide and has offices in Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Europe and the United States. UMC can be found on the web at http://www.umc.com.

About Magma Design Automation

Magma software is used to design fast, multimillion-gate integrated circuits, providing "The Fastest Path from RTL to Silicon"(TM) to enable chip designers to reduce the time required to produce complex ICs. Magma's products for prototyping, synthesis, and place & route provide a single executable for RTL-to-GDSII chip design. The company's Blast Fusion(TM), Blast Fusion APX(TM), Blast Plan(TM), Blast Noise® and Blast RTL(TM) products utilize Magma's patented FixedTiming® methodology and single data model architecture to reduce the timing-closure iterations often required between the logic and physical processes in conventional IC design flows.

Magma maintains headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., as well as facilities in Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego, Calif.; Boston, Mass.; Durham, N.C.; Laurys Station, Pa.; Austin and Dallas, Texas; Newcastle, Wash.; and in Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Israel, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. The company's stock trades on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol LAVA. Visit Magma Design Automation on the Web at www.magma-da.com.


Note to Editors: Magma, Blast Noise and FixedTiming are registered trademarks, and Blast Fusion, Blast Fusion APX, Blast Plan and "The Fastest Path from RTL to Silicon" are trademarks of Magma Design Automation. All other product and company names are trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Forward-Looking Statements:

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, including statements about features and benefits of Magma's system, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially including, but not limited to, Magma's products' ability to produce the desired results and Magma's ability to keep pace with rapidly changing technology. Further discussion of these and other potential risk factors may be found in Magma's Form 10-Q/A for the quarter ended September 30, 2002 and filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") on November 14, 2002, and from time to time in Magma's SEC reports. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. Magma disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.