Knowlent Announces Opal Electrical Verification Platform and Support for PCI Express, Serial ATA

March 14, 2005 - Santa Clara, California - Knowlent Corporation, a silicon-valley based Electronic Design Automation and Intellectual Property startup, today announced Opal - industry's first electrical verification platform for high-speed interface verification.

The rapid adoption of high-speed interface technology has led to a significant change in interface verification requirements. Designers now have to thoroughly verify the electrical layer of the interface because this layer is most vulnerable to failures at higher speeds. Until now, interface verification offerings were limited to functional level. With Opal, electrical verification is now available to complement functional.

Opal Electrical Verification Platforms directly address this growing market demand for comprehensive electrical verification of interfaces. By providing persistent test bench setups for each specification measurement, consistent, reliable and complete coverage is obtained. A process that took weeks to complete is now accomplished in days with consistent results.

"Verification platforms and the verification IP market is established for the digital design side. There is now a very clear need for electrical verification platforms and the associated electrical verification IP", said Sandipan Bhanot, CEO of Knowlent Corporation. "We are fortunate to be leading this change in the industry with the support of our customers and partners."

Knowlent will be releasing Opal Electrical Verification Platforms for various standard interfaces in tandem with the customer demand. The company announced today that it has released Opal PCI Express EVP and Opal Serial ATA EVP.

"ARM's high-speed PHYs are at the forefront of the high-performance interface IP market. Our customers hold us to a high standard of quality, and Knowlent's OPAL EVP tools play an important role in helping us achieve that standard," said Callan Carpenter, ARM's VP and GM of PHY Solutions. "The OPAL PCI Express EVP helped us save valuable time during the design of our 3G PHY, and introduced a measure of independence between the design and verification process - an important characteristic of any good verification strategy. We anticipate working closely with Knowlent as they develop EVPs to support additional interface standards."

"High-speed interface design is truly becoming the bottleneck in overall system performance. Making the interfaces run correctly at multi-gigahertz rates across the silicon, package and board variations is a challenge that is high on the list of many executives. Knowlent is solving a very important problem", said Jim Hogan, EDA veteran and general partner, Telos Ventures. "Industry observers and investors are watching this space very closely - this could be a big opportunity."

Additionally, the company announced that it has completed its first round of funding. The amount will provide a significant step for future growth. Investors include Denali Software Inc., AsiaTech Ventures and recognized industry leaders from the Silicon Valley hi-tech investment community.

"Denali is the market leader in chip interface design verification technologies at the digital level. We see Knowlent as completing the verification stack for standard interfaces by providing solutions for the electrical layer." said Sanjay Srivastava, CEO of Denali Software Inc. "Their offerings are complementary to ours and we are partnering to develop value-added solutions for our customers." As part of the recent financing, Mr. Srivastava joined the Board of Directors of Knowlent.

Opal PCI Express and Opal Serial ATA EVPs are available now. Supported platforms include Solaris and Linux. Pricing starts at $65,000 for a one-year license.

About Knowlent Corporation
Knowlent Corporation is headquartered in Santa Clara, California. For more information, please visit Knowlent at www.knowlent.com or call (408) 748-0600.

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SOURCE: Knowlent Corporation