Artisan Components Announces Appointment Of Chief Financial Officer

Artisan Components Announces Appointment Of Chief Financial Officer

Joy E. Leo Joins Leading IP Provider As Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer

SUNNYVALE, CA, September 18, 2000 - Artisan Components Inc., (Nasdaq: ARTI), today announced the appointment of Joy E. Leo as vice president of finance and administration and chief financial officer (CFO). Leo will be responsible for the management and strategic planning of all corporate financial, administration and investor relations functions for Artisan Components.

Ms. Leo has over 16 years of financial management experience in high technology companies. Prior to joining Artisan Components, Leo was vice president of finance and CFO for IMP, Inc. Leo has also served as vice president of finance, operations and administration for Innomedia Incorporated and vice president and CFO for Philips Components, a multi-billion dollar division of Royal Philips Electronics N.V.

Mark Templeton, president and chief executive officer of Artisan Components said, "We are extremely pleased to welcome Joy to Artisan. Her understanding of the industry and expertise will be a tremendous asset to Artisan as we continue to build upon the succes s we have today."

Leo commented, "I am looking forward to playing an integral role in leading Artisan to the next level of business development in the financial arena and investment community."

About Artisan Components

Artisan Components, Inc., (Nasdaq: ARTI) is a world leader in physical intellectual property (IP) libraries, providing high-quality solutions for many of the world's leading semiconductor foundries, integrated device manufacturers, ASIC vendors and IC design teams. Founded in 1991, Artisan's Artisan's Process-Perfect? memory generators, standard cells and I/O cells are optimized to achieve the full speed, density and low-power potential of each semiconductor process. Each product is verified using the industry's most comprehensive QA and validation procedures and delivered ready-to-use with a complete set of views and models supporting leading design tools. Artisan's headquarters are located at 1195 Bordeaux Drive, Sunnyvale, CA 94089-1201. World Wide Web address: http://www.artisan.com.

# # #

Artisan is a registered trademark and Process-Perfect is a trademark of Artisan Components, Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

CONTACT

Claudia Natalia
Artisan Components, Inc.
Corporate Communications
408.548.3172
claudia@artisan.com

Joyce Chowla
Artisan Components, Inc.
Investor Relations
408.548.3122
joyce@artisan.com