SpringSoft Agrees to Acquire Certess

Addition of unique functional qualification technology strengthens SpringSoft’s verification enhancement portfolio and expands customer access to Certitude product

Hsinchu, Taiwan, February 23, 2009  — SpringSoft, Inc. (TAIEX: 2473), a global supplier of specialized IC design software, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire all the outstanding shares of Certess, Inc., creators of the Certitude™ Functional Qualification solution. Pending customary shareholder and regulatory approvals, Certess will become a wholly owned subsidiary of SpringSoft USA, Inc. and its operations will be integrated with SpringSoft’s global development, sales, support and marketing functions.

In 2008, SpringSoft merged with Novas Software, Inc. and three other companies in which it had invested to create a global EDA company specializing in unique automation technologies that save engineers time. The Certess acquisition expands the range of verification solutions offered by SpringSoft with the industry’s first commercial functional qualification software product.  Certess products will be added to SpringSoft’s Novas™ family of verification enhancement solutions.

“Certess is one of the hot start-ups in the Intelligent Test Bench market.  This acquisition by SpringSoft significantly strengthens their technology portfolio, positioning them well for a shot at becoming one of the major EDA vendors in the new world of Electronic Design Automation,” said Gary Smith, Chief Analyst at Gary Smith EDA.

Certess employs 20 people primarily in France and the United States. SpringSoft will retain Certess’s entire R&D operation in France, which will report to Yu-Chin Hsu, Vice President of Logic Verification R&D, and will fold the Certess field sales and support personnel into its global channel. Certess CEO Michel Courtoy will stay with the company in a non-executive consulting role. In this capacity, he will help ensure a smooth integration process and rapid roll-out of the Certitude product to the SpringSoft sales and support channel.

“At this challenging time for the entire EDA ecosystem, users need to be more productive than ever and vendors need to provide more value,” said Martin Lu, CEO of Springsoft.  “This acquisition reinforces our specialization strategy and brings another high-value automation solution to the SpringSoft user community to address their pain in reaching verification closure. The Certess technology is a natural fit with our existing verification enhancement product line, and the synergy between our organizations will enable us to further accelerate SpringSoft’s growth in the global EDA market.”

“The combination of Certess with SpringSoft is a win for customers, employees and investors,” said Michel Courtoy, CEO of Certess. “Over the last couple of years, the Certitude Functional Qualification solution has enjoyed rapid adoption by key semiconductor companies. SpringSoft’s verification enhancement strategy and global resources will ensure that the widest possible range of users can take advantage of this unique technology.”

Verification Enhancement

Verification enhancement technologies make it easier for engineers to do more verification in less time, to more easily understand and correct design behavior, and to improve the quality of verification environments so they can attain higher levels of confidence in their system-on-chip (SoC) designs.

SpringSoft is the only EDA vendor specializing in verification enhancement technologies and solutions. The company’s Verdi™ Automated Debug and Siloti™ Visibility Automation solutions work side by side with third-party simulators using industry-standard languages and interfaces to improve design comprehension and productivity throughout the functional verification process. The integration of Certess functional qualification technologies, which interoperate with simulators in the same way, will enable SpringSoft users to ensure the thoroughness of their verification environments to achieve functional closure faster with more reliable quality of results.

About Certess

Certess, Inc. is the only electronic design automation company providing functional qualification products for companies that create and integrate complex design blocks for systems on a chip (SoCs) or intellectual property (IP). The company’s technology provides design and verification engineers with an objective way to evaluate and improve the completeness of the verification environment, resulting in a shorter and more predictable process to integrate SoC designs and ensure high quality designs. The company is headquartered in Campbell, CA. For additional information, see http://www.certess.com/.

About Springsoft

SpringSoft, Inc. is a global supplier of specialized automation technologies that accelerate engineers during the design, verification and debug of complex digital, analog and mixed-signal ICs, ASICs, microprocessors, and SoCs. Its award-winning product portfolio features the Novas Verification Enhancement and Laker Custom IC Design solutions used by more than 400 of today's leading IDM and fabless semiconductor companies, foundries, and electronic systems OEMs. Headquartered in Hsinchu, Taiwan, and San Jose, California, SpringSoft is the largest company in Asia specializing in IC design software and a recognized industry leader in customer service with more than 400 employees located in multiple R&D sites and local support offices around the world. For more information, visit www.springsoft.com.