Actel unveils its commitment to IP

IP News

Company Contacts:	Additional Media Contact:
Tim Colleran (reader contact)	Laura Beth DeHority
Don Davis (media contact)	(408) 269-3404
Actel Corporation	dehority@pacbell.net
(888) 992-2835
don.davis@actel.com
http://www.actel.com

For Immediate Release

ACTEL UNVEILS ITS COMMITMENT TO IP

Company Sets Strategic Team and Support Infrastructure to Further Development of Proprietary and Third-Party IP (Intellectual Property) Programs
Anil Reddy Named to Manage Newly created IP and Design Services Marketing Team

SUNNYVALE, CA, SEPTEMBER 20, 1999 -- Actel Corporation (Nasdaq: ACTL) of Sunnyvale, Calif. today furthered its commitment in the area of intellectual property (IP) with an announcement to aggressively pursue third-party strategic relationships and proprietary IP programs. In a related move, the company has named Anil Reddy to manage its newly created IP and design services marketing group.

"In concert with Actel's announcement of new high-density FPGA product families this year, we have made a strategic decision to increase our emphasis on the development of IP support programs," stated Carl Burrow, vice president of marketing at Actel. "Actel believes a strong commitment to IP is key to the viability of high-density user-programmable logic design."

"We have already increased our recent activity in the area of intellectual property with the announcement last week of an innovative 66MHz portable PCI core," said Tim Colleran, senior director of product marketing for Actel. "And we have brought in Anil to take charge of implementing new IP strategies and third-party IP programs."

"Pre-verified IP blocks and design re-use methodology bridges the design productivity gap brought on by advancing silicon technology," added Reddy. Actel recognizes the need to make large logic functions available to its customers and has increased its commitment to provide risk-free IP cores to improve design efficiency and time to market through a focused IP program."

IP Logic Cores

Actel's IP program will be aimed at addressing customers' design and design re-use needs by providing immediate access to pre-verified soft logic cores implemented in Actel silicon. A four-fold program approach is planned. First, the program will include an internal mini-core IP program to develop functions such as next-generation PCI buses, SCC UART and SDRAM controllers. Second, Actel plans to create a partnership program to support key third-party IP supplier who will provide system designers with a vast portfolio of validated IP blocks. Third, there will be further enhancements to ActGEN, a parameterizable, graphical user interface-based function generator. Fourth, Actel will offer design services consulting for IP customization and system-level integration.

Safe Harbor Statement

This news release contains "forward looking statements," which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. "Forward-looking statements" describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies, and are generally preceded by words such as "future" or "forward-looking," "plan" or "planned," "will" or "should," "anticipates," or "projected." You are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including the risks that various intellectual property support programs will not be offered as soon as currently anticipated. For a discussion of other factors that could affect the accuracy of the forward-looking statements, please see "Risk Factors" in Actel's most recent Forms 10-K and 10-Q, which will be provided to you free of charge upon request. You should consider these factors in evaluating the forward-looking statements included herein, and not place undue reliance on such statements. The forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof, and Actel undertakes no obligation to update such statements.

About Actel

Actel is dedicated to becoming the field programmable gate array (FPGA) provider of choice. The company's FPGAs are used by manufacturers of communications, computer, consumer, industrial control, military/aerospace, and other electronic systems to bring complex, high-density digital designs to market rapidly. Actel, the world's leading supplier of FPGAs based on antifuse technology, has recently introduced ProASIC, the industry's first family of reprogrammable FPGAs based on Flash technology, and is readying a new line of reprogrammable SRAM-based FPGAs for introduction later this year. The company is traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol ACTL and is located at 955 East Arques Avenue, Sunnyvale, California, 94086-4533. Telephone: 888-99-ACTEL (992-2835). Internet: http://www.actel.com.

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