Sonics Launches SOCservices Design Services Partner Program to Accelerate Customer Success

First Members QThink and Silicon Designs International Will Help SOC Customers to Reach Design Tape-Out in Half the Time

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA -- April 29, 2002 -- Semiconductor intellectual property (IP) provider Sonics, Inc. today announced the formation of SOCservices, its new Preferred Design Services Partner program that is a key element in the company's SMARTsolutions Initiative for accelerating the system-on-chip (SOC) design process. SOCservices' initial members are QThink (San Diego, CA) and Silicon Designs International (San Diego, CA) www.silicon-designs.com. Sonics plans to have SOCservices partners in all major geographic regions of the world.

The SOCservices program enables Sonics' customers to take advantage of the significant time saving benefits of MicroNetwork-based design methodology--often halving the time to design tape-out--while maintaining focus on the complexities of their applications. The program provides skilled design services firms that are already experienced with Sonics' MicroNetwork smart interconnect IP with access to all Sonics IP, tools, training and support to ensure successful customer SOC designs.

"A dependable design services solution is critical when our customers consider how the challenges of increasing SOC application complexity directly conflict with ever-shortening market windows," said Grant Pierce, president and CEO of Sonics. "Several of our MicroNetwork licensees have engaged with design services firms for outside support of their SOC implementations. SOCservices ensures that service providers are fluent in MicroNetwork-based design and will effectively assist our existing licensees and new customers to immediately realize the time-to-market and performance advantages of smart interconnect IP technology."

Sonics considers SOCservices member candidates based on their ability to execute and implement SOC designs and on their industry reputation for delivering superior quality work. To qualify for the SOCservices program, prospective partners must dedicate ongoing engineering resources to MicroNetwork design and must have designed a complete MicroNetwork-based SOC through to tape-out. They are also expected to promote MicroNetwork sales and support customer evaluations.

Sonics provides SOCservices partners with:

Access to the MicroNetwork smart interconnect IP and MemMax memory scheduler IP for internal use
An integrated development environment for configuring a MicroNetwork
Full technical training on MicroNetwork-based SOC design methodology
Opportunity to host demonstration platforms on the SOCworks web site.

"Significantly reducing the time to tape-out for complex multi-million gate designs is only the first advantage a Sonics MicroNetwork brings to SOCs," said Eric Tobias, co-founder and CEO of QThink. "When combined with QThink's Constraint-Driventm design flow methodology, we expect on-chip bandwidth utilization to be dramatically increased to yield the highest performance designs. In addition, subsequent MicroNetwork-based designs can reuse those same IP blocks without rework to further reduce time to tape-out for derivative designs."

"Our expertise in IP development and SOC design is a natural complement to Sonics' products," said Dr. Mehrdad Tabrizi, CEO at Silicon Designs International. "Unlike traditional computer buses or ad-hoc interconnect approaches, MicroNetworks enable flexible SOC platforms that allow IP cores to plug and play."

About SOCservices Partners QThink and Silicon Designs

QThink designs high-performance chips for leading edge semiconductor companies involved in wired and wireless communications, high-speed networking, multimedia and high-speed computing. Its San Diego-based design center is home to engineers with extensive experience in IC design and flow automation. QThink works in many of the hottest product application areas and with the latest design tools and methodologies available to the IC design world. QThink implements the best solution for each customer utilizing its broad knowledge and experience with numerous EDA tools, libraries, and foundries from leading vendors. More information on QThink is available at www.qthink.com.

Silicon Designs International, Inc. was founded in April of 1998 to address the growing need for seasoned and experienced designers in the area of integrated circuits, reusability, and SOC. The company understands the competitive pressure of the global business environment for time-to-manufacturing, time-to-market, and time-to-profit. It draws from an international talent pool to provide the highest quality and experienced designers, design processes, and design methodologies. These designers are skilled in chip architecture, logic design, mixed signal design, and physical library design. Service offerings include intellectual property development, ASIC design (from specification to RTL, to gate, to GDSII), system on silicon solutions, block-based design, and high-performance analog, RF and mixed-signal design using standard CMOS and BiCMOS processes.

About Sonics' SMARTsolutions Initiative

The Sonics SMARTsolutions Initiative comprises a cluster of programs focused on accelerating the creation of higher complexity SOCs. In addition to the preferred design services partners within the SOCservices program, SMARTsolutions programs include the SOCworks interactive web site for online exploration and simulation of third party IP cores within SOC application platforms, as well as numerous associated programs, training and services to ensure Sonics licensees can effectively exploit all the benefits of a smart, MicroNetwork interconnect-based SOC design.
About Sonics, Inc.

Sonics, Inc., the premier developer of MicroNetworks for "plug and play" integration of semiconductor intellectual property (IP) cores into system-on-chip (SOC) designs, is a privately held company in Mountain View, California. A Sonics MicroNetwork manages all communications between SOC subsystems, guarantees end-to-end performance, and ensures real-time quality of service. MicroNetwork technology enables flexible, platform-based SOC design through a robust development environment that uses an open standard core interface, the Open Core Protocol (OCP). Major semiconductor and systems companies have adopted Sonics' technology for SOC applications in the communications, networking and multimedia markets. For more information, see http://www.sonicsinc.com.

For more information, contact:

Ed Smith (Sonics)
650/938-2500 x126
edsmith@sonicsinc.com

Scott Seiden (VitalCom)
650/637-8212
scott@vitalcompr.com

Sonics, Inc., 2440 West El Camino Real, Suite 620, Mountain View, CA 94040, Tel: 650.938.2500