CoWare and ARM Speed System Level SoC Designs

5-Year Agreement Expands Relationship, Extends ARM IP Into SoC Designs Above RT Level

SANTA CLARA, Calif. and CAMBRIDGE, UK – Aug. 12, 2002 – CoWare™, Inc. and ARM [(LSE:ARM); (Nasdaq:ARMHY)], the industry's leading provider of 16/32-bit embedded RISC microprocessor technology, today announced a five-year agreement to help customers speed the design time for complex ARM® core-enabled system-on-chip (SoC) solutions.

The two companies have worked together over the past three years to integrate high-level ARM processor models into the CoWare N2C® system-level design tool. Under this new agreement, CoWare has extended its development of ARM intellectual property (IP) models at abstraction levels above RTL to additional ARM platform and peripheral IP, including the ARM Jazelle™ technology, PrimeXsys™ platforms and PrimeCell® peripherals. Access to ARM IP such as the ARM AMBA® Design Kit further enables CoWare to deploy system level bus generation technology for complex AMBA methodology implementations.

"Over the past three years, customers adopting the CoWare methodology have reported significant speed improvements in getting new ARM core-based designs to market," stated Alistair Greenhill, director, EDA Relationship Programs for ARM. "By extending our agreement, CoWare now can provide high-level models of our PrimeXsys and PrimeCell products, as well as our processor cores so our Partners can more quickly develop ARM core-based platforms. In addition, CoWare offers new tools that target the development of complex AMBA interconnet-based platforms, reinforcing the AMBA's position as the industry-leading on-chip interconnect architecture, and further reducing time-to-market for ARM Partners."

"We have many mutual customers who have taken advantage of the synergy between ARM and CoWare," stated Ed Begun, CoWare Director of Marketing and Business Development. "ARM's market-leading position in the 32-bit embedded RISC processor solutions market means that as more customers develop complex multi-million-gate ARM core-based SoCs, we will all benefit from working together to help speed these designs to market."

Advantages of Using CoWare N2C to Create Platforms

With CoWare, ARM Partners can design at a higher level of abstraction, using the C language instead of hardware-specific RTL languages. Because SoCs are becoming so complex, this higher level of abstraction speeds the design process, letting designers look at the whole chip design to determine the best architecture, and then progressively moving to implementation of both the software and the hardware.

CoWare N2C provides three key advantages to companies creating ARM core-based SoC platforms. First, CoWare N2C provides an easy way for platform creators to design and make trade-offs to determine the best architecture for the platform. Second, CoWare N2C makes it easy for developers to extend and modify proven platforms. Third, platforms created in CoWare N2C give software designers an early, accurate model of the hardware to develop, test, debug and profile the performance of their software, so they don't have to wait for the hardware prototype to start software development.

CoWare N2C includes capabilities for automating and speeding the design of very complex ARM designs with complex bus structures including multiple layers, multiple masters and slave busses, multiple protocols, and different arbitration types. By automatically synthesizing the specified bus interfaces, CoWare N2C speeds designers through the design and evaluation of different architectural alternatives.

Availability

CoWare models for ARM processor cores, PrimeXsys platforms, PrimeCell peripherals and system level AMBA bus generation technology are available now. As new platforms and peripherals are developed and requested by customers, CoWare will continue to develop and deliver high-level models.

About ARM

ARM is the industry's leading provider of 16/32-bit embedded RISC microprocessor solutions. The company licenses its high-performance, low-cost, power-efficient RISC processors, peripherals, and system-on-chip designs to leading international electronics companies. ARM also provides comprehensive support required in developing a complete system. ARM's microprocessor cores are rapidly becoming a volume RISC standard in such markets as portable communications, hand-held computing, multimedia digital consumer and embedded solutions. More information on ARM is available at www.arm.com .

About CoWare

As the leading supplier of tools for system-level electronic design automation (EDA), CoWare, Inc. provides a platform-based design methodology that can cut system-on-a-chip (SoC) design time in half. As a founder and leader of SystemC, CoWare is driving the industry towards a unifying system design language. The CoWare software is employed by major systems, IP and semiconductor companies including Alcatel, ARM, Canon, Fujitsu, InterDigital, Matsushita, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sanyo, Sony, STMicroelectronics, Tensilica and Toshiba. CoWare was recognized as the 5th fastest-growing private company in Silicon Valley in 2000 (1). For more information, visit www.CoWare.com .

CoWare, CoWare N2C, and Interface Synthesis are trademarks of CoWare, Inc.

ARM, AMBA and PrimeCell are registered trademarks of ARM Limited. Jazelle and PrimeXsys are trademarks of ARM Limited. . All other brands or product names are the property of their respective holders. "ARM" is used to represent ARM Holdings plc (LSE: ARM and Nasdaq: ARMHY); its operating company ARM Limited; and the regional subsidiaries ARM INC.; ARM KK; ARM Korea Ltd.; ARM Taiwan; ARM France SAS; and ARM China.