Artisan and Cascade Semiconductor Solutions Collaborate to Validate PCI Express IP Interoperability

SUNNYVALE, Calif. & BEAVERTON, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 25, 2004-- Artisan Components, Inc., (Nasdaq:ARTI), a leading provider of physical intellectual property (IP), and Cascade Semiconductor Solutions, Inc., a leading supplier of intellectual property for the PCI Express market, today announced their collaboration to jointly verify interoperability between each companies' IP. Driven by IC designers' challenge to implement a PCI Express bus interface on an integrated circuit (IC), Artisan and Cascade have verified that their IP can be integrated to create a fully compliant PCI Express bus interface. The companies plan to continue their efforts for compliance testing.

Implementing a PCI Express interface with IP from different vendors can be risky and time consuming. The PCI Express architecture, composed of multiple logic layers and a PHY layer, is available in IP form as both "soft IP" and "hard IP." It is often the responsibility of the SoC designer to select, implement and validate the logic and PHY layer IP. The PIPE (Physical Interface for PCI Express architecture) specification, while created to ease the integration complexities of this different IP, does not solve the problem completely.

The Artisan Velocity PCI Express PHY(TM) is a complete PIPE to PCI Express bus interface implementation. It features small size, low jitter, low power, multiple lane configurations, extensive BIST and programmability and all of these features are packed into a silicon-hardened cell. Cascade offers one of industry's most interoperable PCI Express port logic cores. It includes the MAC (Media Access) portion of the physical layer, the data link and the transaction layer functions as well as additional support modules to ease integration into RC (Root Complex), endpoint and switch applications. The Cascade CascadeXpress(TM) Port Logic core features extremely low latency and small gate counts. The Artisan - Cascade solution addresses diverse market segments including test and measurement, networking, wireless, storage and switching applications.

"We are in the business of reducing risk and accelerating schedules for our customers", said Ed Lechner, director of mixed-signal subsystems for Artisan's Analog/Mixed Signal Business Unit. "We accomplished this by collaborating with Cascade Semiconductor Solutions, a recognized leader of PCI Express logic IP, to validate the interoperability of their PCI Express Port Logic Core and Artisan's Velocity PCI Express PHY."

"Coupling Artisan's leading Velocity PCI Express PHY solution with Cascade's product-proven port logic IP and then demonstrating full integration and compliance, creates an unparalleled offering to our customers of a pre-verified, end-to-end PCI Express solution," said Robert McVay, chief technical officer of Cascade Semiconductor Solutions Inc. "By leveraging this joint solution, our customers can greatly reduce their integration risk and effort and realize a significant time-to-market advantage."

Product Availability

Artisan PCI Express PHY is available today in TSMC 130-nanometer process technologies. For more information about Artisan PHYs, contact Artisan's local sales representative or visit Artisan's web site at http://www.artisan.com.

The CascadeXpress(TM) family of IP cores is currently shipping and supports a broad range of ASIC and FPGA technologies.

About Cascade Semiconductor Solutions, Inc.

Cascade Semiconductor Solutions, Inc. (www.cascadeip.com) is a Beaverton, Oregon based privately held company developing IP cores and highly integrated SoC-IP products for the next generation Interconnect technology market segment. Cascade has quickly moved into a leadership position in the PCI Express IP space with its scalable, multi-lane capable PCI Express Port Logic IP core packages. Cascade's offerings address multiple applications and configurations including end-point, switch, bridge and root port implementations.

About Artisan Components
Artisan Components, Inc. is a leading provider of physical intellectual property (IP) components for the design and manufacture of complex system-on-a-chip integrated circuits. Artisan's products include embedded memory, standard cell, input/output, analog and mixed-signal components, which are designed to achieve the best combination of performance, density, power and yield. Artisan has licensed its IP components to over 1,200 companies involved in integrated circuit design. Artisan is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. More information about Artisan Components, including free library access, can be found at www.artisan.com.

Artisan Components and Artisan are registered trademarks and Velocity is a trademark of Artisan Components, Inc.

CascadeXpress is a trademark of Cascade Semiconductor Solutions, Inc.

All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements including, but not limited to, statements regarding the performance of Artisan's Velocity PCI Express PHY, Cascade's port logic IP, the ease of integration of such products, the benefits of using such products and the acceptance and use of such products by IC designers. In some cases, you will be able to identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "expects," "believes" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially, including volatility in the market for integrated circuits, SoCs and IP components, technical or other difficulties that delay or prevent delivery of Artisan or Cascade products, technical or other difficulties in the operation or integration of such products or the use of such products in conjunction with other products or designs, the performance and quality of such products relative to other IP components, the acceptance of such products by existing and new customers and the growth and changing technical requirements of the IP component market. For additional information and considerations regarding the risks faced by Artisan, see its annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 2003 as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as other periodic reports filed with the SEC from time to time, including its quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. Although Artisan and Cascade believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, neither Artisan nor Cascade can guarantee the future performance or achievements of their products. In addition, neither Artisan nor Cascade assumes responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of these forward-looking statements. Artisan disclaims any obligation to update information contained in any forward-looking statement.