eASIC Corporation to Employ Numerical Technologies' Phase Shifting to Significantly Boost Performance of Configurable Logic Chips

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 8, 2001--eASIC® Corporation today announced that it will use Numerical Technologies' (Nasdaq:NMTC) patented phase-shifting technology to boost the performance of its eASICore® configurable logic fabric. Offering speed advantages over conventional standard cell technology, this innovative integrated circuit (IC) solution will also carry significant cost and time-to-market benefits. The two companies will work together to release a breakthrough configurable logic fabric enhanced by phase-shifting transistor gates. The eASICore will be implemented on UMC's 0.13-micron process with 70-nanometer transistors.

``The powerful combination of eASIC's and Numerical's patented technologies position us to leapfrog beyond conventional solutions in the ASIC market with the first 70-nm ASIC-related solution. Ultimately, our combined expertise will deliver a strong new configurable logic fabric alternative to, electronic designers, allowing them to achieve high performance and gain time-to-market and NRE cost benefits as they migrate to smaller dimensions,'' said Zvi Or-Bach, eASIC's president and chief executive officer.

In January 2001, Numerical announced that UMC licensed the company's patented phase-shifting technology for the production of gate lengths as small as 70 nm on the foundry's 0.13-micron and below processes. eASIC, taking advantage of UMC's offering, will work with Numerical to design its next generation of eASICore with 70 nm gates. The eASICore has already been implemented successfully in UMC's 0.18- and 0.15-micron conventional fabrication processes.

``Our work with UMC and other Numerical phase-shifting production licensees is now enabling chip design teams to significantly increase the performance characteristics of their designs,'' said Atul Sharan, senior vice president of marketing and business development at Numerical. ``We're pleased to support eASIC's utilization of our phase-shifting technology to maximize their product performance and market advantage. We look forward to seeing the company exercise its competitive edge as it delivers superior, next-generation products to its customers.''

The eASICore®

The eASICore is a high performance configurable logic core aimed at accelerating the development cycle and supporting derivatives for System-on-Chip (SoC) products. The eASICore architecture is based on the eASIC proprietary technology that provides an efficient solution for embedding configurable logic blocks in a fast, easy to implement and cost effective method.

eASICore is a hard, configurable IP, of about 25K useable logic gates. Users can map arbitrary logic, SRAM or PLD onto the eASICore fabric using standard ASIC synthesis and P&R tools and eASIC utilities. The configuration of the eASICore is performed by bit-stream for the SRAM-based logic and a single mask customization of the patented multi-layers interconnection structure. eASIC technology is covered under U.S. Patents nos. 6,194,912; 6,236,229; 6,245,634 and additional pending patents.

Numerical's Phase-Shifting Technology

Numerical's production-proven phase-shifting technology enables semiconductor manufacturers to reliably and cost-effectively fabricate subwavelength ICs using available optical lithography equipment. The company's phase-shifting technology is the only commercially available strong phase-shifting technology that is currently used in IC production. It has been used to fabricate transistors as small as 9 nm -- the world's smallest transistors manufactured with 248-nm lithography equipment. Numerical 's phase-shifting technology is covered under U.S. Patent no. 5,858,580.

About eASIC Corporation

eASIC Corporation is pioneering a breakthrough ASIC design methodology while maintaining standard manufacturing process. The company is offering a Universal Fabric for IC design along with configurable logic cores for System-on-Chip and platform-based designs. eASIC's products allow achieving high performance and density together with ease-of-design, rapid time-to-market and reduced product development cost.

eASIC Corporation is a privately held company based in San Jose. Part of its R&D activity is performed by its wholly owned design subsidiary in Romania.

About Numerical Technologies

Numerical Technologies, Inc., ranked as one of the 100 fastest growing technology companies by Forbes ASAP and the number one best small electronics company in Electronic Business, develops and markets proprietary technology, software tools and services that enable the semiconductor industry to produce subwavelength integrated circuits, i.e., integrated circuits with components smaller than the wavelength of light used to create circuit patterns on silicon. Numerical's products and industry alliances form a comprehensive design-to-silicon solution that enables the creation of smaller, faster and more power-efficient semiconductors using available manufacturing equipment. Numerical's customers include the world's leading semiconductor companies, design automation tool vendors, semiconductor equipment suppliers and photomask manufacturers. Additional information about the company is available on the Web at

Contact:
     eASIC Corporation
     Tsipi Landen, 408/264-7128
     tsipi@eASIC.com
     Zeev Wurman, 408/264-7128
     zeev@eASIC.com
     www.easic.com