Virage Logic Ranked as One of World's Fastest Growing Semiconductor IP Companies

FREMONT, Calif., June 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Virage Logic Corp. (Nasdaq: VIRL), the leader in embedded memory solutions, today announced that it is the second fastest growing semiconductor intellectual property (IP) company among the leading vendors in the world according to a recently published survey conducted by Gartner Dataquest. The research concluded that not only did Virage Logic's IP revenue grow almost 80 percent in 2000, but also that the overall IP market outperformed the general semiconductor market, growing 40 percent in 2000.

The research places Virage Logic among the top 10 IP companies out of 137 total IP vendors. Moreover, the research confirms that memory IP grew well above the IP industry average, demonstrating its increasing importance in semiconductor designs.

``The growth of the semiconductor IP market is only going to continue as OEMs and semiconductor companies increasingly look to out-source proven IP technology to reduce costs and speed time-to-market,'' said Jim Tully, chief analyst, Gartner. ``Companies that can achieve a dominant market share in an important IP sector will continue to be highly regarded by customers and in the financial markets.''

Of the applications surveyed, the communications market led with revenues of $322 million. The second closest application was the consumer market with just over $150 million. This parallels Virage Logic's own market breakout, with over 60 percent of the company's revenue coming from communications applications. In terms of the various IP block types, sectors to achieve 60 percent-plus growth were memory, chip infrastructure, analog/mixed signal functions and DSP functions.

``When any rapidly growing market is in its infancy, as is the semiconductor IP market, it is important to get the leadership recognition that a report from Gartner gives,'' said Vincent Ratford, vice president of marketing at Virage Logic. ``With SoCs becoming more memory-dominant -- the majority of our customers' SoC designs have more than 50 percent memory on-chip -- we look forward to not only continuing to be one of the fastest growing IP companies, but one of the biggest within the next two years.''

About Virage Logic

Virage Logic is a technology and market leader in embedded memory. To meet customer design goals with the highest level of quality, Virage Logic products are production tested, and optimized for area, power and speed. These products include embedded memory cores, which are critical components of communications, consumer and computer products including switches, routers, modems, cellular phones, set-top boxes, HDTVs, DVD players and PCs. In addition, the company offers software tools and custom memory design services. The company's customers include fabless semiconductor companies targeting pure-play foundries and semiconductor companies. Founded in January 1996, the company has over 150 employees and is located at 46501 Landing Pkwy., Fremont, Calif., 94538. Telephone: 877-360-6690 (toll free) or 510-360-8000. Fax: 510-360-8099. For more information, please visit www.viragelogic.com.