Faraday adopts Cadence Encounter Platform for Structured ASIC design

TAIPEI, China – December 8, 2003 – Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NYSE:CDN) and Faraday Technology Corporation (TAIEX: 3035) today announced that Faraday has successfully developed a design implementation flow for its Metal Programmable Cell Array (MPCA) structured ASIC technology, using the Cadence Encounter digital IC design platform. This is a significant milestone, as structured ASIC design represents the next step towards meeting different types of product volume requirements. Cadence is the first EDA vendor to enable Faraday to conduct actual chip implementation methodology with its structured ASIC paradigm.

Structured ASIC Flow with the SoC Encounter System

Faraday structured ASIC implementation flow was based on Cadence's leading-edge continuous convergence methodology provided by the Cadence Encounter platform. The flow was successfully validated with an actual test chip tape-out in May 2003. The major benefit of the flow is that it helps Faraday engineers drive its customer design netlist from a structured ASIC floorplan specification to a physical design, with fast and guaranteed timing and signal integrity (SI) closure. The necessary capabilities include silicon virtual prototyping, floorplanning, placement and routing, clock tree synthesis, physical timing optimization, RC extraction, SI crosstalk closure, and physical ECO.

"Our customers can enjoy accelerated development cycles and lower derivation costs by using the winning combination of Faraday's MPCA technology, mass production proven intellectual property (IP) portfolios, and state-of-the-art ASIC services," said Hsin Wang, senior technical director of Faraday "SoC Encounter greatly helps us fine-tune designs at an early stage and drives fast design closure on timing, power, and signal integrity," he added.

"We are absolutely delighted to have been selected by Faraday to join them in the utilization of this pioneering structured ASIC technology," said Wei-Jin Dai, vice president of research and development at Cadence. "This successful cooperation highlights our commitment to customer success and further validates the significance of our First Encounter system."

About Faraday Technology Corporation

Faraday Technology Corporation provides leading ASIC/SoC design services and production-proven IPs to customers ranging from system houses and IDMs to IC design houses. The company's broad portfolio of key IPs includes leading products such as RISC CPUs, 16/20/24-bit DSPs, USB 2.0, gigabit Ethernet, and Serial-ATA. Faraday's ASIC design services and IPs are widely used in PC peripherals, communication, and digital consumer products. With more than 480 employees and 2002 revenue of 96.2 million USD, Faraday is the largest fabless ASIC design service company in all Asia-Pacific. Headquartered in Hsinchu Taiwan, Faraday offers service and support branch offices around the world, including the U.S., Japan, Europe, and China. For more information on Faraday, please visit http://www.faraday.com.tw

About Cadence

Cadence is the largest supplier of electronic design technologies, methodology services, and design services. Cadence solutions are used to accelerate and manage the design of semiconductors, computer systems, networking and telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics, and a variety of other electronics based products. With approximately 5,000 employees and 2002 revenues of approximately $1.3 billion, Cadence has sales offices, design centers, and research facilities around the world. The company is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., and traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CDN. More information about the company, its products and services is available at www.cadence.com.

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