Accent Joins TSMC's Design Center Alliance

Two Companies Formalise Long-Standing Relationship Strengthens Accent's Highway to Silicon Programme

Milan, Italy - 21st September 2004. Accent Design Services, one of Europe's leading and largest semiconductor design factories, has joined TSMC's Design Center Alliance. The announcement formalises an existing three-year relationship between the two companies during which Accent successfully completed a variety of complex customer designs in TSMC's process technologies. TSMC is the world's largest dedicated semiconductor foundry.

As a member of TSMC's Design Centre Alliance, Accent is designated as a design services provider for companies wishing to utilise TSMC as the foundry service. Accent is ideally placed to assist OEM, fabless and chipless small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as start-ups.

Accent's alliance with TSMC is one of the cornerstones of its recently announced Highway to Silicon programme. Highway to Silicon is a virtual Independent Device Manufacturer approach to design services that provides a complete, one-stop shop for all aspects of complex IC design through to manufacturing and volume silicon delivery for COT (customer owned tooling) designs.

Accent has built extensive experience working with TSMC, giving the company an invaluable insight into how to get the best from TSMC's design methods, process technologies and fabrication capabilities for complex SoC designs. Recent projects include a highly challenging analog-mixed signal IC, capacitive interface sensors, a multi-million gate IC for wireless applications, the hardening of an ARM CPU, systems with large memories and analog blocks and a very complex IC for networking applications, with several million gates. These projects cover 0.13µm, 0.18µm, and 0.25µm technologies and draw on both the design and supply chain management services within Accent's Highway to Silicon programme.

Accent has worked closely with TSMC in the development of Accent's very deep submicron (VDSM) design services for the nanometer era and is currently investing in the testing and tuning of its design flow, based on TSMC's reference flow, to prepare for the delivery of incoming 90nm designs.

"Being part of TSMC's Design Center Alliance is recognition of our track record with them and of our credibility as a virtual Independent Device Manufacturer able to provide a full service to small-to-medium sized customers," says Massimo Vanzi, General Manager of Accent. "Our experience of managing the design interface on behalf of customers with TSMC and with the other players in the supply chain, significantly reduces the risks generally associated with silicon design and manufacturing."

About Accent

Accent Srl is one of Europe's leading and largest electronics design factory networks providing a complete range of services from concept and architecture through to design, implementation and prototyping. Accent also manages access to major foundry partners including the supply of small and medium volume silicon to COT customers. Accent operates on a worldwide basis serving start-ups and medium-sized fabless and chipless companies as well as large corporations through offices and representatives in France, Germany, Israel, Italy, the UK and the USA. Accent's design centres draw on the skills of over 120 electronic engineers whose specialist expertise spans multiprocessor SoC, VDSM and AMS design and matches the complexity, geometry and power challenges of today's semiconductor designs. Accent's extensive investment in design methodologies, EDA tools and foundry relationships ensures customer success and includes over 250 right first time ASIC tape-outs, 20 full SoC designs and over 180 designs in silicon production covering a broad range of applications from telecommunications to multimedia, automotive, medical, home automation and industrial control. Accent's Highway to SiliconTM program provides a real, one-stop-shop for companies looking for a reliable, world-class path to IC design and manufacturing. Founded in 1993, Accent is an independent company jointly owned by STMicroelectronics and Cadence Design Systems. For more information visit www.accent.it.

Statements in this news release looking forward in time are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties including market acceptance and demand for our new products, our dependencies on our silicon wafer suppliers, the impact of competitive products and pricing, technological and product development risks and other risk factors detailed in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Actual results may differ materially from forward-looking statements.