For Immediate Release

SAN JOSE, Calif., May 2, 2001-Novas and Équipe Communications Corporation (Acton, MA) today announced that Novas' Debussy® played a critical role in verifying the hardware portion of the Équipe 3200T (É3200) Multi-Layer Optical On Ramp core switching platform. Équipe used Debussy, the leading Verilog and VHDL debug system, during functional debug -- the most costly and time-consuming part of the design verification process. Debussy allowed Équipe's engineers to cut the time associated with debugging by helping them to quickly locate, isolate, and understand the cause of design issues.

Tim MacDonald, principal engineer and design verification lead at Équipe said, "With Debussy we were able to reduce our debug time, and achieve sometimes as much as a 10 to 1 gain in productivity. Previously we had to abstract sections of the design, block by block, to understand how all the pieces fit together. Debussy automatically shows us how the design pieces relate to each other, making it easy for us to understand the big picture. This saves our verification team, as well as the hardware design team, a substantial amount of time. As a result, we plan to continue using Debussy for future product developments."

The Équipe 3200 platform consists of printed circuit boards with components including processors, memories, and FPGAs. In addition, the chips include intellectual property from third-party providers. "With so many variables at hand, we needed a means to ensure our boards would work as specified," added MacDonald, "Our customers are large carriers that demand quality. Debussy has significantly contributed to our success. It helps us isolate bugs and eliminate them quickly. Due to Debussy's help and our strong engineering development team, we foresee the É3200 being the premier optical switch solution in the networking industry for years to come."

"The cost of verification is an important business issue for companies designing complex ICs and SoCs," said Scott Sandler, president and CEO of Novas. "Debug is the most costly part of verification because it requires direct human engineering involvement. The intelligence incorporated into today's designs makes the causes of bugs very difficult to understand. Debussy accelerates the engineer's understanding of these causes to drastically cut the time required to repair each bug, thus reducing the cost of verification. With Debussy, companies like Équipe can quickly and easily find the cause of bugs, eliminate them, and thus ensure success, prior to spinning silicon."

About Équipe Communications™
Équipe Communications Corporation delivers high availability solutions that scale incumbent service provider networks and services while providing the agility to transition to packet based architectures. Built on Équipe's highly reliable Évail#153; software architecture, the Équipe 3200 platform is the only core platform capable of transitioning ATM based networks to IP/MPLS while leveraging emerging optical technologies. Contact Équipe at info@equipecom.com or www.equipecom.com

About Novas
Novas is the leader in debug systems for complex chip designs. The Company's Debussy® Total Debug system manages the design debug process for system-on-chip integrated circuits, dramatically reducing the time it takes to locate, isolate, and understand the causes of unexpected design behavior. Debussy increases designer and design team productivity during the time-intensive verification and debug phases. Novas has over six thousand systems in use at hundreds of customer sites worldwide.

Novas is located at 2025 Gateway Place, Suite 480, San Jose, CA 95110.
Phone: 408-467-7888 or 888-NOVAS-38, Fax: 408-467-7889. For more information visit www.novas.com or send email to info@novas.com.

For more information contact:

Eileen Elam
KJ Communications
650-917-1488
KjcomE@cs.com

Maggie Albrecht
Novas
408-467-7867
maggie@novas.com

Bob Olson
Équipe Communications Corporation
978-795-2122
bolson@equipecom.com