Paris, France; Mountain View, CA, USA; October 15, 2001. Esterel Technologies, a leading supplier of software development tools for electronic components and embedded software, announces the launching of its free Academic Program. Having originally developed out of research within the academic community, Esterel Technologies aims to further strengthen relationships with this community through the Esterel Technologies Academic Program.

Esterel Technologies' Academic Program provides universities free access to its leading product, Esterel Studio, for education purposes and allows them up to 20 simultaneous users on a LAN. In addition to the software, the program package includes a CD-ROM containing Esterel Studio training material, several product demonstrations, Esterel Studio tutorial and reference manual. Upgrades are also provided to the newest available versions.

"We are proud to already count among our Academic Program members prestigious universities from all over the world: The University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom, the Indian Institute of Technology in India, the University of Karlsruhe in Germany, Budapest University of Technology and Economics in Hungary, ESSI in France, and the Ecole d’Ingénieurs de Genève in Switzerland.” said Gérard Berry, Chief Scientific Officer at Esterel Technologies.

"Modern circuits and embedded systems require a very high level of confidence, which can be obtained only by the use of rigorous formal methods. The set of complementary methods developed in Esterel Studio is based on 15 years of Academic Research at INRIA and Ecole des Mines de Paris. We think that it is very important to put the students in contact with integrated industrial tools such as Esterel Studio, and to train them right away to the design, specification, programming, and verification techniques of the future." added Gérard Berry.

Esterel Studio uses the SyncCharts graphical notation and the Esterel textual language to specify system behavior and control. It allows the user to capture and test designs at a high level of abstraction and with precise formal semantics, thus reducing development cost and uncertainty. Being based on Formal Methods, Esterel Studio enables a drastic reduction of the design process time due to its ability to unambiguously specify, simulate, test, and generate embeddable and proven code.

About Esterel Technologies:
Esterel Technologies provides electronic systems architects and embedded software designers with a methodology and tools to secure their design flow at the earliest stage, while reducing their overall design and verification costs.

Esterel Technologies is an international company with offices in France, Germany, the UK and the US. Worldwide web: www.esterel-technologies.com.

For more information, contact:
Florence Arrufat
Academic Program Manager
Tel 00 33 492 02 54 50
Esterel Technologies
E-mail: florence.arrufat@esterel-technologies.com

Detailed information about the Esterel Technologies Academic Program is available on the web site at:
www.esterel-technologies.com/corporate/academic_program.htm