Power X Enlists Tality to Offer Expanded Design Support

Network OEM Time-to-Market Slashed by Months

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 5, 2001--Power X Networks(TM) today announces that Network OEM switch and router designers using the Power X TeraChannel® switch fabric can save months of design time by engaging Tality(TM) Corp.'s product design and development services. Tality, the world's largest provider of IP and engineering services, can support TeraChannel customers for schematic capture and layout of intelligent midplanes, line cards, fabric cards and chassis. These cards and chassis feature embedded high-speed signaling and support rates up to OC-48c, a specialty of both Tality and Power X. Tality's support provides a key step in leveraging the Power X TeraChannel Star(TM) Family -- shipping in production -- into quickly completed customer designs.

"Merchant switch fabrics such as TeraChannel have always held the promise of greatly reduced time-to-market compared to ASIC-based solutions," said John Metz, principal analyst at Metz International, a communications technology analysis firm focusing on the networking business. "Now another piece of the puzzle is in place -- a way to accelerate card and chassis designs using these fabrics and enabling the next generation of transaction-based switches."

TeraChannel OC-48c designs feature multiple interfaces, including gigabit-plus serial links and fast memory, high-speed connectors, 30-layer stackups and power supply conditioning and filtering. High-speed PHYs, MACs and framers -- as well as Network Processors from Power X Partners -- complete the picture. Operating from customer specifications, Tality can design complete systems based on Power X reference designs and tackle custom efforts as well. Network OEMs benefit from Power X and Tality's rigorous design approach and deep system-level understanding.

"Boards and chassis for blade-based switches and routers must be designed to specific carrier-grade standards," stated Bill Weir, senior vice president of marketing and business development at Power X Networks. "Tality understands this market and has a long track record of successful on-time networking designs -- qualities that will enable Power X customers to achieve their aggressive product introduction plans."

Tality's support for Power X customers will extend to Power X's next-generation OC-192c TeraChannel switch fabric as well. "Tality looks forward to an ongoing relationship with Power X," said David Ross, business development manager at Tality. "With increasing speed and complexity in transaction-based switches and routers, there will be many more opportunities for blade and chassis designs that leverage the system-level expertise of both companies."

About Power X and TeraChannel® Intelligent Switch Fabric Technology

Power X Networks is a global, privately owned silicon-and-development systems vendor with main offices in Manchester, England (Power X Ltd.), and San Jose, Calif. (Power X Networks, Inc.). TeraChannel Technology is an efficient, highly intelligent and scalable switch-fabric subsystem consisting of silicon, hardware, and software building blocks for use in communication and computer switching and routing systems utilizing optical transport and computing I/O protocols. TeraChannel silicon is fully integrated and capable of simultaneously prioritizing and switching cells and packets at wire speed. The TeraFrame® hardware development platform and FabricSIM(TM) software simulation tools provide a complete design environment. TeraChannel received the SUPERQuest award in the Most Promising New Public Network Technology category at SUPERCOMM 2000. Power X Networks received the 2001 COMET Award for Most Innovative New Networking Technology Company. Power X is a founding member of the CSIX consortium, now part of the Network Processing Forum. For more information, contact Power X Networks at 408/456-2500 or +44-(0)-161-286-2000, or visit the company's Web site at www.powerxnetworks.com.

About Tality(TM)

Tality Corp., a subsidiary of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NYSE:CDN - news), is the world's largest electronic product development outsourcing provider. Leading and emerging technology companies around the globe leverage Tality's engineering services and intellectual property for the design of complex electronic systems and integrated circuits. Tality is headquartered in San Jose, Calif. For more information about Tality, please visit us at www.tality.com.

Note to Editors: Power X, the Power X logo, TeraChannel, and TeraFrame are registered trademarks of Power X Ltd. Power X Networks and FabricSIM are trademarks of Power X Ltd. Tality is a trademark of Tality Corp.

     Slider & Associates for Power X Networks
     Sacha Arts, 408/356-3099
     sacha@sliderassociates.com
        or
     Tality Corp.
     Jim Douglas, 408/944-7955
     jimd@tality.com