Faraday Standardizes On Novas' Fast Signal Database

Debussy's Standard Format Enables Users to Readily Share Verification Results

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 19, 2001--Novas Software, Inc., the leader in debug systems for complex chip designs, today announced that Faraday Technology Corporation, the world's leading provider of silicon-proven intellectual property (SIP) and the largest ASIC design service in the Asia/Pacific region (Taiwan OTC: 5404), is adopting the Novas Debussy® Debug System's Open Fast Signal Database(TM) (FSDB) technology as its standard interface format for exchanging verification results with customers. This will greatly enable transfers of large simulation results between Faraday's engineers and their customers' design teams.

"At Faraday, we continue to seek new approaches to ensure we develop best-in-class custom chips and SIP," said Tim Liu, Vice President at Faraday. "We selected Novas' FSDB as our standard interface format because it provides the means to quickly exchange design information and identify any changes that have been made. Moreover, as many of our customers have licenses for Novas' Debussy, which is rapidly becoming the debug system of choice for SoC designs, it makes sense to utilize its FSDB, particularly as it's faster and more compact than value change dump files (VCDs)."

Scott Sandler, President and CEO of Novas noted, "In today's increasingly competitive market, it is essential that design teams be empowered to transfer design knowledge as efficiently as possible within their community. Sharing verification results fast is key to finishing designs on time. Debussy's FSDB and its open API, help designers achieve this goal as verification results are easily compressed into small files that can be instantly viewed in Debussy. Faraday's decision to standardize on our FSDB technology will prove invaluable to Faraday and its customers."

The Open FSDB database is a core element of the Debussy architecture. The FSDB format enables fast dumping of simulation results, highly compressed signal value dump files, and rapid viewing of large result databases. Novas supports open integration of the FSDB format with a wide variety of verification tools through an application programming interface (API). Dozens of simulators, formal verification tools, and timing analyzers have been integrated with Debussy, enabling unsurpassed interoperability.

About Faraday Technology Corporation

Faraday Technology Corporation (Taiwan OTC: 5404) has provided remarkable ASIC design services and valuable IPs (Intellectual Properties) for customers ranging from small start-ups to large international IC design houses and system houses since it was founded in 1993. Today, Faraday Technology Corporation is the largest organization of its type in the Asia-Pacific area, with more than 330 employees and annual revenue of 74 million US dollars in 2000. Faraday's headquarters is located in Hsinchu, Taiwan and the company also has sales offices around the world, including the U.S.A., Japan, Europe and China. For more information about Faraday, its services and/or products, please visit its Web site at http://www.faraday.com.tw.

About Novas

Novas Software, Inc. focuses on improving the human understanding process involved in debugging IC and system-on-a-chip (SoC) designs. The company's technology and products provide designers with the ability to shorten verification and debug cycles -- the most labor-intensive and expensive portions of the design process. With its Debussy®, Verilog and VHDL debug system, designers can easily locate, isolate, and understand the causes of unexpected design behavior in half the time of traditional solutions, thereby maximizing the efficiency of engineering resources, significantly reducing costs and accelerating the process of getting silicon to market. Novas has over 7,000 systems in use at hundreds of customer sites worldwide. For more information visit www.novas.com or send email to info@novas.com.

Note to Editors: Debussy and Novas are registered trademarks and Fast Signal Database is a trademark of Novas Software, Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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