Magma Announces that STMicroelectronics is in Production with Next-Generation Printer Controller Designed Using Blast Fusion and Blast Plan

CONTACTS:
Magma Design Automation, Inc.
Monica Marmie
Marketing Communications Manager
(408) 864-2027
monical@magma-da.com

CUPERTINO, Calif. January 15, 2002 - Magma® Design Automation, Inc. (Nasdaq: LAVA), a provider of chip design solutions, announced that STMicroelectronics has entered production of a chip designed using Magma's Blast FusionT netlist-to-silicon system and Blast PlanT hierarchical design software. The completed design is a next-generation printer controller that consists of about one million gates of logic and incorporates an ARM946ES core and a USB 2.0 interface running at 480Mbit/sec. STMicroelectronics selected Magma's solutions for this high-speed design after validating the tools' ability to handle large designs, meet strict timing requirements and shorten production schedules.

"We began an industry-wide evaluation of next-generation ASIC tools nearly one year ago and Magma's technology has proved to be ideally suited to our needs," said Giacomo Piccini, general manager of the Digital and Analog Semicustom Division in the Telecommunication and Peripherals/Automotive Groups at STMicroelectronics. "Magma has demonstrated significant value by consistently reducing the project timescales required to achieve timing-clean designs."

"One of the blocks had some very precise dynamic timing constraints, and required its own dedicated power supply for the standard cells," said Ugo Carena, general manager of the Printer Division in STMicroelectronics' Telecommunication and Peripherals/Automotive Groups. Carena added that the design was implemented hierarchically using Blast Plan and its GlassBoxT abstraction technique. This data reduction technique produces very compact block representations that contain all of the physical, timing and extraction data necessary for hierarchical design. Using these compact blocks, Blast Plan implements fast and accurate top-level chip assembly without consuming enormous amounts of memory. "The GlassBox implementation allowed us to continue using the original full-chip constraints and maintain accuracy even though we were effectively moving to a hierarchical design flow," Carena said.

"We're proud that STMicroelectronics has leveraged the high capacity and streamlined flow provided by Blast Fusion and Blast Plan for this challenging design, " said Rajeev Madhavan, chairman and CEO of Magma Design Automation. "Their success confirms our system's ability to handle large, complex designs and deliver superior results."

About Magma
Magma software products enable chip designers to reduce the time required to design and produce complex integrated circuits in the communications, computing, consumer electronics, networking and semiconductor industries. Magma provides a single executable for RTL-to-GDSII chip design. The company's products, Blast FusionT, Blast ChipT, Blast PlanT and Blast NoiseT, utilize Magma's proprietary FixedTiming® methodology and single data model architecture to reduce the timing-closure iterations often required between the logic and physical processes in conventional IC design flows.

Magma maintains headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., as well as sales and support facilities in Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego, Calif.; Boston, Mass.; Durham, N.C.; Laurys Station, Pa.; Austin and Dallas, Texas; Newcastle, Wash.; and in Germany, Israel, Japan, Korea, The Netherlands, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. The company's stock trades on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol LAVA. Visit Magma Design Automation on the Web at www.magma-da.com.

Magma and FixedTiming are registered trademarks and Blast Chip, Blast Fusion, Blast Noise and Blast Plan are trademarks of Magma Design Automation. All other product and company names are trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective companies.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS:
Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, including statements that Magma's system is able to handle large, complex designs and deliver superior results and that Blast Plan implements fast and accurate top-level chip assembly without consuming enormous amounts of memory, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, including, but not limited to, the ability of Blast Fusion and Blast Plan to provide desired results, Magma's ability to keep pace with rapidly changing technology and other risks detailed in Magma's Prospectus dated November 19, 2001 filed with the SEC and from time to time in Magma's SEC reports. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. Magma disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.