Magma RTL-to-GDSII Solution Chosen by Faraday Technology Corporation

CUPERTINO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 25, 2002--Magma® Design Automation Inc. (Nasdaq:LAVA - News), a provider of chip design solutions, announced today that Faraday Technology Corp. (Taiwan OTC: 5404) has entered into an agreement to license Magma's RTL-to-GDSII flow, including signal integrity capability, for deep-submicron ASIC design.

This agreement follows Faraday's in-depth evaluation of Magma technology over the last few months, including several pilot projects aimed at defining a more productive design flow for Faraday's 0.18-micron and more advanced technologies. "Magma's software has demonstrated capability in getting timing closure of an advanced design in the shortest possible time, while delivering superb signal integrity for both hierarchical and flat methodologies," said George Hwang, vice president of ASIC Technology at Faraday. "With its advanced technologies and integrated flow, we expect Magma's solution to give us a substantial increase in productivity for our internal team, as well as our customers, in performing leading-edge million-gates SoC designs with Faraday's comprehensive portfolio of advanced IP offerings."

Faraday and Magma will work together to integrate Magma tools with Faraday's in-house EDA tools, and construct design kits that incorporate Faraday's advanced ASIC cell libraries targeting wafer foundry, memory compilers, processor cores and other analog/mixed-signal IP blocks.

"The Faraday agreement is a major milestone for Magma in the Asia-Pacific region," said Lung Chu, vice president of Asia-Pacific Operations for Magma. "In working with Faraday, I've been very impressed by the caliber of its team, and the dedication to quality and commitment in providing the best design solution to its customers."

"We're happy to establish this partnership relationship with one of the world's top ASIC service companies," said Roy E. Jewell, president and chief operating officer of Magma. "We're committed to working closely with Faraday to ensure the success of their deployment of Magma solutions."

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 Fusion(TM), Blast Chip(TM), Blast Plan(TM), and Blast Noise(TM) 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's Diamond SI(TM) also leverages the single data model architecture to provide an integrated, standalone platform for post-layout, sign-off quality signal integrity verification.

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 Belgium, Canada, 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.

About Faraday Technology Corp.

Faraday Technology Corp. has been providing remarkable ASIC design services and valuable IPs (Intellectual Properties) for customers ranging from small start-ups to large multinational IC design houses and system houses. With more than 380 employees and annual revenue of 70 million dollars in 2001, Faraday is the largest organization of its type in the Asia-Pacific area. Headquartered in Hsinchu, Taiwan, Faraday has branch offices around the world, including the U.S.A., Japan and Europe. More information on Faraday is available at http://www.faraday.com.tw.

Magma, Blast Chip, Blast Noise and FixedTiming are registered trademarks and Blast Fusion, Blast Plan and Diamond SI 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 solution will provide a substantial increase in productivity, and that Faraday and Magma will work together successfully, 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 Magma products to produce desired results. Further discussion of these and other potential risk factors may be found in Magma's Form 10-K for the year ended March 31, 2002 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") on June 28, 2002 and from time to time in Magma's SEC reports. Magma disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

     Magma Design Automation Inc.
     Monica Marmie, 408/864-2027
     monical@magma-da.com
        or
     Faraday Technology Corp.
     Selina Ko, +886.3.578.7888
     selina@faraday.com.tw