Virtual Silicon and Magma Team to Provide Integrated IP for Blast Fusion

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 6, 2003--

Virtual Silicon Technology Inc., a leader in semiconductor intellectual property (SIP), and Magma Design Automation, Inc., (Nasdaq:LAVA), a provider of chip design solutions, announced today the immediate availability of the silicon-proven IP pre-qualified for integration with Magma's Blast Fusion(TM) physical design system.

The IP is targeted for deep sub-micron designs at 0.18 and 0.13-micron technologies at leading foundries. Magma's Blast Fusion physical design system combined with the pre-qualified Virtual Silicon standard cells, memory, I/O and interface products, enable mutual customers to accelerate the design cycle and minimize the time to volume production.

A number of mutual customers have already benefited from integrated IP, implementation tools and technical support provided by Virtual Silicon and Magma. Imagination Technologies Group plc, an international IP company, has been using the Virtual Silicon standard cells, memory, I/O, PLL and interface products and Magma's Blast Fusion for the development of high-performance graphics processors.

"With mounting pressure for reducing development cycle time and costs, system-on-chip (SoC) designers cannot afford to spend any time in verifying the integration of IP and design implementation tools," said Martin Ashton, vice president of consumer product development at PowerVR Technologies, a division of Imagination Technologies. "With Magma's integrated implementation system and qualified IP from Virtual Silicon, we were able to go straight through physical design without having to stop to optimize the library or iterate between layout and synthesis. Both of which helped us reduce our development cycle and costs."

"With its unique FixedTiming(R) methodology, Blast Fusion fully leverages the highly accurate modeling and characterization of our Virtual Silicon standard cells to deliver superior chip performance," said John Ford, vice president of marketing at Virtual Silicon. "We are pleased be expanding our offering of standard cells and other IP to provide the solutions required by today's leading-edge SoC designers."

"High quality IP is a foundation for a successful customer owned tooling (COT) design," said Nitin Deo, Magma's vice president, business development. "When a Magma user starts their RTL-to-GDSII design cycle with qualified libraries that include logic, timing, physical and electrical views, their time to productive use shortens and the quality of results increases significantly. We are happy to be working closely with Virtual Silicon to deliver this value to our mutual customers."

About Virtual Silicon Technology

Virtual Silicon is a leading supplier of semiconductor intellectual property and process technology to manufacturers and designers of complex systems-on-chip (SoC). Headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., the company provides process-specific embedded components that serve the wireless, networking, graphics, communication and computing markets. Customers include leading fabless semiconductor companies, integrated semiconductor manufacturers, foundries, and SoC developers who demand leading edge technology for their semiconductor innovations. For more information, call 408/548-2700 or visit Virtual Silicon online at www.virtual-silicon.com.

About Magma Design Automation

Magma software is used to design fast, multimillion-gate integrated circuits, providing the "Fastest Path from RTL to Silicon"(TM) to enable chip designers to reduce the time required to produce complex ICs. Magma's products for prototyping, synthesis, and place & route provide a single executable for RTL-to-GDSII chip design. The company's Blast Fusion(TM), Blast Fusion APX(TM), Blast Plan(TM), Blast Noise(R) and Blast RTL(TM) products utilize Magma's proprietary FixedTiming(R) 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.; Austin and Dallas, Texas; Newcastle, Wash.; and in Canada, China, 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.

Forward-Looking Statements:

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, including statements about the features and benefits of Magma software, 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-Q/A for the quarter ended September 30, 2002 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") on November 15, 2002, and from time to time in Magma's SEC reports. Magma disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

Note to Editors: The Heart of Great Silicon, Silicon Ready and Virtual Silicon are trademark of Virtual Silicon Technology, Inc. Magma, Blast Noise and FixedTiming are registered trademarks and Blast Fusion, Blast Fusion APX, Blast Plan, Blast RTL, Diamond SI and "Fastest Path from RTL to Silicon" are trademarks of Magma Design Automation. All other product and company names are trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective companies.

CONTACT: Virtual Silicon, Sunnyvale                   
             John A. Ford, 408/548-2737                    
             johnf@virtual-silicon.com         
                     or
             VitalCom Marketing and PR
             Lou Covey, 650/637-8212 ext. 202
             lou@vitalcompr.com       
                     or
             Magma Design Automation, Inc., Cupertino
             Monica Marmie, 408/864-2027
             monical@magma-da.com