0-In Establishes Direct Sales and Support in Japan

TOYKO, Japan - January 27, 2003 - Today, 0-In Design Automation, the Assertion-Based Verification Company, announced the creation of a wholly-owned subsidiary in Japan. 0-In Design Automation K. K. is a full-service subsidiary providing Japanese customers with pre-sales support, post-sales support and selected verification methodology consulting services.

Rapid adoption of assertion-based verification (ABV) in Japan
0-In Design Automation K. K. has been established to provide direct sales and support capabilities for one of the fastest-growing regions for ABV tools and methodologies. "The Japanese market has always been very important for 0-In," said 0-In Vice President of Sales Rick Hyman, "and recently we have seen an accelerated rate of adoption for ABV and formal verification. We believe that having 0-In employees in Japan will enable our customers to be more successful with our products and to achieve their aggressive design goals."

Current announced 0-In customers in Japan include Fujitsu, Hitachi, Matsushita, Ricoh and Zuken. "Many Japanese leading-edge companies are seriously looking for a comprehensive solution to the ever-growing complex verification problem that dominates their product development time. 0-In's ABV and formal verification solution is very timely to meet these requirements," said Seyul Choe, 0-In Vice President of Asia-Pacific Operations.

Experienced Board of Directors to guide new venture
0-In Design Automation K. K. has added two industry veterans, Mr. Yu Hirano, formerly President of Nihon Synopsys Co., Ltd. and Dr. Yasuhiro Ohno, formerly Senior Chief Engineer and Deputy General Manager of Hitachi, Ltd. to its Board of Directors.

"0-In's unique solutions are critical for Japanese companies designing large system LSI devices," commented Mr. Hirano. "Functional verification consumes 70% of the development cycle for these designs and 0-In's products are a breakthrough in bringing the power of formal verification to a simulation-based methodology."

"Assertion-based verification is the next step in functional verification methods," said Dr. Ohno. "0-In's formal verification products are the most effective technology for eliminating bugs in complex system LSI designs."

Japan team accomplishing wider deployment of 0-In products
The initial employees of 0-In Design Automation K. K. include several salespeople and applications engineers already well experienced with 0-In products. "We are very fortunate that our Japanese team has such deep knowledge of 0-In," said Dr. Girczyc. They have 'hit the ground running' and are already working with a wide range of prospective customers. We are very excited about the prospects for Japan for 2003 and beyond."

0-In Design Automation K. K. has its headquarters at Park West 6-12-1, Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo.

About 0-In
0-In Design Automation, Inc. (pronounced "zero-in") develops and supports functional verification products that help verify multi-million gate application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) and system-on-chip (SoC) designs. The company delivers a comprehensive assertion-based verification (ABV) solution that provides value throughout the design and verification cycle - from the block level to the chip and system level. Twelve of the 15 largest electronics companies have adopted 0-In tools and methodologies in their integrated circuit (IC) design verification flows. 0-In was founded in 1996 and is based in San Jose, Calif. For more information, see http://www.0-in.com.

Editorial Contacts:

0-In Design Automation
Steve White, 408-487-3649, swhite@0-in.com

0-In Design Automation K. K. Masahiko Otake, +81 3 3345 7302,
motake@0-in.com or motake@star.email.ne.jp