Cadence Teams with TeraChip to Deliver World's First 160Gbps Switch Fabric Chip; TSMC's Design Center Alliance Member Helps Achieve 0.13-micron Silicon Success

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 22, 2003--Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NYSE:CDN) and TeraChip Inc. today announced a major success on a switch fabric chip running on a TSMC 0.13-micron process. Cadence provided silicon engineering that enabled TeraChip's TCF16X10 160Gbps single-chip switch fabric design. The chip is the world's first 160Gbps scalable single-chip switch fabric targeting the LAN, SAN and MAN switch and router markets.

"We are extremely pleased with the results of working with Cadence(R) Design Foundry(R) and TSMC," said Micha Zeiger, president and CEO of TeraChip. "We chose Cadence because of its ability to get the most out of the silicon and its excellent track record of first-pass silicon success. It's clear that we made the right decision. TSMC's Design Center Alliance service model offers the services and expertise we need to get this ground-breaking product to market quickly."

The TeraChip TCF16X10 switches 160Gbps in a single 15W chip. The first in a series of fully scalable solutions, the chip helps system vendors reduce development costs and cycles. Leveraging breakthrough technology, the IC integrates 64 silicon-optimized 3.125Gbps SerDes transceivers developed by Cadence Design Foundry as licensed silicon IP in the TSMC 0.13-micron process. The shared-memory fabric switch provides extensive quality of service (QoS) and redundancy capabilities. The TCF16X10 enables outstanding flexibility in system configuration, with the same fabric supporting line cards ranging from 10 to 40Gbps and beyond.

"The TeraChip project is a great example of how Cadence Design Foundry gets the most out of the silicon, enabling our customers to establish industry leadership positions," said Aurangzeb Khan, general manager of Cadence Design Foundry. "Working with TSMC, we were able to use our silicon-optimized SerDes IP and silicon engineering expertise to help ensure this complex chip was designed and manufactured correctly."

"The longstanding collaboration between TSMC and Cadence enabled TeraChip to build this new chip on our 0.13-micron process," said Dr. Genda Hu, vice president of marketing for TSMC. "It's another example of how the Design Center Alliance brings customer success on TSMC's advanced technologies."

About TSMC

TSMC is the world's largest dedicated semiconductor foundry, providing the industry's leading process technology and the foundry industry's largest portfolio of process-proven library, IP, design tools and reference flows. The company operates one advanced 300mm wafer fab, six eight-inch fabs and one six-inch wafer fab. TSMC also has substantial capacity commitments at two joint ventures fabs (Vanguard and SSMC) and at its wholly-owned subsidiary, WaferTech. In early 2001, TSMC became the first IC manufacturer to announce a 90 nanometer technology alignment program with its customers. TSMC's corporate headquarters are in Hsin-Chu, Taiwan. For more information about TSMC to http://www.tsmc.com.

About TeraChip

TeraChip is a fabless semiconductor company providing next-generation merchant switch fabrics for switch and router systems. TeraChip's multi-protocol solutions are optimized for enterprise (LAN), storage (SAN) and metro (MAN) network switches. Based on patent-pending memory-based technology, the Company has developed groundbreaking switching capacity in a single chip. TeraChip components enable networking vendors to boost performance of next-generation switches at a fraction of the cost, size and power consumption of current offerings. Founded in November 2000, TeraChip has received strategic funding from leading international venture capital firms. For further information visit http://www.tera-chip.com/

About Cadence

Cadence is the largest supplier of electronic design technologies, methodology services, and design services. Cadence solutions are used to accelerate and manage the design of semiconductors, computer systems, networking and telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics, and a variety of other electronics-based products. With approximately 5,300 employees and 2002 revenues of approximately $1.3 billion, Cadence has sales offices, design centers, and research facilities around the world. The company is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., and traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CDN. More information about the company, its products and services is available at www.cadence.com.

Note to Editors: Cadence, the Cadence logo, and Design Foundry are registered trademarks of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

CONTACT: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
             Dean Solov, 408/914-6077
             dsolov@cadence.com