Metalink Adopts Cadence Encounter Platform for High-Performance Broadband Access Chipsets

Follows Shipment of More Than 150,000 Chipsets Worldwide and 40-Plus Major Asia-Pacific Design Wins Using Cadence's RTL-to-GSDII Flow

The Olympus-DSL solutions enable broadband telecom providers to offer multiple channels streaming television and video, full service telephone and high-speed data access that can be delivered simultaneously over the existing copper-wire infrastructure. Metalink's deployment of the Cadence Encounter platform follows its success at shipping more than 150,000 chipsets worldwide and achieving more than 40 design wins in Asia-Pacific using Cadence's Silicon Ensemble PKS(TM) RTL-to-GSDII design flow.

"After an exhaustive evaluation of several possible tools for use in our next-generation designs, we found the Encounter(TM) platform to be the best fit for our technical needs," said Yuval Itkin, VLSI director of Metalink. "It provides Metalink's designers with the combination of short cycle time, as well as all of the deep sub-micron special requirements, which are critical for competitive advantage in the broadband access chipset market."

"As Metalink's products migrate to next-generation VDSL chipsets, we wanted the most effective tools to advance our cutting-edge technology," said David Pereg, Metalink's vice president of Engineering. "Cadence's Encounter(TM) digital IC design platform provides us with an optimized set of software tools to take full advantage of the silicon's capabilities."

"Metalink has achieved fantastic success in standardizing its chipsets on Cadence's complete design flows," said Guillaume d'Eyssautier, senior vice president and general manager for Cadence Europe. "Encounter will give Metalink the end-to-end design platform required to manage the technical complexities and commercial demands of scaling for nanometer designs."

About Metalink

Metalink Ltd. is a market leader in developing high performance broadband access chipsets used by telecommunications and networking equipment makers, and telecommunications service providers. Metalink's silicon solutions enable cost effective, very high-speed delivery of broadband access over ATM, TDM, and Ethernet-IP network infrastructure. Metalink's advanced DSP, communications, and mixed signal capabilities, along with its leadership in standards bodies worldwide, have established Metalink as a global pioneer in the field of broadband access. Leading OEMs in Asia, North America and Europe have chosen to deploy Metalink's next generation VDSL, SHDSL, and HDSLx products. Founded in 1992, Metalink, a fabless semiconductor company, is headquartered in Yakum, Israel and has offices in Folsom, CA. Further information is available at www.metalinkDSL.com

About Cadence

Cadence is the world's leader in 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 5,200 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 Silicon Ensemble are registered trademarks and Encounter, is a trademark of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective holders.

CONTACT: Cadence Design Systems
             Andrea Huse, +49 (0)89 4563 1726
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