QThink Adopts Magma's Blast Create for RTL-to-GDSII Design

SANTA CLARA, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Oct. 13, 2003— Magma(R) Design Automation Inc. (Nasdaq:LAVA), a provider of chip design solutions, today announced that QuantumThink Group Inc. ("QThink"), a leading pure-play design services company, has adopted the Blast Create(TM) synthesis solution. QThink now offers customers expertise in Magma's complete RTL-to-GDSII flow.

"The addition of Blast Create into our design tool portfolio furthers our commitment to providing world-class design services using the most advanced EDA solutions," said Charlie Kahle, vice president of engineering at QThink. "We have successfully completed many designs using the Blast Fusion(TM) physical design system and look forward to leveraging Magma's integrated RTL-to-GDSII solution to deliver even more predictable design flows, better results and faster turnaround time."

"As a longtime MagmaTies partner, QThink has significant expertise using our back-end solution," said Yatin Trivedi, director of product marketing at Magma. "With Blast Create, QThink's designers are able to continue using their existing knowledge of RTL coding styles, constraints, design for test (DFT) and physical optimization. As a result, they were able to quickly get up to speed on Blast Create and can now synthesize, place and route large designs using fewer partitions and without leaving the Magma environment."

About Blast Create

Blast Create is an RTL-to-placed-gates system that enables logic designers to synthesize, visualize, evaluate and improve the quality of their RTL code, design constraints, testability requirements and floorplan. Blast Create integrates fast, full-featured, high-capacity logic and physical synthesis capabilities, full and incremental static timing analysis, design for test (DFT) analysis and synthesis, and power analysis. Unlike conventional point-tool front-end flows, Blast Create does not rely on wireload models or inaccurate physical design data. With Blast Create's high capacity and integrated technology, designers can quickly build and analyze a flat, multimillion-gate design. This allows them to identify and fix problems early in the flow, ensuring a clean handoff between the RTL designer and the layout engineer, providing a predictable path to timing closure and accelerating the RTL-to-GDSII design flow. Both Verilog and VHDL hardware definition languages (HDLs) are supported. Blast Create accepts design constraints in SDC format and libraries in .lib format, avoiding the need and cost of adapting Blast Create to existing logic design environments.

About QThink

QThink(R) designs high-performance chips for leading edge semiconductor companies. QThink offers front-to-back design capabilities, from design spec to GDSII, to companies involved in wired/wireless communications, high-speed networking, multimedia, high-speed computing, medical and military applications. QThink engineers have extensive experience in chip design and flow automation. They have successfully completed many complex multimillion-gate chip designs targeted to multiple deep sub-micron technologies, with current geometries down to 0.13-micron. The company strives to implement the best solution for each customer, utilizing its broad knowledge and experience with numerous leading EDA tools, libraries, and foundry technologies, while its "pure-play" business model protects clients' unique product intellectual property. Visit QThink on the Web at www.qthink.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), enabling 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 RTL(TM), Blast Fusion(R), Blast Fusion APX(TM), Blast Plan(TM) and Blast Noise(R) products utilize Magma's patented 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 also provides PALACE(TM) and ArchEvaluator(TM) advanced physical synthesis and architecture development tools for programmable logic devices (PLDs). The company's stock trades on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol LAVA. Visit Magma Design Automation on the Web at www.magma-da.com.

Magma, Blast Fusion, Blast Noise and FixedTiming are registered trademarks, and ArchEvaluator, Blast RTL, Blast Fusion APX, Blast Plan, Blast Rail, "The Fastest Path from RTL to Silicon," and PALACE are trademarks of Magma Design Automation. QThink(R) is a registered trademark of QuantumThink Group, Inc. 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 by using Blast Create QThink will be able to deliver better predictability, results and turnaround time, and use fewer partitions, and statements about the features and benefits of Magma's system, 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, Magma's and QThink's ability to keep pace with rapidly changing technology and to produce the 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, 2003 and filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") on June 20, 2003, and from time to time in Magma's SEC reports. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. Magma disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

Magma Design Automation Inc.
Monica Marmie, 408-565-7689
monical@magma-da.com