Toshiba Japan Selects Atrenta's SpyGlass to Identify Critical Design Problems at RTL; Predictive Analysis Technique Used to Implement Design Reuse and RTL Handoff Initiatives

SAN JOSE, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Feb. 4, 2004— Atrenta(R) Inc., the Predictive Analysis Company, announced that Toshiba Corporation Semiconductor Company in Japan, responsible for creating chips for world-class consumer electronics companies, has selected Atrenta's SpyGlass(R) Predictive Analyzer to enforce design reuse and excellence initiatives early at Register Transfer Language (RTL) and thereby ensure high RTL productivity. Toshiba chose SpyGlass because of its broad and deep range of RTL analysis functions, rich customization capabilities, the ability to easily deploy the industry's best design practices and reuse guidelines, and the most comprehensive support for the STARC rules.

SpyGlass' unique predictive analysis technique enables Toshiba engineers to perform detailed structural analysis at RTL and identify complex issues such as clock domain crossings, synchronization, connectivity checks, clock/reset requirements and Toshiba Design for Test guidelines early in the design cycle. Toshiba is further standardizing on SpyGlass and creating Toshiba-specific rules for internal use. Toshiba used SpyGlass' powerful user-programmable customization capabilities to rapidly develop and deploy internal coding guidelines throughout their design groups. Designers were also able to apply Toshiba's proprietary requirements at the RTL where they are most comfortable working and can easily leverage intellectual property to reduce design and schedule risks.

"After careful and rigorous analysis of all available options, including all existing tools currently in use, we found SpyGlass to be the superior choice because it fully met all our requirements -- powerful underlying technology, full support for STARC rules including mixed-language support, ability to easily customize rules using C and Perl, and the capability to effectively incorporate and deploy our own design rules," said Seiichi Nishio, Sr. Manager Methodology at the Toshiba Corporation Semiconductor Company in Japan. "Atrenta's implementation of the STARC Policy in SpyGlass is one of the most extensive and versatile set of analyses and ensures that we benefit from Japan's emerging design standard. We are very happy with Atrenta and the customer care they have provided and look forward to expanding the scope of SpyGlass at Toshiba with additional implementations and standardization of the tool."

STARC (Semiconductor Technology Academic Research Center) is a consortium of eleven major Japanese semiconductor companies including Toshiba that has defined a set of guidelines for SoC and ASIC design and IP, which are emerging as the de-facto standard in Japan. Atrenta worked very closely with Toshiba to ensure full compliance with the STARC standard.

"We are very pleased that Toshiba selected Atrenta's SpyGlass Predictive Analysis tools for designing its next generation SoCs and ASICs," stated Dr. Ajoy Bose, Atrenta Chairman, President and CEO. "SpyGlass enables Toshiba designers to leverage industry's best design knowledge base as well as create new proprietary approaches to streamline their design and ensure successful implementation of their reuse and RTL productivity initiatives. Having Toshiba, one of the world's leading semiconductor companies, use our product for its next generation designs is a major endorsement of Atrenta's predictive analysis technology and our future roadmap."

About Atrenta

Atrenta delivers predictive analysis solutions to the world's leading electronics companies, including eight of the top ten semiconductor companies. Its pioneering and award-winning SpyGlass Predictive Analysis tools accelerate the design of SoCs, ASICs, and FPGAs by detecting complex chip design problems that are not easily identified with conventional verification methods. During the past year, SpyGlass has been recognized with several distinguishing awards, including EDN magazine's Top 100 products for 2002 and "LSI Design of the Year 2002" award by Japan's Semiconductor Industry News. Atrenta was also chosen by Venture Reporter as one of the top 100 venture-backed companies for 2002, and named by AlwaysOn as one of the Top 100 private companies for 2003.

Atrenta, with headquarters in San Jose, Calif., employs over 140 people worldwide. It has European offices in England and France, a research and development center in India, and sales and support distributors in Central Europe, India, Israel, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and United Kingdom. For further information, visit the Atrenta website at www.atrenta.com, email moreinfo@atrenta.com, or call 408-453-3333.

Atrenta and SpyGlass are registered trademarks of Atrenta Inc. All other trademarks belong to their respective owners. Atrenta Inc. All rights reserved.

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