Altium adds Spartan-3 support to Nexar

SYDNEY, Australia - June 3, 2004 - Altium Limited (ASX: ALU), a leading developer of Windows-based electronics design software, today announced that it is adding support for Xilinx, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: XLNX) new Spartan™-3 platform FPGAs to its Nexar system design software. Spartan-3 device support will be added to Nexar, and Altium is currently developing a Spartan-3 daughter board that will plug into its FPGA-based development board, which it calls a NanoBoard. Altium has also added support for Xilinx Synthesis Technology (XST), and the latest version of Xilinx's ISE logic design software to Nexar.

“Xilinx's Spartan-3 FPGAs provide a perfect platform for developing microprocessor-based systems on FGPAs due to their high capacity, system-level capabilites, and low cost,” said Nick Martin, Joint CEO and founder of Altium. “By introducing Spartan-3 support in Nexar, we are providing our customers with easy access to the latest technology in platform FPGAs.”

Steve Lass, director, Software Marketing at Xilinx, Inc. said “The Spartan-3 FPGA family has seen an incredible amount of market acceptance because it features the industry's lowest cost points as well advanced features.. Our alliance with Altium will extend this further through our exposure to their very large user base.”

Pricing and availability

Altium's Nexar development system for complete processor-based digital systems on FPGAs is priced at US$7,995. For a limited time, this price also includes a NanoBoard; an FPGA-based nano-level breadboard with swappable FPGA daughter boards. Service Pack 1 for Nexar which includes support for Xilinx's Spartan-3 FPGAs, XST synthesizer, and ISE v6.2 has been released today.

Altium's NanoBoard is currently delivered with two daughter boards included – the Xilinx Spartan-IIE and the Altera Cyclone daughter boards. However, as part of a current offer, customers that purchase a full Nexar license before June 30 receive both the NanoBoard and the choice of either a Altera Stratix or a Xilinx Virtex-II daughter board free (valued at US$495).

For more product information, visit www.altium.com/nexar/ or contact your local Altium Sales and Support Center.

About the Spartan-3 platform

With its new class of 90nm Spartan-3 platform FPGAs, Xilinx is transforming the semiconductor landscape. Ranging from 50K to 5M system gates, the Spartan-3 platform is the world's lowest cost FPGA with unrivaled price points. Starting at US$2.95* and featuring a 1-Million gate device for $11.95* the Spartan-3 family addresses customer demand for low cost solutions. Using the most advanced 90nm semiconductor process technology, Xilinx has achieved a 50 percent chip-size reduction for Spartan-3, as compared to 130nm technology, that represents cost savings of up to 80 percent over competitive offerings. With Spartan-3, Xilinx is poised to address entirely new high volume applications in the “sweet spot” of mid-range ASICs – such as low cost routers, storage servers, medical and industrial imaging, and residential gateways – and to significantly expand the total available market for FPGAs. For complete information about Spartan-3 FPGAs, visit http://www.xilinx.com/spartan3.

About Altium Limited

Altium Limited (ASX: ALU) is a global developer and supplier of electronics design software for the Microsoft Windows environment. Founded in 1985, Altium released the world's first Microsoft Windows–based printed circuit board design tool in 1991 and continues to provide advanced, easy-to-use and affordable software design tools to electronics engineers, designers, and developers worldwide. Altium's products offer tailored solutions covering a range of hardware and software design processes including the well-known Protel, P-CAD and TASKING brands. Altium is headquartered in Sydney, Australia and has sales and support offices in Australia, the United States, Japan and Europe. More information is available at www.altium.com.

Altium, CAMtastic, CircuitStudio, Design Explorer, DXP, LiveDesign, NanoBoard, NanoTalk, Nexar, nVisage, P-CAD, Protel, Situs, TASKING, and Topological Autorouting and their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Altium Limited or its subsidiaries. “Xilinx” and “Spartan” are the registered trademarks of Xilinx Inc. All other registered or unregistered trademarks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners, and no trademark rights to the same are claimed.

* High volume end of 2005 pricing

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