AMKOR, CHARTERED SEMICONDUCTOR, IBM GIVE SAGANTEC EARLY ACCESS TO NEW PROCESS RULES

Sagantec to Offer Technology Files to Ease, Accelerate Hard IP Reuse

FREMONT, Calif., March 1, 1999 - Sagantec, here, today kicked off its Foundry Program with inaugural members Amkor Technology Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing of Singapore and IBM of Burlington, Vt. Additional members of the Sagantec Foundry Program will be announced soon.

The program ensures Sagantec has early access to new process design rules for it to develop technology files used by its Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software. Sagantec technology files will be available to customers doing business with Sagantec and these foundries.

Customers will be able to quickly move their designs -- libraries, blocks, hard intellectual property (IP) and full chips -- to new process technologies using Sagantec's Design Rule Enforcement and Migration (DREAM).

"Chartered's participation in this program is important for fabless semiconductor companies. They gain early access to software tools that are tuned to our wafer manufacturing processes," notes Ana Hunter, vice president of Worldwide EDA at Chartered. "By working with Sagantec, we can offer shorter design cycles when porting from one process to another, and enable to faster time-to-market for our foundry customers."

As part of the Foundry Program, Sagantec will have access to 0.35-, 0.25- and 0.18-µ and future process technologies, as they become available. Each foundry will provide Sagantec with a design rule manual for each technology and Golden Design Rule Check (DRC) deck for that technology. With this information, Sagantec will develop technology files used by DREAM and other Sagantec software. These technology files will be certified against the foundry's Golden DRC deck, the equivalent of a "golden sign-off" and then will be made available to mutual customers.

In addition, Sagantec will work cooperatively with Amkor Technology, Chartered Semiconductor and IBM to reference products, as appropriate.

"We are happy to be working with Sagantec to allow early access to our industry leading process technologies," states Ken Torino, Semiconductor Contract Manufacturing director at IBM.

DREAM enables the reuse and optimization of hard IP for deep submicron design. It is used for rapid reuse and optimization of cells, memories, blocks and full chips from one process design rule to another. It migrates a physical layout design from one process technology to another, adapting it to new, usually smaller process design rules. With DREAM, library designers and hard IP users can quickly reuse an existing library, blocks or full chips to 0.35-, 0.25- or 0.18-( micron technology.

Adds Mahendra Jain, vice president of worldwide marketing: "Early access gives us the ability to rapidly add new rules for deep submicron design, giving our mutual customers the ability to move forward faster. Launching the Foundry Program helps our customers leverage new process technologies."

"The ability to effectively reuse hard IP has been an industry dilemma," concludes Tom Arnold, vice president of engineering at Amkor Technology. "The alliance between Amkor Technology and Sagantec will help our customers make full use of existing hard IP."

The first technology files will be available from Sagantec in Q2 1999. For more details, contact sales at (888) SAGANTEC or via email at info@sagantec.com

About Sagantec

Sagantec is the leading supplier of software, methodologies and services that enable the reuse and re-layout of hard IP for deep submicron design. Its tools ensure designers can efficiently implement systems on silicon; meet time to market and time to volume requirements; and take full advantage of the latest process technology, while being assured true process independence. Privately held and funded, Sagantec was founded in 1993 in Israel. Corporate headquarters for its worldwide sales, marketing, technical services and applications organization is located at 46505 Landing Parkway, Fremont, Calif. 94538. Telephone: (510) 360-5200. Facsimile: (510) 360-5255. Its Web Site is located at: http://www.sagantec.com

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