[0] SiS Adopts Ultima's Clock Tree Synthesis Solution; Ultima ClockWise Helps Bringing Timing Closure To SiS's High Performance Graphics and Chipset Products.

Business/Technology Editors

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 16, 2000

Ultima Interconnect Technology, Inc. (Ultima), an electronic design automation (EDA) technology and tool developer, today announced that Silicon Integrated Systems Corp. (SiS) (Taipei, Taiwan), one of the largest logic IC product companies in Taiwan, has adopted Ultima's clock tree synthesis solution, Ultima ClockWise(TM) to design high performance graphics and chipset products.

The purchase came after extensive evaluation on multi-million gate production chips. SiS selected Ultima ClockWise based on its superior performance in handling large and complex chips and its unique capability of performing useful skew clock tree synthesis.

ClockWise is the first useful-skew clock synthesis solution that unleashes hidden timing budget by making use of clock skews. It helps designers rapidly achieve timing closure with existing industry-standard place and route tools.

"Ultima's ClockWise seamlessly plugs into our existing placement and route flow. It reduces design time significantly for our large, complex, and timing-critical designs," according to Tony Liu, CAD Manager of SiS. "We have been successfully using ClockWise for several multi-million gate, high performance graphics and chipset products."

"We are very pleased that SiS has adopted Ultima's ClockWise as an integral part of SiS DSM design methodology, " said Wayne Dai, Ultima's founder and Board Chairman. "The clock is the single most important signal in a timing critical chip. With tighter and tighter timing budgets, clock and datapath can no longer be designed separately by artificially assuming zero skew. With ClockWise, we are seeing more and more designers effectively achieving timing closure with fewer number of design iterations."

About Ultima ClockWise and Useful-skew Methodology Designed to avoid potential timing problems, Ultima ClockWise helps designers rapidly achieve timing closure without replacing placement and routing tools. Traditional physical design tools separate clock design from other design tasks and simply minimize clock skew. In contrast, Ultima ClockWise combines clock timing with data-path timing and makes clock skew a useful tool to improve the performance and timing robustness of a chip. Useful skew adjusts the effective timing constraints on data-paths. Designers can reduce the number of design iterations and quickly achieve timing closure by focusing on one signal -- the clock.

About Silicon Integrated Systems Corp. (SiS)

SiS is one of the largest logic IC product companies in Taiwan. Founded in 1987, it is located in the Science-based Industrial Park in Hsin-Chu, Taiwan. The company focuses on leading edge logic products for the mainstream PC market, including core logic, multimedia, and connectivity.

About Ultima

Ultima Interconnect Technology, Inc. was founded in 1995. The company is privately held and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. Ultima is a pioneer in interconnect analysis and synthesis. The company's tools and technologies address the tough challenges of timing closure presented by 0.18 micron and below processes. Ultima's mission is to provide integrated physical design and electrical analysis solutions and help designers close the productivity gap and accelerate the shift in IC design to system-on-chip.

The Company's products are: Ultima ClockWise, a useful-skew clock synthesis solution; Ultima Millennium(TM), a full-chip delay analysis solution for timing sign-off; Ultima Nautilus-SI(TM), a full-chip signal integrity verification solution; Ultima Nautilus(TM), a full-chip 3D parasitic extraction tool; and Ultima Predator(TM), a parasitic RC reduction tool.

In 1996, Ultima was awarded a contract to develop 3D net extraction as part of Sematech's Chip Hierarchical Design System (CHDS). Ultima is a member of Mentor Graphics' (NASDAQ: MENT) OpenDoor program, Synopsys' (NASDAQ: SNPS) In-Sync and Tap-in programs, Cadence's (NYSE: CDN) Connections third-party software program.

Ultima Interconnect Technology, Inc. headquarters are located at 1139 Karlstad Drive, Sunnyvale, CA 94089. Telephone: [phone]. Fax: [phone]. Email: [e-mail]. Website: www.ultimatech.com.

Contact for Sales: Tony Tran, [e-mail].

Note to Editors: Ultima ClockWise, Ultima Millennium, Ultima Nautilus, Ultima Nautilus-SI and Ultima Predator are trademarks of Ultima Interconnect Technology, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.