ARC Cores to Acquire Leading Software Tools Company, MetaWare.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 20, 1999--

ARC Cores Ltd has agreed to acquire MetaWare Incorporated of Santa Cruz, for an undisclosed sum. MetaWare, an established 20-year old supplier of essential software development tools for embedded applications, will become a division of ARC Cores Ltd, and further strengthens ARC's position in the ongoing development of its unique user-configurable 32-bit processor.

Bob Terwilliger, President/CEO of ARC Cores, describes this acquisition as an important natural progression for ARC Cores. "Software tools are a vital part of a configurable processor. A configurable hardware core is exciting, but ARC's configurable architecture coupled with an integrated tool chain that supports that configurability is a really exciting solution. The fact that the MetaWare tool chain is a superior solution on several platforms adds real value here. We've spent three years and millions of dollars with MetaWare developing the tools that make ARC's technology as robust as it is today. Now all of that configurability--both hardware and software--is available from one source. MetaWare's products represent 20 years of development and tens of millions of dollars of investment."

He adds, "Now we can start developing even better, more tightly coupled, configurable tools, and continue to lead the way in the embedded system-on-chip market." ARC Cores will maintain MetaWare's multi-platform development tools business, which is well respected as the superior solution for embedded PowerPC(TM), ARM, picoJava(TM), and x86.

MetaWare's Chairman and CEO, Dr. Franklin L. DeRemer, also believes that this event is significant for the industry. "ARC Cores had the first configurable processor and has a commanding lead in the market. ARC is unique in that it is still the only configurable CPU that's fully supported with automatic and comprehensive tool generation. We are extremely pleased that the company we founded 20 years ago on strong technical credentials has now paved the way toward tools for next-generation technology in intellectual property, and will continue to lead the way."

Dr. DeRemer continues, "Because MetaWare develops full tool chains for a number of processors our staff has broad experience with the pros and cons of various architectures. We are particularly excited to join forces with ARC, who we have seen grow from an exciting concept three and a half years ago to a major international competitor. Their progress is based on a superior technical approach and a very strong team."

Terwilliger adds, "The principals of MetaWare, Dr. Frank DeRemer and Dr. Tom Pennello, have led the way in compiler construction since the late 1960s. Combined with ARC's pioneering work in configurable microprocessors, the coupling of the resources of our two companies makes for a formidable force in the embedded processor market. This is where potential competitors contemplating a configurable processor would have a hard time catching up."

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About ARC Cores

ARC Cores provides the world's first 32-bit microprocessor that is user-configurable and process independent. It can be quickly and easily personalized for a customer's specific application. The robust and flexible ARC core, along with the ARC development tools, automatically generates a processor that integrates seamlessly into the total system design.

A venture capital backed company, based in London, England and San Jose, Calif. ARC licenses the ARC processor core to system houses, semiconductor manufacturers and ASIC vendors. The ARC is ideal for today's cost sensitive, high-performance communications and networking applications. For more information, visit: http://www.arccores.com or phone [phone] (UK) or +1.408.360.2120 (USA).

About MetaWare

MetaWare Incorporated, founded in 1979, has a history of developing "professional software, generated automatically." The company is a leading supplier of tools and enabling technologies for professional software developers, particularly for embedded applications. MetaWare has grown over the years by providing high-quality, high-performance software development tool sets on multiple platforms and architectures. Based in Santa Cruz, California, two-thirds of MetaWare's employees work on developing, testing, and documenting the products. The company history spans two decades of development in the computer industry, and MetaWare has played an important role in those developments. For more information, visit http://www.metaware.com or phone [phone].

Dr. Franklin L. DeRemer, Chairman and CEO, received his Ph.D. from MIT for research in parsing theory, during which he developed SLR(k) and LALR(k) grammars and their parsers. From 1969 until 1983 he taught at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) and developed the theory and practice of automatic compiler construction.

Dr. Thomas J. Pennello, MetaWare's Chief Technical Officer, did his graduate work under Dr. DeRemer at UCSC. Together they developed fully automatic error recovery and efficient LALR look-ahead set computation. Dr. Pennello's industry experience includes creating C, C++, and Pascal compiler front ends, and both RISC and CISC optimizing code generators. Thomas received his Ph.D. degree from UCSC in transformational grammars.