AWR Announces Availability of Visual System Simulator 2003; Enhanced System Design Suite Offers New Capabilities, GSM/EDGE and 802.11 Analysis Libraries.

Business Editors

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 28, 2003

Applied Wave Research, Inc. (AWR(TM)) a leading provider of high-frequency electronic design automation (EDA) tools, today announced Visual System Simulator(TM) 2003 (VSS2003) communications systems design suite.

The enhanced software offers new capabilities and global system for mobile communication (GSM), enhanced data rates for global evolution (EDGE), and 802.11 analysis libraries. This next version of AWR's award-winning, comprehensive VSS solution helps system engineers to perform top-down analysis of analog and digital communications systems and goes well beyond existing solutions in terms of accurately characterizing radio frequency (RF) impairments.

"AWR's mission is to become the leading provider of high-frequency electronic design automation tools that dramatically accelerate time-to-market and reduce product development costs for our customers," said James Spoto, president and CEO of Applied Wave Research. "This new release of our revolutionary design platform expands the capabilities of VSS software for the RF/analog designer and brings us a step closer to that goal."

Visual System Simulator 2003 Design Suite

The VSS2003 design suite is an interactive solution for modeling, analyzing, and optimizing analog and digital communication systems. The software boasts an intuitive, easy-to-use, Windows interface and a powerful, fast, system simulation engine that enables users to quickly build graphical block diagrams and analyze their performance using sophisticated built-in measurements and powerful signal generators that support virtually any modulation scheme.

The product offers seamless integration with AWR's recently-released TestWave(TM) 2003 software, enabling engineers to perform analysis at the system level, where hardware measurements are incorporated through bi-directional links to popular test and measurement equipment.

VSS2003 offers optional, new application-specific libraries that support 3G, IS95, GSM, EDGE, 802.11, and other emerging standards. Also included in the software is a vastly expanded library of core elements and mathematical primitives that can be used to build an accurate representation of the most complex communications systems. The library includes improved encoders/decoders (including Viterbi, Reed-Solomon, convolutional and others), modulators/demodulators, and filters.

New models have been added to this latest release that support: sweeping any designated parameter, creating a radio frequency (RF) signal directly from a complex envelope, creating bursts of data from any transmitted source, and resampling data to any given rate. The combination of these and other models address the needs of system engineers and RF analog engineers who may prefer to monitor the RF modulated signal as opposed to the complex envelope.

The enhanced RF behavioral models in VSS2003 provide advantages for RF/analog engineers who typically use multiple tones to analyze the non-linearities of an RF link. The new VSS2003 behavioral amplifier and mixer models enable engineers to monitor and predict the harmonics and intermodulation products in the out-of-band regions as well as near the carrier frequency. The new models also allow definition of input (S11) and output (S22) reflection coefficients for both magnitude and phase.

While traditional system simulators by definition assume ideally matched interconnection between models, VSS2003 models that are directly related to Microwave Office(TM) circuits can now take impedance mismatches at their nodes into account. This patent pending capability is a result of AWR proprietary research and development efforts, and enables designers to monitor resulting spurs and account for impedance mismatch of the entire RF/link. Inclusion of these "VSWR effects" is important for accurate analysis of RF/analog sub-systems.

Along with new models, key new capabilities have also been added. Bit error rate (BER) and error vector magnitude (EVM) measurements have been enhanced, enabling engineers to accurately analyze system performance and modulation accuracy. In addition, designers can now define spectrum and network analyzer measurements using familiar settings such as resolution bandwidth and video bandwidth. This enables the RF/analog engineer to make measurements in a simulation environment with the same familiarity and ease as when using actual laboratory equipment.

The parameter settings for existing VSS filters have been improved, making it one step easier for engineers to implement filters in their designs. Existing VSS feature strengths such as forward and backward propagation of parameters, multi-rate, "intelligent" receiver, and automatic alignment of data prior to BER simulations continue to be time-savers and formidable strategic advantages for any design team.

Price and Availability

Fully functioning evaluation software is available for download over the Internet at www.appwave.com/freetrial/index.html. AWR will release the VSS2003 design suite to customers in Q2 2003. The product supports Windows 2000, NT, and XP platforms. U.S. list prices for perpetual licenses range from $15,000 - $33,000 depending upon the simulation capabilities. VSS2003 software will be a no-cost upgrade for existing VSS2002 customers with valid maintenance agreements. For more information on product pricing and availability call 310/726-3000. For product pricing and availability outside the U.S. please contact AWR or AWR's local sales representative.

About Applied Wave Research, Inc.

Applied Wave Research was founded in 1994 and is a leading supplier of high-frequency electronic design automation (EDA) products for the design of wireless telecommunications equipment, semiconductors, high-speed computers, networking systems, and a variety of other electronics-based products. AWR is a privately held company and has development offices, sales offices, training centers, and distributors worldwide. AWR has over 400 customer companies, including virtually every major high-frequency electronic component and system supplier. The company is located at 1960 East Grand Avenue, Suite 430, El Segundo, California 90245. For more information about AWR and its products, please visit www.mwoffice.com or call 310/726-3000.

AWR, the AWR logo, Visual System Simulator, Microwave Office, and TestWave are trademarks of Applied Wave Research, Inc. All other marks are the property of their respective holders.