Anagram's ADM Selected by Rambus as Simulation Standard; ADM Speeds the Design Process for Rambus-based Components.

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 4, 1995--Anagram, Inc. today announced that Rambus Inc. has chosen Anagram's ADM as its simulator of choice for large circuit simulations.

Additionally, Rambus is actively recommending ADM, the advanced transistor-level, circuit simulator with more than 10X-speed improvement over SPICE, to its semiconductor partners as the best simulator for rapidly designing and verifying the Rambus interface circuitry within their component products.

Rambus offers a high speed, 533Mhz interface that is incorporated on DRAMs, controllers and processors to achieve data transfer rates 10X faster than conventional memory systems. The Rambus interface, containing over ten thousand transistors, uses sophisticated mixed digital-analog circuits that include high-speed data samplers and delay-locked loops.

"We selected ADM because it offers a 10X speed improvement and higher over SPICE," said Allen Roberts, vice president of engineering at Rambus Inc. "With ADM, we can simulate an entire design with accuracy similar to SPICE, but with speed closer to a switch-level simulator. Our design team was able to move much faster because we didn't have to break up the interface into small circuit blocks before simulating. Our semiconductor partners face these same issues and readily appreciated the accelerated design process that ADM allows. ADM's capacity, throughput and accuracy won us over."

Before adopting ADM, Rambus simulated designs in small circuit blocks to achieve shorter run times. Also, to validate its entire interface, Rambus previously needed a switch-level simulator (IRSIM) to verify digital circuit functionality and a separate SPICE simulation to check analog functionality. A simulation of the interface, using SPICE only, would have required days of run time on a mainframe computer which was unacceptable.

ADM allows much larger blocks with more complex stimulus to run with efficient run times. Additionally, ADM's speed makes a single simulation of the integrated interface possible and enabled Rambus to avoid mistakes that could be caused by using two differing simulators. Furthermore, simulations that previously required hours to run were completed in minutes.

Ed Cheng, president of Anagram, commented, "Rambus technology requires the leading edge in simulation technology: high accuracy, as available in SPICE, and the ability to simulate large circuit blocks comprised of thousands of transistors. We are pleased that we could work with this company to meet its and its customers requirements. Rambus semiconductor partners include many of the world's largest memory and computer components manufacturers. There is great synergy and account overlap between Anagram and Rambus and our relationship is very synergistic in addressing these multiple market segments."

Rambus technology has been broadly licensed to leading DRAM, ASIC and PC peripheral chip set suppliers. NEC Corporation, Toshiba Corporation, Samsung Electronics Corporation, Hitachi Ltd., LG Semicon Co. Ltd., and Oki Electric Industry Co. Ltd., are providing Rambus DRAMs. Rambus-based integrated circuit programs are underway for a wide range of system applications such as PC graphics, 3-D workstations, PC main memory, 3-D video games, TV settop cable boxes and ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) communications. Rambus Inc. is located at 2465 Latham Street, Mountain View, Calif., 94040, phone, 415/965-3800, fax [phone].

Anagram delivers high-accuracy, high-capacity timing and power simulation software tools for deep-submicron IC design. ADM, Anagram's first product offering, is being used by many of the world's innovators in submicron design including: AMD, Altera, Cirrus Logic, Etron, Fujitsu, Micron Technology, Mitsubishi, NEC, OPTi, Pericom, Quality Semiconductor, Rambus, S3, Silicon Graphics, Sun Microsystems, TSMC, Toshiba, Trident Microsystems, UMC, Vanguard International and Winbond. Anagram, Inc. is located at 395 W. El Camino Real, Sunnyvale, Calif., 94087, phone [phone], fax [phone]. -0-

Note to Editors: ADM is a trademark of Anagram Inc. Rambus is a trademark of Rambus Inc.

All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

CONTACT: Anagram, Inc.

Ed Cheng, 408/720-7408

or

Rambus, Inc.

Julie Cates, 415/903-3800

or

KJ Communications, Inc.-PR counsel for Anagram

Eileen Elam Cross, 415/917-1488 REPEATS: New York 212-575-8822 or 800-221-2462; Boston 617-236-4266 or