Avici Adopts Ultima's Clock Tree Synthesis Solution; Ultima's Useful-Skew Clock Synthesis Solution Helps Bring Timing Closure For Avici's High-speed Optical Network Products.

Business Editors

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 3, 2000

Ultima Interconnect Technology, Inc. (Ultima), an electronic design automation (EDA) technology and tool developer, today announced that Avici Systems, Inc. (North Billerica, MA) has adopted Ultima's clock tree synthesis solution, Ultima ClockWise(tm), in designing Avici's high-speed optical network products.

After extensive testing on production designs, Avici selected Ultima ClockWise based on its unique capability of performing useful-skew clock tree synthesis.

Instead of simply minimizing skew, ClockWise intelligently interprets the relationship between clock and data-paths and makes clock skew a useful tool to improve the timing of a chip. In one time-to-market critical design, Ultima ClockWise was able to help Avici designers produce significant safety margins and eliminate negative slacks on critical paths. As a result, Avici has adopted Ultima ClockWise in its design flow for all ASICs used in its optical network products.

"We found Ultima's ClockWise to be very effective in our timing-critical designs," noted Dr. Larry Dennison, Director of VLSI Development at Avici. "The useful skew technique has long been recognized by designers as the best way to push their circuits. We were delighted to find Ultima innovating industry's first useful-skew clock synthesis tool. The useful-skew methodology is now a critical part of our design flow."

"We are very pleased to have Ultima's ClockWise validated by one of the world's leading network product designers," said Wayne Dai, Ultima's founder and Board chairman. "Avici's adoption of ClockWise clearly demonstrates the power of useful-skew methodology. With ClockWise, designers are now able to rapidly improve timing without having to replace the entire place & route tool suite. We are looking forward to more customers adopting ClockWise in their efforts to achieve timing closure."

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 -- try to balance clock insertion delays and achieve zero 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. The 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 Ultima

Ultima Interconnect Technology is a technology leader in interconnect solutions. The company's tools and technologies address the tough challenge 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 brought by fabrication technologies.

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

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, USA, 1-408-734-0600, Fax: [phone], [e-mail], www.ultimatech.com.

Contacts for Reader Inquiries: Kathy Palus, [e-mail]

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

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.