CELESTRY DESIGN TOOLS QUALIFY FOR TSMC 0.13-MICRON PROCESS.

Celestry Design Technologies, Inc., San Jose, Calif., a provider of Silicon Accurate Sign-off(TM) technology for the semiconductor and electronics industry, has announced qualification of three of its design tools for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) 0.13-micron process. The qualified tools include the RelPro+(TM) and RelXpert(TM) products for Hot Carrier Injection (HCI) effects, and the AnalogXpert(TM) product for device mismatch simulation analysis for TSMC's analog/mixed-signal (AMS) process technologies.

At the 0.13-micron node, new physical effects result from the use of copper, more metal layers, thinner gate insulators, smaller device geometries and the effects of functional integration within the die. Designers who want to push higher performance while maintaining high yields must deal with these factors through physical analysis tools, such as those available from Celestry.

"The qualification of Celestry's physical analysis design tools is a key step in providing designers with the capabilities they need for fast time-to-volume," said Genda Hu, vice president of marketing at TSMC. "With optimized technology files, designers can reduce their design time, facilitate better chip performance through careful calibration and validation, and increase the likelihood of first silicon successes."

"We are pleased that TSMC continues to recognize our commitment to deliver industry-leading nanometer SoC design tools and our unique hands-on silicon experience that allows our customers to maximize their use of the latest IC processes with our Silicon-Accurate Sign-off solutions," remarked Dr. Zhihong Liu, president and CEO of Celestry.

About Celestry's RelPro+ and RelXpert for Hot Carrier Injection Analysis

Celestry's RelPro+(TM) and RelXpert(TM) products respectively address how a design team can model HCI effects and simulate them. HCI degradation arises from aggressive design at small device geometries, most notably at the high critical field point. In the past, designers had no means of locating the problem areas and suffered performance losses by using larger design guardbands. For more details, refer to http://www.celestry.com/reliability.

About Celestry's AnalogXpert

AnalogXpert is a simulation product that provides fast and precise analysis of device mismatches and their impact on analog and mixed-signal circuits. By integrating AnalogXpert into their analog/mixed signal design flow, designers can develop higher performance products with greater accuracy and shorter time to market.

About TSMC

TSMC is the world's largest dedicated semiconductor foundry, providing the industry's leading process technology and the foundry industry's largest portfolio of process-proven library, IP, design tools and reference flows. The company has one advanced 300mm wafer fab in production and one under construction, in addition to seven eight-inch fabs and two six-inch wafer fabs. TSMC also has substantial capacity commitments at two joint ventures fabs (Vanguard and SSMC) and at its wholly-owned subsidiary, WaferTech. In early 2001, TSMC became the first IC manufacturer to announce a 0.10-micron technology alignment program with its customers. TSMC's corporate headquarters are in Hsin-Chu, Taiwan. For more information about TSMC go to http://www.tsmc.com.

About Celestry

Celestry is a leading provider of physical design products that enable integrated circuit designers to achieve optimal performance from semiconductor process technologies. The company offers software and services to electronic and semiconductor companies involved with the design of chips that are used in networking, communication, multimedia and computing products.

For more information visit www.celestry.com or call 650/345-7477.