Cadence Adds Linux Support to Industry-leading Logic Verification Tool Suite.

Business Editors/High Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 17, 2000

High-performance Verilog and VHDL Tools Now Available on the

Popular Emerging Operating System for PCs

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NYSE:CDN), the world's leading supplier of electronic design products and services, today announced that it will offer its market-leading verification software tools on Linux-based platforms. The support will include the complete line of Cadence(R) logic simulators including NC-Sim for mixed-language simulations, the NC-VHDL and NC-Verilog(R) simulators, as well as the Verilog-XL simulator and Verifault-XL(R) fault simulator. The tools' graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and analysis environments will also run on the latest versions of the popular emerging operating system.

The announcement marks a dramatic extension of support for Cadence's simulation technology on the X86 platform. A growing number of technical applications are being ported to Linux due to its increasing popularity with users who want a robust operating environment available on low-cost desktop machines such as those built around the Intel microprocessor architecture.

"By offering support of our verification tools on Linux on X86 architecture machines, design teams can now leverage relatively inexpensive, high-powered platforms that are often in abundance inside companies," said Rahul Razdan, vice president of Verification R&D and Marketing at Cadence. "If you are used to UNIX, Linux lets you keep what you like about UNIX, but allows you to use an X86 platform. For Cadence, Linux offers a very efficient and cost-effective way to extend our technology in the PC market without any compromises in quality, reliability, or our market-leading performance delivered through the unique native compiled (NC) code approach supported by Cadence's simulators."

"We are pleased that Cadence is now offering its simulation tools for the Linux environment. We believe this will be an important trend in technical software as it makes critical technology such as Cadence's logic verification tool suite available to more users at a lower cost," said Rich Witek, chief technology officer of Alchemy Semiconductor.

Price and Availability

The verification tool suite is available for the Linux operating systems with the quarter two 2000 release. U.S. price starts at $5000 for the simulation environment. For further information on pricing, please contact the local Cadence sales office.

About Cadence

Cadence is the largest supplier of software products, methodology services, and design services used to accelerate and manage the design of semiconductors, computer systems, networking and telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics, and a variety of other electronics-based products. With approximately 5,000 employees and 1999 annual revenue of $1.1 billion, Cadence has sales offices, design centers, and research facilities around the world. The Company is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., and traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CDN. More information about the company, its products and services may be obtained from the World Wide Web at http://www.cadence.com.

Except for historical information, the matters discussed in this release contain forward-looking statements based on current expectations or beliefs and are subject to factors and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. For a detailed discussion of these and other cautionary statements, please refer to Cadence's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These include the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 1, 2000.

Cadence and the Cadence logo, NC-Verilog, and Verifault-XL are registered trademarks of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. All others are properties of their holders.