Cadence First Encounter Global Physical Synthesis Wins IEC DesignVision Award.

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NYSE:CDN) (Nasdaq:CDN) today announced that its Cadence(R) First Encounter(R) Global Physical Synthesis (GPS) technology has won the International Engineering Consortium (IEC) DesignVision award for ASIC and IC Implementation at DesignCon 2005. First Encounter GPS integrates silicon virtual prototyping and second-generation global physical synthesis technology into a single environment optimized for very large-scale system-on-chip design.

Building on the Cadence Encounter digital IC design platform's recognized leadership in the market, First Encounter GPS leverages Encounter RTL Compiler's global-focused synthesis methods to close timing quickly even on very large circuit blocks. This in turn supports the rapid design and assembly of densely integrated ICs common in high end graphics, networking and processor applications. First Encounter GPS supports RTL-to-placed gates and netlist-to-placed gates design flows.

"We are very proud that the International Engineering Consortium selected us," said Wei-Jin Dai, platform vice president, digital IC implementation at Cadence. "This is further validation that First Encounter GPS's physical synthesis is living up to the reputation it began building last year. The growing number of high end tapeouts and now this award reflect our commitment to helping Cadence customers put very complex and differentiated electronics into silicon, ahead of their competitors."

With over 100 90-nanometer designs either taped out or underway, and multiple 65-nanometer projects in progress, First Encounter GPS provides a production-proven path to high end silicon.

About Cadence

Cadence is the world's largest supplier of electronic design technologies and engineering services. Cadence products and services are used to accelerate and manage the design of semiconductors, computer systems, networking equipment, telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics, and other electronics based products. With approximately 4,850 employees and 2003 revenues of approximately $1.1 billion, Cadence has sales offices, design centers, and research facilities around the world. The company is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., and trades on both the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq under the symbol CDN. More information is available at www.cadence.com.

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