Cadence Joins the FlexRay Consortium; Cadence to Serve as Tool Development Member for Organization Developing Advanced Automotive Communication Protocol.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 3, 2003

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NYSE:CDN) today announced it has joined the FlexRay Consortium as a tool development member. The FlexRay Consortium is an organization formed in September 2000 to drive the adoption of an open standard for high-speed bus systems for distributed control applications in automobiles, such as x-by-wire.

"We are proud to join the growing list of semiconductor and automotive manufacturing heavyweights that support the FlexRay initiative," said Guillaume d'Eyssautier, Cadence vice president and general manager for Europe. "We believe our participation in the initiative can provide benefits to the other members by bringing our experience in system-level modeling of automotive communication protocols, as well as our advanced design methodologies and tools for distributed automotive network systems."

In collaboration with leading-edge European automotive companies, Cadence has been adapting and extending existing components of its system-level design technologies for automotive-specific uses, creating an innovative distributed model-based design environment for car electronic architectures. The environment extends the classical approach -- targeting a single electronic control unit (ECU) at a time, from specification to software implementation -- to a flow where the entire system, constituted by a network of ECUs, is modeled and validated by running simulations on a host workstation.

As part of its contribution to the FlexRay Consortium, Cadence plans to develop a system-level FlexRay IP simulation model for the analysis, exploration and validation of advanced architectures featuring the FlexRay protocol. Simulation-based fault injection and error generation mechanisms included in the FlexRay IP simulation model, coupled with fault analysis capabilities provided by the Cadence tool, will enable automotive architects and integrators to conduct an early assessment to help determine whether the distributed control application is likely to be safe in the presence of faults. This early assessment can help reduce the cost of expensive tests in labs or test tracks.

About Cadence

Cadence is the largest supplier of electronic design technologies, methodology services, and design services. Cadence solutions are 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 5,300 employees and 2002 revenues of approximately $1.3 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 is available at www.cadence.com.

Note to Editors: Cadence and the Cadence logo are registered trademarks of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.