Cadence Selected to Sponsor New Design Academy in Korea; The Korea IT Industry Promotion Agency's Academy and Support Center Feature Cadence New Generation Design Technology.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SEOUL, Korea--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 25, 2004

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NYSE:CDN) today announced that it will sponsor and collaborate with the Korea IT Industry Promotion Agency (KIPA) IT-SoC Academy and IT-SoC Support Center by providing specialized training and new generation design technology to its SoC architects. Approximately 300 international guests, including top government officials, industry executives, and professors attended the opening ceremony of the academy.

KIPA was created by the Korean Ministry of Information and Communication to ensure the effective implementation of an initiative to stimulate growth in the Korean IT industry. The organization will license Cadence electronic design automation (EDA) software for its academy and support center. Cadence will also supply training that will enable KIPA to provide instruction to many small- and medium-sized incubator companies. Cadence Korea will begin this technical training in a KIPA training facility in April 2004. The KIPA IT-SoC Academy expects to train about 750 students per year.

"We are honored to support KIPA's efforts to develop the world-class SoC design talent that is needed to enable Korea to compete in the global semiconductor market," said Ray Bingham, president and chief executive officer of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. "Our unique combination of design expertise, technology, and open collaboration will be key to helping Korea build this SoC design capability."

"To succeed on our mission to quickly position Korea as a world-class SoC design leader and thereby sustain our international competitiveness, we must deploy the best technology. With Cadence, the world leader in EDA technology, as our sponsor we are confident that we can achieve this goal," said Kong Jin-Hyeung, vice president of the IT-SoC promotion group.

The IT-SoC Academy offers SoC certification courses at the graduate and doctorate levels. In addition, the academy offers hands-on training, targeted to retrain personnel in related areas. It runs both long and short term courses, ranging from basic theory to in-depth training.

Targeted to nurture small- to medium-sized incubator companies, the IT-SoC Support Center provides an EDA environment that includes SoC design tools and support, an IP-based SoC design environment, a test environment for mockup hardware, and SoC chip test facilities. Cadence experts will provide training in the latest SoC design technologies to the representatives from industry and academia who are involved in the support center activities.

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 4,800 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 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.

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