Cadence Taps OrCAD Technology to Create Web-based Engineering Environment For PCB Design; Powerful Solution Also Draws on Synchronicity Technology for Design Management.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 13, 1999--

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NYSE:CDN), the world's leading provider of electronic design products and services, today announced a printed-circuit board (PCB) design environment targeted at enabling customers to exploit the productivity of the Internet.

Called Cadence(R) Internet Engineer, the design environment - announced this week at the annual International Cadence User Group meeting in Orlando, Fla. - combines Cadence-developed products and services with part-management technology acquired from OrCAD, Inc., and data-management technology provided by Synchronicity, Inc. The result is a comprehensive Internet-enabled solution for component information retrieval and management, design management, multi-site design-team coordination, and PCB intellectual property (IP) reuse.

Cadence Internet Engineer taps the power of the World Wide Web to provide immediate access to a wide range of vital design data and enhance communications among geographically dispersed design teams. Cadence methodology services provide the expertise to help customers seamlessly integrate these capabilities into their existing environment.

"With the rapid evolution of electronics technology, designers must have access to the latest design information so they can make informed design decisions and eliminate iterations. Availability of mission-critical data over the Internet will allow design teams to more rapidly define and develop new products, helping them meet narrow market windows and increase profit margins," said Randy Hartgrove, senior marketing manager, Cadence PCB Systems Division.

Component Information Management

To reduce the time designers spend researching, manually entering, and managing part data, technology from OrCAD - including OrCAD Component Information System (CIS(TM)) and activeparts.com - has been coupled with technology from Cadence - including an Internet-based part browser. This will allow users to quickly access, over the Internet, component information from corporate enterprise resource planning (ERP) and manufacturing resource planning (MRP) databases.

According to Jim Plymale, vice president of Internet business, Cadence PCB Systems Division, "Activeparts.com will connect engineers to a growing, Internet-based catalog of over 500,000 commonly used components from more than 500 manufacturers. Users can pull component information from enterprise databases over the Internet into the design engineering environment, maintaining links between the design documents and source information to ensure accurate, timely transfer of information among engineering, purchasing, and suppliers."

Team Design Management and PCB Design Reuse

Multi-site design-team coordination is enabled through the Cadence Project Manager, an HTML-based project and tool management system that facilitates collaboration among members of geographically dispersed design teams. Project Manager can also be customized to reflect the users' established design process.

DesignSync(R) from Synchronicity is a web-based design-management system that controls access to critical design data for engineering teams. The inclusion of DesignSync, via an existing technology alliance and joint marketing agreement between Cadence and Synchronicity (a member of the Cadence Alanza(SM) Group Connections(R) program), enables design management support for the Cadence Internet Engineer.

Mark Miller, vice president of marketing for Synchronicity, noted, "Enterprise database management is a rapidly growing area of PCB design, and the Cadence Internet Engineer allows companies to integrate this capability using a variety of state-of-the-art technologies. We are pleased to be working with Cadence to ensure that our DesignSync product provides a solid, web-based foundation for data management and multi-site team collaboration in this exciting, new environment."

PCB IP design reuse capabilities already existing in the Cadence PCB design tools have been extended by DesignSync's web-based design management capabilities to facilitate creation and sharing of PCB IP across an engineering organization - whether around the corner or around the world.

Pricing and Availability

The Cadence Internet Engineer is immediately available in North America for use on Windows NT and Unix-based workstations. Configuration varies, depending upon a company's specific objectives, from web-based parts management to a complete multi-site team design environment. Configurations are modular, and capabilities can be added as required. A basic configuration starts at $40,000 U.S. list.

About Cadence

Cadence is the largest supplier of electronic design automation 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. The Cadence PCB Systems Division, the worldwide PCB EDA market leader, addresses the entire range of design needs in the PCB market, with complete tool suites available on Windows, Windows NT, and Unix platforms.

With more than 4,000 employees and 1998 annual sales of $1.2 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 and its products and services may be obtained from the World Wide Web at http://www.cadence.com.

Cadence, the Cadence logo, and Connections are registered trademarks, and Alanza is a service mark of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. OrCAD and OrCAD Capture are registered trademarks, and CIS is a trademark of OrCAD, Inc. All OrCAD trademarks become property of Cadence as of January 1, 2000. DesignSync is a registered trademark of Synchronicity, Inc. All others are properties of their holders.