Cadence and IBM Strengthen Relationship With New Agreement.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 24, 1999--Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NYSE:CDN) announced today it signed a three-year agreement with IBM, extending and broadening the companies' long-term global relationship.

Under the agreement, Cadence is providing electronic design automation (EDA) software to IBM, which the company uses along with its own EDA software to design and manufacture the world's most advanced semiconductors and circuitry. The agreement encompasses the broad spectrum of Cadence technology offerings and will assist IBM in a wide range of applications, from integrated circuit (IC) design to printed circuit board (PCB) implementation. The two companies are tuning key Cadence applications to take advantage of the memory and bandwidth capabilities of IBM's new 64-bit 43P Model 260.

Cadence is a leading supplier of AIX-based applications to the EDA industry. This agreement renews the Cadence commitment to the IBM RS/6000 platform and IBM's UNIX operating system, called AIX. Cadence will support AIX with all of its products in the deep submicron, custom IC, and PCB design areas, as well as its family of Verilog(R)-XL simulator products.

"Cadence applications will fully exploit industry-leading POWER3 microprocessor technology that we believe will make RS/6000 the most attractive EDA platform available," said Lou Bifano, vice president, RS/6000 Solutions. "Our relationship with Cadence will help IBM expand its technical-markets workstation business beyond its traditional stronghold in mechanical CAD. In addition, our agreement provides IBM's own hardware business with access to Cadence's newest products."

"IBM's continued worldwide support of Cadence technology is a tremendous vote of confidence, especially as this agreement involves several new technologies," said Shane Robison, executive vice president of Research & Development and software product marketing at Cadence. "We are extremely pleased to provide IBM with products that help support their leading-edge designs."

About IBM

IBM has a unique combination of process technology leadership, system level experience and custom logic expertise that has improved the way chips are designed, helping manufacturers meet consumer and business demands for smaller, faster, lower-power electronic products. The company has led the industry in the introduction of new materials for chip making, including copper, silicon-on-insulator and silicon germanium -- complementary breakthroughs that improve the efficiencies of chip function. For more information about these and other semiconductor products from IBM, visit the IBM Microelectronics Web site at www.chips.ibm.com. For more information on IBM workstations see www.ibm.com/products/workstation.html.

About Cadence

Cadence is the largest supplier of software products, consulting 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 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, its products and services may be obtained from the World Wide Web at http://www.cadence.com.

IBM, AIX and RS/6000 are registered trademarks of the International Business Machines Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and/or other countries licensed exclusively through X/Open Company Limited. Other company, product and service names, may be trademarks or service marks of others.

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