Cadence and Valor Forge Tighter Relationship to Offer Leading-Edge Manufacturing Simulation Solutions.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ocatinum member in the Cadence Connections(SM) th) complete cross-access to software for developmations; and 3) joint marketing and sales support.

"This strengthened alliance with Valor further confirms the Cadence commitment to partnering with best-in-class suppliers as a means of offering our customers the best solution available," said Dave DeMaria, vice president and general manager of the Performance Engineering business unit at Cadence.

"Valor's Enterprise 3000 system enables PCB designers who use our family of Allegro(R) products to do highly detailed fabrication and assembly checks throughout the design cycle to eliminate problems early. This helps our customers reduce iteration cycles and assure manufacturability, all but eliminating returns from manufacturing. This translates into significant cost savings."

"Adoption of our Enterprise 3000 system in the EDA market is rapidly gaining momentum," said Leigh Eichel, vice president of sales and marketing at Valor. "Valor products are already used by most leading printed circuit board manufacturers and the Valor ODB++ has become a de facto standard worldwide.

"Partnering with an industry leader like Cadence and its renowned PCB product line provides access to our technology to a greater number of designers. The Cadence/Valor combination achieves one-pass product design. Several leading Cadence customers already use Cadence and Valor solutions, and have been very happy with the results."

Integrated Board-Level Layout Flow

Performing detailed assembly checks early in the design cycle is crucial in helping PCB designers detect and eliminate problems that are much more costly to correct at later stages in the process. By teaming up, Cadence and Valor automate many of the checks currently being done manually by designers. Enterprise 3000 is used to verify that the physical layout of the printed circuit board adheres to pre-defined manufacturing rules.

It performs more than 70 assembly checks and more than 120 fabrication checks on the design. These checks supplement Allegro's existing design rule checks so thoroughly that manufacturability problems are eliminated and board returns from manufacturing are reduced to nearly zero.

Enterprise 3000 interfaces directly with the Allegro database, capturing all manufacturing data, and making it accessible through Allegro. When a manufacturability problem is identified by Enterprise 3000, the designer can use the Allegro window to immediately focus on the trouble spot, and quickly eliminate the problem.

Future developments include tighter integration between the complete family of the Cadence Allegro family of products and the Valor Enterprise 3000 CAM solutions.

About Valor

Valor Computerized Systems Ltd. is a world leader in the development of software products intended to provide a complete integrated solution to the design, assembly and fabrication of high-technology circuit boards. Valor's installed base includes leading OEM and PCB assembly facilities located throughout the world.

For more information, contact the company at 714/586-5969 or visit the Valor website at http://www.Valor.com.

About Cadence

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. provides comprehensive services and software for the product development requirements of the world's leading electronics companies. 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 electronic-based products.

With more than 4,400 employees and 1997 annual sales of $916 million, 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.

Note to Editors: Cadence and Allegro are registered trademarks, and the Cadence logo is a trademark of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. All others are properties of their holders.