Canon Adopts Axis Systems' Design Team Emulation for Multimedia Application Designs.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 24, 2003

Axis Systems, Inc. today announced that SOC Design Center of Canon Inc. has acquired an Xtreme(R)-II emulation system to verify SoC designs used in next generation copiers, digital cameras and printers. The Xtreme-II will be used in the SOC Design Center at Canon's Platform Technology Development headquarters in Japan.

Canon selected the Axis technology, after a significant evaluation of competing products, on the basis of the system's ease of use, debugging capabilities and single database operation that allows multiple engineers in the design team to access and use the system. The Canon design team will use the Xtreme-II system for simulation acceleration and targetless emulation on multiple levels of abstraction, including gates, RTL, and behavioral. The team also plans to take advantage of the system's ability to verify software early in the design cycle.

"After evaluating Axis' technology, we expect to see dramatic reductions in design time as all of our designers start to use the Xtreme-II system with its small form factor, ease of use, and HW/SW co-verification capability," said Yasuhiro Tani, general manager of SOC Design Center in the Platform Technology Development Headquarters of Canon Inc.

"Canon's decision stands as a significant endorsement of Axis products for Design Team Emulation," said Veronica Watson, vice president of worldwide sales for Axis Systems. "Canon's leading system, hardware, software and verification designers can now all experience firsthand the power of emulation."

Utilizing event-based parallel processing to map all levels of design abstraction, the patented RCC (ReConfigurable Computing) architecture uniquely enables Axis to be the technology and market leader in Design Team Emulation. Product characteristics of Design Team Emulation include small form factor, ease of use, advanced debugging tools, the ability to bind multiple levels of design abstraction (behavioral, RTL, gates, and hardware components) and the ability to perform HW/SW co-verification.

About Canon Inc.

Canon Inc. (NYSE:CAJ), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leader in the field of professional and consumer imaging equipment and information systems. Canon's extensive range of products includes copiers, Bubble Jet and laser printers, cameras, video equipment, medical equipment and semiconductor-manufacturing equipment. Originally established in 1937 as Precision Optical Industry, Co., Ltd., a camera manufacturer, Canon has successfully diversified and globalized into an industry leader in professional and consumer imaging systems and solutions. The company has manufacturing and marketing subsidiaries in Japan, the Americas, Europe, Asia and Oceania, and a global R&D network with companies based in the United States, Europe, Asia and Australia. Visit the company web site at http://www.canon.com/index.html (English) and http://canon.jp/top.html (Japanese).

About Axis Systems, Inc.

Axis Systems, Inc., offers high-performance verification systems for the hardware and software development of complex electronic system and system-on-a-chip designs. Axis' products help increase confidence in new designs, improve overall verification productivity and shorten time to market. On a single system and with one design database, Axis' patented ReConfigurable Computing (RCC) technology provides software simulation, accelerated simulation, system emulation and hardware/software co-verification. Customers include the world's leading graphics, networking, multimedia, and processor companies. Axis is headquartered at 209 E. Java Drive, Sunnyvale, CA 94089. To learn more about Axis, visit www.AxisSystems.com.

Xtreme, Xcite and Xsim are registered trademarks and XoC, Xpert and Xchange are trademarks of Axis Systems, Inc.