Celoxica Unveils DK1 And Launches DK1 Eval To European Customers At DATE 2001; Company Announces Shipment of the World's First Design Suite for Effective C-to-Hardware Synthesis.

Business/High-Tech Editors

MUNICH, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 13, 2001

Stand F39, DATE 2001, ICM Munich

Celoxica Limited today unveiled the DK1 design suite to European customers and launched a free evaluation version, DK1 Eval.

DK1 is the first commercial design environment that lets software engineers migrate C-language designs directly to hardware based on field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) without the need for intervening hardware-description languages (HDLs). Launched on 29 January 2001, DK1 began shipping in March.

"We are making good progress in Europe," said Jon Treanor, president & CEO of Celoxica. "Our management team has strengthened significantly in this region over the last few months and we are now signing customers. DK1 is the result of more than 70 man-years development. It has been tested in Beta trials by 40 commercial partners and teams at 30 leading universities. The investment has resulted in a first class product that delivers real value shipping to customers on time."

Celoxica launches DK1 EVAL

Celoxica DK1 Eval is a free evaluation version of the Celoxica DK1 design suite that is restricted to compilations for simulation only, with no EDIF or VHDL output capability. With this evaluation version of the design suite engineers can build functional, accurate modules of designs without real hardware. This powerful version of the design suite is available, free of charge from the Celoxica website (www.celoxica.com). System requirements and full details are posted on the site.

Marconi plc. was one of the first companies to take advantage of the DK1 design suite. It has recently signed a 10-seat licensing and partnership agreement with Celoxica.

"Electronics manufacturers are increasingly using FPGAs in the design process, supplementing the use of ASICs," said Jack Fryer, technology and strategy director at Marconi plc. "We see the combination of DK1 with FPGA technology as a powerful design solution which we will exploit in forthcoming development projects. Over the next few months Marconi will be undertaking major new projects using the DK1 design suite across all areas of the group including mobile telecommunications, access technologies, optical networking, and broadband communications including ATM and IP switching."

"DK1 brings significant benefits to the hardware design process. Because it targets FPGAs with a high level C language without an intermediate HDL step we can as much as halve the length of a typical design cycle," said Stuart Barratt, senior technology consultant, Marconi plc.

Barratt continued, "The Handel-C programming language at the heart of DK1 shares ISO/ANSI C syntax so it is possible to make trade-offs between the hardware and software elements of a design at a much later stage in the process. Handel-C is simple to manage and maintain so designs are easier to optimise. We have found that in some cases this can lead to the generation of designs that are both faster and smaller than those developed in VHDL. In a benchmark we conducted the DK1 design was completed in 24 days and the VHDL design in 43 days. The DK1 design was written in fewer lines of code, clocked faster and was roughly 40 per cent smaller than the VHDL design."

Celoxica and Marconi struck a technology agreement in early 2000 to carry out a joint evaluation project, this allowed Marconi to use development versions of the DK1 design suite to conduct rapid hardware prototyping and embedded system reconfiguration. Projects to date have included building and testing a concept IP phone.

About Celoxica

Celoxica provides software products, development boards, IP cores and design services that enable software engineers to rapidly design application logic for FPGAs and programmable logic devices. Celoxica's system-level approach leverages the world's first integrated development environment for true 'C' to hardware synthesis, supported by a range of development boards for rapid prototyping. By creating and leading the world of reconfigurable electronics, Celoxica is enabling customers to overcome costly development cycles and exploit ongoing revenue opportunities through hardware upgrade programs via the Internet.

Celoxica has alliances and partnerships with Ericsson Radio Systems AB, Infineon Technologies AG, Marconi plc, Matra Bae Dynamics France, Wind River Systems Inc. and Xilinx, Inc. The company employs over 100 people and is headquartered in Abingdon, UK, with additional offices in London, UK; Campbell and Scotts Valley, California, USA; Yokahama, Japan; and Singapore.

For more information about Celoxica, visit www.celoxica.com.

Celoxica and the Celoxica logo are the trademarks of Celoxica Limited. Any other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.