Faraday Uses Magma's Blast Fusion to Implement Design in UMC's Deep-Submicron Technology; Faraday and Magma Form Long-Term Partnership Following Successful Pilot Project.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

CUPERTINO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 9, 2002

Magma Design Automation, Inc., (Nasdaq:LAVA), a provider of chip design solutions, announced today that Faraday Technology Corporation of Taiwan (Taiwan OTC: 5404) has successfully used the Blast Fusion(TM) physical design system to implement a deep-submicron design. This pilot project combined the crucial elements of a fast system-on-chip (SoC) design flow: the expertise of Faraday designers and Magma's integrated physical design system.

This design of 150K random logic gates, several embedded hard macros and a speed of 100 MHz was implemented in UMC's 0.25-micron technology (FS90A_B .25). This design was selected mainly because it was highly timing critical with challenging multiple clock domains and is essential to many SoCs. Faraday design engineers found that Blast Fusion was able to reach timing closure without layout-to-synthesis iterations in a shorter amount of time than conventional design flows and add predictability to every phase of the design flow.

"We are impressed with the initial results from Blast Fusion. We will continue to work with Magma and to explore expanding the partnership," said Mr. Hsiao Ping Lin, president of Faraday Technology Corporation. "Shorter time to market with predictability of timing closure is absolutely critical to our business. Our customers expect us to deliver their designs on time. We are always looking for ways to streamline our design methodology. We are encouraged by the improved results we've achieved with Blast Fusion."

"We are excited to work with Faraday and UMC among the leaders in their industries. With this partnership we look forward to providing our mutual customers with a faster route for taking their designs from an idea to production," said Rajeev Madhavan, Magma chief executive officer.

About Faraday Technology Corporation

Faraday Technology Corporation (Taiwan OTC: 5404) has provided remarkable ASIC design services and valuable IPs (Intellectual Properties) for customers ranging from small start-ups to large international IC design houses and system houses since it was founded in 1993. Today, Faraday Technology Corporation is the largest organization of its type in the Asia-Pacific area, with more than 340 employees and annual revenue of 74 million US dollars in 2000. The company's headquarters are located in Hsinchu, Taiwan and they also have sales offices around the world, including the U.S.A., Japan, Europe and China. For more information about Faraday, its services and/or products, please visit its Web site at http://www.faraday.com.tw.

About UMC

UMC, a world leading semiconductor foundry, operates seven wafer fabs in Taiwan's Hsinchu Science Park. UMC's Japanese subsidiary, Nippon Foundry Inc., has one fab in Japan, and UMC's joint venture with Hitachi, Trecenti Technologies, began pilot production in its 300mm fab in Japan in 2000. UMC's 300mm facility in Taiwan's Tainan Science Park began pilot production in June 2001, and the company has broken ground on UMCi, a third 300mm fab based in Singapore. UMC is a leader in foundry technology, with facilities that reached an annual output of more than 2.4 million eight-inch equivalent wafers in 2000 and shipped more silicon wafers in 0.18-micron and smaller technologies than any other foundry that year. UMC's joint development program with IBM and Infineon Technologies introduced the WorldLogic(R) standard 0.13-micron technology in 2000. UMC serves customers around the world through sales and marketing offices located in the United States, Japan, and the Netherlands. UMC can be found on the web at http://www.umc.com.

About Magma

Magma software products are designed to enable chip designers to reduce the time required to design and produce complex integrated circuits in the communications, computing, consumer electronics, networking and semiconductor industries. The company's products Blast Fusion(TM), Blast Chip(TM), Blast Plan(TM) and Blast Noise(TM) utilize Magma's proprietary FixedTiming(R) methodology and single data model architecture, which allow Magma's products to reduce the timing-closure iterations often required between the logic and physical processes in conventional IC design flows.

Magma maintains headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., as well as sales and support facilities in Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego, Calif.; Boston, Mass.; Durham, North Carolina; Laurys Station, Penn.; Austin and Dallas, Texas; Newcastle, Wash.; and in Germany, Israel, Japan, Korea, The Netherlands, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. The company's stock trades on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol LAVA. Visit Magma Design Automation on the Web at www.magma-da.com.

Note to Editors: Magma and FixedTiming are registered trademarks and Blast Chip, Blast Fusion, Blast Noise and Blast Plan are trademarks of Magma Design Automation. All other product and company names are trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, including statements that Faraday will continue to work with Magma and explore expanding the partnership, that Magma and Faraday will provide mutual customers with a faster route for taking their designs from an idea to production, and that Blast Fusion will reach timing closure without iterations and enable chip designers to reduce the time required to design and produce complex integrated circuits, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, including, but not limited to, the ability of Blast Fusion to provide desired results, Magma's ability to keep pace with rapidly changing technology, Magma's customers' ability to integrate its products with their own, and other risks detailed in Magma's Prospectus dated November 19, 2001 filed with the SEC and from time to time in Magma's SEC reports. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. Magma disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.