Frost & Sullivan Names Tensilica ''2004 Semiconductors Entrepreneurial Company of the Year''.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 20, 2004

Tensilica Honored for Technology Excellence As It Rolls Out

Next Generation Configurable Processor

Tensilica(R), Inc. today announced it has been named the "2004 Semiconductors Entrepreneurial Company of the Year" by Frost & Sullivan as a part of their prestigious Excellence in Industrial Technologies Awards. Frost & Sullivan presents their awards each year to companies that have pioneered the introduction of innovative technologies into the market -- technologies that are expected to bring significant contributions to the industry in terms of adoption, change and competitive posture. It also recognizes the overall technical excellence of a company and its commitment toward technology innovation.

"The coveted Frost & Sullivan award supports our belief that configurable processors will enable a new era in semiconductor design," said Dr. Chris Rowen, president and CEO of Tensilica, who also was recently named by EE Times as one of the "Most Influential People in the Semiconductor Industry." "This new era will be one where the reduced time-to-market and complexity of chip design unleashes designer creativity and innovation, while enabling the industry to return to increased ROI for semiconductor suppliers and end users alike."

Receipt of the award coincides with one of the most significant product introductions in the company's history -- the unveiling of Tensilica's next-generation processor architecture called Xtensa(R) LX. The Xtensa LX processor provides a framework for developing fully optimized application-specific system-on-chip (SOC) devices, without the cost, risk and lengthy design time associated with developing custom hardware (also called RTL or custom logic).

Traditionally, designers have developed chips by taking a standard off-the-shelf processor core, and surrounding that core with custom-designed blocks on a single chip in order to hit their performance goals and bring differentiated features to market. As a result, as much as 90 percent of the chip must be designed and verified to work, with time-consuming low-level logic methods. As transistor counts and overall design complexity continue to rise, this traditional design flow is leading to diminishing returns for semiconductor suppliers.

Tensilica has developed an alternative design approach that allows configurable processors to be used in place of custom-designed blocks. The company's approach allows designers to quickly and automatically tune the processor for the target application. Thorough programmability leads to greater economies of scale for semiconductor suppliers and more rapid innovation in their end products. Consumer devices will become increasingly feature rich as processors can be used to integrate more powerful functions on a single chip, in less time and for significantly reduced cost. Moreover, the inherent programmability delivered through processor-centric design will ensure that products can be easily adapted to support ever evolving standards.

"Ultimately electronics consumers will benefit from this technology by having access to a plethora of affordable, feature-rich audio, video, broadband, storage and imaging products that meet the unique needs of the digital lifestyle," added Bernie Rosenthal, senior vice president and co-founder of Tensilica.

About Frost & Sullivan

Founded in 1961, Frost & Sullivan is recognized as a global leader in growth consulting. Frost & Sullivan Awards are presented to companies that demonstrate excellence in the industry through diligence, commitment and innovative business strategies required to advance in the global marketplace. Frost & Sullivan rigorously analyzes specific criteria to determine award recipients in a vast variety of market industries and landscapes. For further information, visit www.frost.com.

About Tensilica

Tensilica was founded in July 1997 to address the growing need for optimized, application-specific microprocessors for high-volume embedded applications. With the Xtensa and Xtensa LX configurable and extensible microprocessor cores, Tensilica is the only company that has automated and patented the time-consuming process of generating a customized microprocessor core along with a complete software-development tool environment, producing new configurations in a matter of hours. These customized processors rival hand-coded RTL in performance and add a needed level of programmability. For more information, visit www.tensilica.com.

Editors' Notes:

-- Tensilica and Xtensa are registered trademarks belonging to

Tensilica Inc.

-- Tensilica's announced licensees include Agilent, ALPS, AMCC 

(JNI Corporation), Astute Networks, Avision, Bay Microsystems,

Berkeley Wireless Research Center, Broadcom, Cisco Systems,

Conexant Systems, Cypress, Crimson Microsystems, ETRI,

FUJIFILM Microdevices, Fujitsu Ltd., Hudson Soft, Hughes

Network Systems, Ikanos Communications, LG Electronics,

Marvell, MediaWorks, NEC Laboratories America, NEC

Corporation, Nippon Telephone and Telegraph (NTT), Olympus

Optical Co. Ltd., S2io, Solid State Systems, Sony,

STMicroelectronics, Stretch Inc., TranSwitch Corporation, and

Victor Company of Japan (JVC).