Monterey Design and Artisan Components to Deliver Integrated Solution to Help Reduce Ramp-up Time for Advanced Processes.

Business Editors

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 15, 2002

Monterey Design Systems and Artisan Components, Inc., (Nasdaq:ARTI), today announced that they have teamed to deliver an integrated solution that offers design tools and libraries that have been certified on leading 0.13-, 0.15- and 0.18-micron processes. The combination of the Monterey System-Driven Physical Design(R) (SDPD) solution and Artisan design platforms can dramatically reduce the time and cost of implementing a physical design flow. The integrated Monterey-Artisan solution is scheduled to be available September 30, 2002. Customers will have easy access via Monterey's web site, http://www.montereydesign.com/Artisan_index.html.

The Monterey tool suite offers a complete netlist-to-GDSII solution that eliminates the need for interoperability among disparate point tools from multiple vendors. Monterey SDPD has already proven to be extremely easy to adopt. In a number of cases, customers were able to tape out a chip within 12 weeks after installation of the Monterey tool suite, which typically could take up to six months to complete. Combined with Artisan's widely used design platforms, this offering is expected to further reduce the time and effort needed to implement a production design flow.

"Artisan's design platforms have become the industry-standard vehicle for making the latest design solutions and process technologies available to IC designers," said Neal Carney, Artisan's vice president of marketing. "It is very important that our libraries enable advanced EDA tools such as Monterey's."

"The aim in working with Artisan is to even further reduce the amount of time and effort required by a customer to bring a new process technology and library online," said Tom Kozas, marketing director at Monterey. "Several customers have demonstrated and publicly announced their ability to produce tapeouts very quickly after the first installation of Monterey products. With this combined offering, we can provide enormous value to our customers who wish to set up an efficient flow as fast as possible."

"The combination of Artisan and Monterey greatly reduced the time and effort required to develop a working 0.13-micron physical design flow," said Varad Srinivasan, CTO at NetLogic Microsystems. "Here at NetLogic, we embarked on a project to reduce our turn-around time and simplify our flow. We were looking at solutions for physical design of digital circuits, which would provide us with quality of results that compared to our previously mostly custom approach and was easy to setup and use. The flow that we have today as a result of the combined offer from Monterey and Artisan has exceeded all of our expectations."

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, the availability of the integrated Monterey-Artisan solution on September 30, 2002. These statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, whether there will be technical or other difficulties that delay or prevent the availability of the integrated Monterey-Artisan solution on September 30, 2002, and market acceptance of the integrated Monterey-Artisan solution. We refer you also to the documents that Artisan files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, in particular the section entitled "Factors Affecting Future Operating Results" in Artisan's annual report on Form 10-K and its quarterly reports on Forms 10-Q.

About Monterey Design Systems

Monterey Design Systems provides electronic design automation software that enables integrated circuit designers to take their circuits from completed logic design to manufacturing ready output. Built to handle the most demanding semiconductor process requirements, the company's products - IC Wizard(TM) hierarchical design planner, Sonar(TM) physical prototyper, and Dolphin(R) physical implementation system - combine to provide the most streamlined physical design flow on the market. Monterey Design Systems is privately held and partners with other leading EDA companies, such as Cadence (NYSE:CDN - news) and Synopsys (Nasdaq:SNPS - news), to ensure interoperability in all existing design flows. Key customers include LSI Logic, STMicroelectronics, Fujitsu Ltd., Flextronics Semiconductor, and NEC Electronics. Monterey Design Systems is located at 894 Ross Drive, Sunnyvale, CA 94089-1443, tel: [phone], fax: [phone], http://www.montereydesign.com/.

About Artisan Components

Artisan Components, Inc. is a leading semiconductor intellectual property (IP) provider. The company's design platforms are in use by design teams at over 900 companies worldwide. Artisan's design platforms provide IC designers with a common interface to a range of process technologies from the world's leading foundries. Built on Artisan's Process-Perfect(TM) memory generators, standard cell and I/O libraries, Artisan's design platforms include a comprehensive set of views and models supporting leading design tools and methodologies. Artisan's worldwide network of EDA, IP and design service partners extend the Artisan standard to a complete set of system level design and integration solutions. Artisan is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. More information about Artisan Components, including free library access can be found at www.artisan.com.

Monterey, Monterey Design Systems, Dolphin and System-Driven Physical Design are registered trademarks and IC Wizard and Sonar are trademarks of Monterey Design Systems. Artisan Components, Artisan and Process-Perfect are registered trademarks and SAGE-X is a trademark of Artisan Components, Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.