OrCAD Technology Enhancements from Cadence Improve Efficiency for Scalable PCB Design; Latest OrCAD Release Automates Correct-by-Design Processes and Reduces PCB Respins for Personal Productivity PCB Designers.

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NYSE:CDN) (Nasdaq:CDN) today announced the latest release of its OrCAD scalable, personal productivity printed circuit board (PCB) design software product line. This OrCAD release introduces new technology and feature enhancements aimed at solving today's design challenges and increasing productivity.

The new features and technologies in OrCAD now help designers better address issues from schematic entry and circuit analysis to layout. This allows customers to reach production faster and produce higher-quality designs and products. With these enhancements, OrCAD enables faster time to market with new automation and technology. This includes OrCAD Signal Explorer for signal integrity analysis and validation throughout the design process. PCB topology exploration drives correct-by-design processes and reduces PCB respins for less time spent in lab debug.

"OrCAD PCB Designer is a great tool for a service bureau like us," said Ronald Weber, PCB designer at DesConTec in Munich, Germany. "With PCB Designer, we can use OrCAD Capture, the popular schematic entry tool used by many of our customers. We also do PCB layout based on the solid Allegro database format. This allows us to reuse designs, if necessary, and addresses high-speed issues within the Allegro Environment."

OrCAD's latest technological advances continue to enable smaller design teams and individual designer productivity. Power electronics requirements in the automotive and industrial markets will especially benefit from the new PSpice Magnetic Designer feature. Magnetic Designer provides rapid definition and creation of simulation models for transformer and other magnetic devices. Enhancements to Variant Editor ease the management of designs with multiple configurations. OrCAD Capture also includes a new, automated split part approach for managing large pin count devices.

The affordable, high-performance OrCAD product line is easily scalable with the full complement of Cadence(R) Allegro(R) PCB solutions.

"This latest OrCAD release is a result of Cadence's continued support of, and investment in, its OrCAD product line," said Steven Kamin, director of the OrCAD product line at Cadence. "OrCAD continues to offer seamless scalability of product and technology for better personal productivity and solutions to meet our customers' most important current and future design challenges."

The new OrCAD release is scheduled for customer shipment in July 2005. Designs using OrCAD technology are easily migrated to the Cadence Allegro 200 Series, and on to the Allegro 600 Series, without the need to translate design databases or change use models. OrCAD products are distributed by a worldwide network of solution providers. For more information on OrCAD, please visit www.orcad.com.

About Cadence

Cadence enables global electronic-design innovation and plays an essential role in the creation of today's integrated circuits and electronics. Customers use Cadence software and hardware, methodologies, and services to design and verify advanced semiconductors, consumer electronics, networking and telecommunications equipment, and computer systems. Cadence reported 2004 revenues of approximately $1.2 billion, and has approximately 4,700 employees. The company is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., with sales offices, design centers, and research facilities around the world to serve the global electronics industry. More information about the company, its products, and services is available at www.cadence.com.

Cadence, the Cadence logo, OrCAD and Allegro are registered trademarks of Cadence Design Systems. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.