Sandcraft Purchases Sapphire's Tool Suite for Faster Timing Performance With Fewer Place & Route Iterations.

SANTA CLARA, CALIF.-(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 14, 1999--

Microprocessor Core Vendor Improves Quality of Results for

Synthesis-P&R Flow and Ensures ElectricallyCORRECT Design Using

Integrated Tool Suite

Sapphire Design Automation, Inc. today announced that SandCraft, Inc. has purchased FormIT(TM), the company's integrated tool for analysis, placement, and optimization of complex ASIC and system-on-chip (SoC) designs. The purchase agreement for over $500,000 provides SandCraft with licenses to use multiple copies of FormIT over three years.

SandCraft has been a beta site customer for Sapphire's ElectricallyCORRECT(TM) tool suite that fits between logic synthesis and place & route tools in today's ASIC and SoC design flows. During its three-month beta testing and evaluation process, SandCraft used Sapphire's FormIT tool on next-generation production designs with significantly better quality of results in terms of timing performance and timing closure.

"It's exciting to finish a product based on a dramatically different approach and have it validated with a purchase from a customer as respected as SandCraft," said Kevin Walsh, vice president of marketing at Sapphire. "SandCraft's highly experienced processor core design team put our tools through a rigorous evaluation that proved our performance and productivity claims repeatedly. The team found that it could dramatically improve the timing of its designs in fewer iterations between synthesis and place & route tools."

FormIT improved the timing of SandCraft's design, measured as a percentage of the clock period, an average of 25 percent across all the blocks using post-routing parasitics for comparison. FormIT completed the block optimizations two times faster than using either of the current physical design

optimization tools on the market.

"We decided to purchase the Sapphire tools because they delivered as promised," said Salah Gasti, CAD director at SandCraft. "The tools easily integrated with our standard synthesis and our place & route flow. Sapphire's results correlated with our post-route extraction timing numbers They generated better quality designs in less turnaround time than any other solution, and they give us the confidence that the designs will work to specification when manufactured."

Sapphire at DAC 

Sapphire will demonstrate its ElectricallyCORRECT tool suite including FormIT, NoiseIT(TM), and PowerIT(TM) at the 36th Annual Design Automation Conference (DAC) from June 21-25 in New Orleans, LA. Visit the Sapphire DAC exhibit number 232 to learn how its new products can help assure timing closure, noise immunity, and power efficiency in ultra deep submicron designs. Attend Sapphire's DAC exhibitor presentation on Monday, June 21 at 10:20 a.m. to hear more about the company's strategy to improve the synthesis-place & route flow with an electrical abstraction that complements logical and topological approaches.

About SandCraft

SandCraft, Inc. is the developer of Engines for the Digital Age(TM), advanced RISC computing engines that are licensed as complete, verified-functionality discrete microprocessor or processor core designs to semiconductor manufacturers and other electronics firms. Founded in June 1996, the company applies its expertise in CAD tool development, microprocessor architecture and implementation, and technology integration to create and deliver microprocessor and system-on-a-chip solutions.

About Sapphire

Sapphire Design Automation is a private company founded in 1998 to address the emerging EDA market segment between logic synthesis and place & route tools. Sapphire has developed an innovative new approach to solving the timing, power, and signal integrity problems associated with deep submicron semiconductor technology. The company offers a multi-disciplinary software system that dramatically improves design productivity and produces superior quality of results for interconnect-dominated ASIC and SOC designs.

Sapphire's software system brings an "electrically correct" physical design solution up front in the deep submicron design flow to shorten cycle time and increase overall chip performance. The Sapphire software is compatible with industry-standard tool interfaces and data exchange formats and works with popular tool sets from Avant! (Nasdaq: AVNT), Cadence (NYSE: CDN), and Synopsys (Nasdaq: SNPS). For more information, visit www.sdai.com.

Note to Editors: FormIT, NoiseIT, PowerIT, and ElectricallyCORRECT are trademarks of Sapphire Design Automation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.