Solido Design Automation Announces Private Investment by Technology Heavyweights; Technology and Algorithms New to EDA Industry Attract Non-Traditional Investors.

SASKATOON, Saskatchewan -- Following up on the June 26 announcement of first round investment ("Solido Design Automation: Entrepreneurs Launch Second EDA Company in Analog/Mixed-Signal Design Space"), Solido Design Automation today announced private investment from some well-known figures in the world of technology. Private investors include Jim Rutt, Doyne Farmer, John Koza, Martin Keane and Matthew Raggett. Solido Design pioneers transistor-level design enhancements solutions for analog/mixed-signal design, as well as custom digital and memory design, for the electronic design automation (EDA) market.

Jim Rutt was formerly CEO of Network Solutions Inc., (acquired by VeriSign Inc., NASDAQ: VRSN) which administered domain name spaces on the Internet. He co-founded Business Research Corp., which developed online information products for the investment community. Rutt also was the co-founder of First Call and has served as CEO of Thomson Technology Services Group; and CTO of the Thomson Corporation (TSE: TOC) as well as Chief Strategy Officer of VeriSign, Inc. Rutt received his bachelor's degree in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is a vice chairman of the Santa Fe Institute. He was also a researcher in residence at the institute, where he studied the application of complexity science to financial markets, social simulations and artificial intelligence. Last month, he was appointed to the New Mexico State Investment Council by Gov. Bill Richardson.

Doyne Farmer, one of the pioneers of what has come to be called chaos theory, is McKinsey Professor, Sante Fe, Institute, and the co-founder and former co-president of Prediction Company, a firm whose business is automatic trading of financial instruments based on time series based directional forecasting methods. Farmer was an Oppenheimer Fellow at the Center for Nonlinear Studies at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. In addition to his work on chaos, he has made important theoretical contributions to other problems in complex systems, including machine learning, a model for the immune system, and the origin of life.

John R. Koza, Ph.D., is a consulting professor in the department of electrical engineering, School of Engineering, at Stanford University. An expert on genetic programming, he has published 170 papers; co-authored 50 papers; and published four books on genetic programming, most recently "Genetic Programming IV: Routine Human-Competitive Machine Intelligence" with Martin A. Keane et al. As well as academic posts throughout Stanford University, Koza served as chairman, CEO and co-founder of Scientific Games, Inc. from 1973 through 1987, where he co-invented the rub-off instant lottery ticketed used by state lotteries today. He is chair of the Genetic Programming Conference; a member of the Science Board at Santa Fe Institute; a member of the Board of Trustees of Santa Fe Institute; a member of the business committee for the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference; and editor or consulting editor to various publishing houses and journals. Koza holds B.A., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from the University of Michigan and an M.A. in mathematics from the same university.

Martin A. Keane received a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Northwestern University in 1969. He worked for Applied Devices Corporation until 1972; in the Mathematics Department at General Motors Laboratory until 1976; and as vice-president for engineering at Bally Manufacturing Corporation until 1986. An expert in genetic programming, Keane is currently a consultant to various computer-related and gaming-related companies. He has co-authored two books on genetic programming: "Genetic Programming III: Darwinian Invention and Problem Solving" and "Genetic Programming IV: Routine Human-Competitive Machine Intelligence."

Matthew Raggett, a veteran of the electronic design automation (EDA) and semiconductor industries, is a managing partner of ADAUS Ventures Inc. He has served as president and CEO of Analog Design Automation, which was acquired by Synopsys (NASDAQ:SNPS) in 2004; as part of the management team that led Phoenix Technologies through a successful IPO (INSN) and later spun inSilicon, Corp. out of Phoenix Technologies. At inSilicon, which was also acquired by Synopsys, he held the position of vice president of worldwide field operations. Raggett has held management positions at Cadence Design Systems, National Semiconductor, Fairchild Semiconductor, and ITT Telecommunications. He currently sits on the Board of Directors of several EDA companies including Javelin Design Automation, Inc., LogicVision (NASDAQ:LGVN) and Solido Design. Raggett holds a higher technical certificate in Electronic Engineering (BSEE) from Brighton Technical College, England.

"Fresh new technology and algorithms not traditional to EDA are needed to address challenges in transistor-level design," said Solido Design's CEO, Amit Gupta. "Our solutions address urgent needs facing not only analog and mixed signal designers, but also custom digital and memory designers. Our technology, combined with the market we are addressing, attracted these technology heavyweights."

About Solido Design

Solido Design Automation Inc. is an electronic design automation (EDA) company pioneering transistor-level design enhancement solutions for analog/mixed-signal design, as well as custom digital and memory design. Founded by the same entrepreneurs who created Analog Design Automation, the company is privately held and headquartered in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. For further information, visit www.solidodesign.com or call 306-382-4100.