Tharas Secures $5.5 Million in Funding Round Led by El Dorado Ventures; Verification Solutions Provider Will Use New Funding To Further Develop Next-Generation Verification Appliances.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Tharas Systems, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance, hardware-assisted verification solutions for the development of complex integrated circuits and electronic/embedded systems used in communications, computers, graphics and networking, today announced that it has raised $5.5 million in new venture capital funding. Santa Clara-based Tharas plans to use the proceeds to further the development of its next-generation verification appliances and to expand its global sales and technical support network.

The financing round was led by El Dorado Ventures and included current investors NeoCarta Ventures; Alliance Venture Management, LLC; Andy Bechtolsheim, co-founder of Sun Microsystems; and Tharas board member Dr. Prabhu Goel.

"We are impressed with Tharas' consistent execution and the company's revenue growth in the hardware-assisted verification segment of the EDA market," stated Charles Beeler, general partner at El Dorado Ventures. "With last week's introduction of its new family of Hammer verification appliances, we're confident that the company will continue to gain further traction and expand its presence in the verification market."

El Dorado Ventures Technology Partner Fred Buelow, a former vice president of technology at Hal Computers and co-founder and chairman of Aida Corp., is joining the Tharas board. "As chip-level and system-level functional verification plays an increasingly significant role in the development process, Tharas' technology continues to hit the mark with each generation of its verification solutions. I look forward to being closely associated with Tharas," Buelow said.

Commenting on the new financing, Andre Turenne, managing director of NeoCarta Ventures, said, "We see Tharas leveraging this funding to extend its technology and market leadership with a new generation of verification appliance solutions, thereby enabling faster adoption and integration of its ground-breaking technology."

Rahm Shastry, president and CEO of Tharas stated, "We are pleased that our investors, including El Dorado Ventures, recognized the value that our patented technology brings to the marketplace -- a significant price/performance competitive differentiator that shortens verification cycles, and thereby a material reduction in time-to-market for our customers."

About El Dorado Ventures

Founded in 1986, El Dorado Ventures (EDV) is a leading early-stage venture capital firm that invests across the technology sector and focuses primarily on semiconductors and systems, communications, software and services. El Dorado has a 19-year track record of successful early-stage technology investing, including early investments in Cyras Systems, EarthLink, Efficient Networks, Novellus and NuSpeed Internet Systems. Numerous EDV portfolio companies have gone public or been acquired by major technology companies, including Ciena, Cisco Systems, nVidia, Siemens, Texas Instruments and Yahoo/Inktomi. Entrepreneurs see EDV as a trusted investment partner who shares their vision. The firm helps entrepreneurs succeed by providing them with strategic guidance and access to a wealth of industry contacts. For more information, please visit www.eldorado.com.

About NeoCarta Ventures

NeoCarta Ventures is a leading venture capital firm specializing in early to mid-stage technology investments. The firm focuses on investments in IT infrastructure, software, hardware, networking, media and wireless. With offices in San Francisco and Boston, NeoCarta partners' backgrounds include senior investment experience with outstanding track records at GE Capital, Intel Capital, Thomson, and NBC. NeoCarta works closely with entrepreneurs and actively adds value by providing strategic guidance, team-building skills, industry knowledge, and operating expertise. With NeoCarta's unique mix of financial, operational, and technical expertise, the firm is able to add value at all stages of a company's development. NeoCarta's Web site address is: www.neocarta.com.

About Tharas Systems

Tharas Systems develops and markets design verification appliances that lead to a significant shortening of the overall verification cycle of complex integrated circuits and electronic/embedded systems. The payoff is a demonstrable reduction in time-to-market due to enhanced verification productivity. The newly introduced Hammer(R) S-Class and M-Class product families incorporate a patented, multi-core, custom-processor hardware assisted-engine developed by Tharas for use in Verilog- and VHDL-based SoC and embedded system verification, delivering the fastest compile and run time speed-up, combined with ease-of-use and extensive debugging capabilities. Customer installations span the communications, computers, graphics and networking industries.

Founded in 1998, Tharas is privately held with corporate headquarters located in Santa Clara, California, and regional sales and support offices in North America and Japan. Tharas products are distributed through channel partners in Europe, India and Korea. For more information, see the company website, http://www.tharas.com.

Hammer(R) is a trademark of Tharas Systems Inc. Tharas acknowledges trademarks or registered trademarks of other organizations for their respective products and services.