Magma Announces PALACE Support for Actel's Third-Generation Flash-Bas

    Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

    SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 24, 2005--

    Magma's PALACE Software Design Tool, Fully Integrated into Actel's Libero Integrated Design Environment, Boosts Performance
    of Actel's ProASIC3 Families by One Speed Grade or More

    Magma(R) Design Automation Inc. (Nasdaq:LAVA), a provider of chip design solutions, today announced that Magma's PALACE(TM) software design tool for programmable logic supports Actel's new high-speed, low-cost, third-generation flash-based ProASIC3 and ProASIC3E FPGA (field programmable gate array) families. Fully integrated into Actel's Libero Integrated Design Environment (IDE), PALACE has proven to increase the performance of the ProASIC3 and ProASIC3E field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) by one speed grade or more.
    Magma's PALACE enables customers of Actel's new flash-based ProASIC3 and ProASIC3E FPGA devices to significantly improve performance without manual intervention. Extensive benchmarking of PALACE, within Actel's Libero IDE over a wide range of designs, has demonstrated increased average performance of one speed grade (15 percent) to up to 50 percent performance gain, compared with existing synthesis methodologies. By reducing the number of iterations, PALACE offers designers additional cost savings and time-to-market gains by shortening design time. Additionally, PALACE offers area utilization improvements of up to 10 percent, often enabling customers to fit a design into a smaller, less expensive device.
    "Our long-term collaboration with Magma benefits Actel customers by enabling them to achieve breakthrough FPGA performance with our new third-generation, low-cost, flash-based FPGAs," said Dennis Kish, vice president of marketing at Actel Corporation. "By integrating Magma's PALACE into our Libero IDE, ProASIC3 and ProASIC3E, designers have a seamless, easy-to-use and optimized design environment for faster and more assured development of tomorrow's value-based applications."
    "Magma's PALACE provides Actel customers with an easy-to-use solution that fits into most commonly used FPGA design flows," said Kam Kittrell, general manager of Magma's Logic Design Business Unit. "Building on previous PALACE success with Actel's ProASIC Plus devices enabled Magma to provide full support for Actel's ProASIC3 and ProASIC3E families. These new devices represent a major step forward in low-cost FPGAs, and, combined with Magma's PALACE, deliver impressive high-performance and predictable results to Actel's customers."

    About PALACE

    PALACE addresses the high-performance requirements of today's challenging FPGA designs. To produce superior quality of results with minimal effort, PALACE unifies logic synthesis and physical design, providing an efficient physical synthesis engine for FPGAs that includes constraint-driven optimization, architecture-specific mapping, and unique support for multi-cycle on-chip communication. PALACE has consistently demonstrated at least one speed grade performance improvement over a wide range of FPGA architectures through push-button physical synthesis. This approach results in highly optimized designs with significant performance improvement without manual user intervention, floorplanning, or iterations.

    Availability

    PALACE for Actel's ProASIC3 and ProASIC3/E families is available now. Fully integrated into Actel's Libero IDE (integrated design environment), customers interested in PALACE for third-generation, flash-based Actel designs, can obtain pricing and other information from Actel Corporation by calling 888-99-ACTEL (992-2835) or visiting Actel's web site at www.actel.com.

    About Magma Design Automation

    Magma provides leading software for designing highly complex integrated circuits while maximizing Quality of Results with respect to area, timing and power, and at the same time reducing overall design cycles and costs. Magma provides a complete RTL-to-GDSII design flow that includes prototyping, synthesis, place & route, and signal and power integrity chip design capabilities in a single executable, offering "The Fastest Path from RTL to Silicon"(TM). Magma's software also includes products for advanced physical synthesis and architecture development tools for programmable logic devices (PLDs); capacitance extraction; and characterization and modeling. The company's stock trades on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol LAVA. Visit Magma Design Automation on the Web at www.magma-da.com.

    Magma is a registered trademark, and PALACE and "The Fastest Path from RTL to Silicon" are trademarks, of Magma Design Automation Inc. All other product and company names are trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective companies.

    FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS:

    Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, including statements about PALACE's ability to deliver better performance, increased predictability, lower design costs and reduced design cycles, Magma's plans to provide physical synthesis tools for FPGA and structured ASIC platforms, and the features and benefits of Actel's and Magma's solutions, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, including, but not limited to, Actel's and Magma's abilities to keep pace with rapidly changing technology, the companies' products abilities to produce desired results, and Magma's decision to continue development of physical synthesis tools for FPGAs and structured platforms. Further discussion of these and other potential risk factors may be found in Magma's public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (www.sec.gov). These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. Magma undertakes no additional obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

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CONTACT: Magma Design Automation Inc. Maxine Bingham, 408-565-7631 maxine@magma-da.com

KEYWORD: CALIFORNIA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: HARDWARE COMPUTERS/ELECTRONICS SOFTWARE NETWORKING MANUFACTURING PRODUCT EDA SOURCE: Magma Design Automation Inc.

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