Ansoft Announces SIwave Release; State-of-the-Art, Full-Wave, Signal-Integrity Software Provides Automated Analysis of Printed Circuit Boards and Packages

Business Wire, April 4, 2002

Business Editors

PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 4, 2002

Ansoft Corporation (Nasdaq:ANST) today announced the release of SIwave(TM). Ansoft developed the new product to meet the growing demand for quick and accurate signal- and power-integrity analysis of leading-edge Integrated Circuit (IC) packages and Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs).

Unlike other methods, SIwave enables engineers to model entire PCBs and package structures using a full-wave analysis engine to generate both frequency- and time-domain results. SIwave's hybrid, full-wave, finite-element technique allows designers to characterize simultaneous switching noise, power and ground bounce, resonances, reflections, and coupling between traces and power/ground planes. Furthermore, engineers can combine their own driver/receiver models with SIwave's SPICE output to obtain accurate SPICE system-level simulations.

"It is imperative that today's high-speed ICs, PCBs, and packages perform as expected," said Dr. Zoltan Cendes, Ansoft's Chairman and Chief Technology Officer. "To better understand the physics of their devices, engineers need an accurate analysis tool. With SIwave, they can now optimize the power delivery and signal integrity of their designs in a single pass."

SIwave provides a seamless translation from third-party layout tools into the analysis environment. Because the software employs an integrated design and analysis environment, it allows engineers to make changes and to analyze the impact of those changes.

About SIwave

SIwave, Ansoft's newest edition to its suite of signal-integrity (SI) solutions, analyzes complex PCBs and IC packages consisting of multiple, arbitrarily shaped power and ground layers and any number of vias and signal traces. It's a valuable tool for quickly evaluating decoupling capacitor placement, power and ground bounce, and simultaneous switching noise.

With SIwave, designers can model the following signal-integrity effects:

-- Resonance frequencies of complete power and ground structures with or
without decoupling capacitors;

-- Power and ground bounce;

-- Simultaneous switching noise;

-- Impedance discontinuities due to changes in signal layers or split supply
planes;

-- Noise coupling between signal lines and supply planes;

-- Time-domain effects, such as propagation delay, rise and fall times,
reflections, and ringing; and

-- Frequency-domain phenomena, such as resonant modes and S-parameters.

Circuit models providing all of these effects can be output for use in HSPICE(R) from Avant!, PSPICE(R) from Cadence, or Maxwell(R) SPICE from Ansoft.

SIwave will be available for full commercial release in Q2 2002.

To learn more about SIwave, visit www.ansoft.com/products/si/siwave/index.cfm.> About Ansoft

Ansoft is a leading developer of high-performance electronic design automation (EDA) software. Engineers use Ansoft software to design state-of-the-art electronic products, such as cellular phones, Internet-access devices, broadband networking components and systems, integrated circuits (ICs), printed circuit boards (PCBs), automotive electronic systems, and power electronics. Ansoft markets its products worldwide through its own direct sales force and has comprehensive customer-support and training offices throughout North America, Asia, and Europe. For more information, please visit www.ansoft.com.