Renesas Technology Corp. Expands Utilization of Magma's Blast Create and Blast Fusion; Integrated RTL-to-GDSII Flow Delivers Silicon Success

Business Wire, June 27, 2005

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Magma(R) Design Automation Inc. (Nasdaq:LAVA), a provider of semiconductor design software, today announced that Renesas Technology Corp. has received working silicon on a one-million gate design that was implemented with Magma's Blast Create(TM) and Blast Fusion(R) IC implementation solution. Renesas had already implemented several designs successfully using Magma's physical design solution. With the success using Magma's complete RTL-to-GDSII design system, Renesas is expanding utilization to its microcontroller design group.

Renesas cited the capacity, productivity and predictability advantages of adding Magma's synthesis to their flow. Magma's high-capacity logic synthesis technology allowed Renesas to implement the entire design without any partitioning. The designers used the Early Silicon Performance (ESP) reports to accurately predict whether or not they would meet their timing goal, and to guide them through the process of achieving that goal. The tight integration of the Magma's logic synthesis and physical design engines through a unified data model meant the designers only had to develop one set of constraints, and provided the front-end designers with visibility into how their RTL coding could cause potential problems in the backend. This integration coupled with fast runtime significantly increased the designers' productivity. By using Magma's RTL-to-GDSII flow, Renesas was able to improve timing, area and power.

"As one of the largest semiconductor companies in the world, Renesas is always looking for the most advanced solutions," said Hisaharu Miwa, deputy general manager, Design Technology Division, LSI Product Technology Unit, Renesas Technology Corp. "Impressed with our success using Magma's netlist-to-GDSII flow, we decided to adopt its RTL-to-GDSII flow. Through a unified data model, common timing engine for both of front-end and back-end, and a single executable, Magma provides capacity, productivity and predictability advantages."

"We're pleased that Renesas successfully implemented a design with our RTL-to-GDSII flow," said Mehrdad Shahabi, president of Magma KK. "By extending their use of Magma solutions to include logic synthesis, Renesas is significantly strengthening our relationship and we are committed to providing the support and technology they need for their advanced designs."

About Magma

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, capacitance extraction, design for test (DFT), physical verification (DRC/LVS), static and statistical timing analysis, and characterization and modeling in a single executable, offering "The Fastest Path from RTL to Silicon"(TM). Magma's software also includes products for advanced logical, physical synthesis and architecture development tools for programmable logic devices (PLDs), FPGAs and Structured ASICs; 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 and Blast Fusion are registered trademarks and Blast Create 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 the features and benefits of Magma's software and the company's intent to provide support and technology to Renesas 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, Renesas Technology's decision to continue using Magma's software, Magma's ability to keep pace with rapidly changing technology and Magma's products abilities to produce desired results. 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). Magma undertakes no additional obligation to update these forward-looking statements.