ARC International and Magma Deliver Customer-Proven Reference Methodology for the ARC 600 Configurable Microprocessor Core

— Magma® Design Automation Inc. (Nasdaq: LAVA) and ARC International (LSE: ARK) today announced the availability of a validated reference methodology for the ARC™ 600 configurable microprocessor core. The reference methodology, available from Magma, has been implemented in a 0.13-micron design flow and was instrumental in helping a mutual customer surpass many of their design goals in less than one week.

Magma's ARC 600 reference methodology is based on the Magma Blast Create™ RTL-to-placed gates, Blast Plan™ Pro hierarchical design, and the Blast Fusion® physical design solutions. It includes flow documentation, floorplanning information, tool scripts and make files. Additionally, ARC International has completed the Magma IP verification process for the ARC 600 and has been added to the growing list of "Magma-Ready" IP providers.

"Many of our customers are using ARC for high-volume consumer applications because of significant size and power savings that can be realized with our configurable technology," said Derek Meyer, vice president of marketing at ARC International. "By partnering with Magma, a leader in the EDA industry, we are ensuring customers also can tune their ARC-based designs throughout the entire SOC creation process."

"With the continuing increase in chip complexity and rising development costs, designers are incorporating more intellectual property (IP) blocks into their system-on-chip designs, rather than developing the entire chip from scratch," said Michael Ma, vice president, Foundry and IP Relationships for Magma. "By working with ARC, a leading IP provider, we can develop methodologies and verify that their cores can be efficiently implemented in Magma's flow. This reference flow can enable our mutual customers to take their core-based designs in a single-pass flow from RTL directly to placement and routing without leaving the Magma system, eliminating iterations and saving time and effort."
Availability of the Reference Methodology

Users of the ARC 600 core can acquire the Magma reference methodology and the relevant synthesis scripts and sample floorplanning information from Magma. Support for the reference methodology is also provided by Magma.

The ARC 600 Configurable Processor Core

The ARC 600 is a configurable and extendible processor core that enables customers to implement a low-power, low-cost solution while meeting their performance requirements. At the heart of the ARC 600 is a 32-bit five-stage RISC architecture that is available with DSP extensions. The ARC 600 processor incorporates a variety of low-power features, making it an ideal solution for portable consumer devices.
The "Magma-Ready" IP Verification Process

Magma has designed comprehensive soft and hard IP verification processes to enable fast deployment of partner IP products in IC designs. Through the MagmaTies program, partners are given access to Magma software, allowing them to meet the necessary requirements. To qualify, soft IP providers must support Blast Create™ with industry-standard Verilog and VHDL formats and the most popular synthesis pragmas. They must also be able to import constraints and verify the quality of results (QoR), perform formal verification against a known good netlist, validate the timing using a static timing analyzer and create a script and documentation for the product.

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"™. 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.

About ARC

ARC International is a world leader in low-power, high-performance 32-bit configurable CPU/DSP processor cores, subsystems, real-time operating systems and development tools for embedded system design. ARC's configurable and extendible cores assist customers in the development of next generation digital media, consumer and communications devices, resulting in lower cost, higher performance SOC products.

ARC International maintains a worldwide presence with corporate offices in San Jose, Calif., USA and Elstree, UK. The Company has research and development offices located in England and the United States. For more information please visit the ARC website at: www.ARC.com. ARC International is listed on the London Stock Exchange as ARC International plc (LSE: ARK).

ARC, the ARC logo and ARC-Based are trademarks or registered trademarks of ARC International. Magma and Blast Fusion are registered trademarks and Blast Create, Blast Plan 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 that the ARC and Magma reference methodology allows mutual customers to tune their ARC-Based designs throughout the SOC creation process, that it provides a single-pass flow without having to leave the Magma system , thereby eliminating iterations and saving time and effort, and, statements that the "Magma Ready" IP verification process enables IP products to be quickly deployed into designs, and, statements about the features and benefits of Magma's system and ARC's cores, 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, Magma's and ARC's decisions to continue working together, the companies' products' abilities to produce the desired results and the companies' abilities to keep pace with rapidly changing technology. 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). The companies undertake no additional obligation to update these forward-looking statements.