Artisan Introduces Metro Platform for Portable IC Design; Comprehensive Digital and Mixed-Signal Design Solution Reduces Power by 80%

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 3, 2004-- Artisan Components, Inc., (Nasdaq:ARTI), a leading provider of physical intellectual property (IP), today announced the introduction of its new Metro(TM) platform for portable IC design. The platform was developed specifically for performance-oriented, portable electronic devices such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants, handheld gaming consoles and portable media players.

The Metro platform is based on a series of new architectures that dramatically reduces power while enhancing density and yield: one-fifth the power, a twenty-percent reduction in area and improved production yield. Metro platform IP takes advantage of new process, circuit design, voltage scaling, power aware EDA and chip-level design techniques to deliver a solution that is intended to enable designers meet the growing demand for low-power ICs.

Until now, most IP for portable applications was developed by integrated device manufacturing companies with large teams of custom-design experts. Artisan's Metro platform provides every designer with access to the portable applications market through IP that incorporates the "tricks-of-the-trade" of low-power IC design and delivers results previously only achievable by experienced full-custom designers.

The Metro platform includes memory generators, standard cell libraries, general-purpose and specialty I/O cells and mixed-signal and analog IP such as oscillators, voltage regulators and phase-locked loops. The Metro platform conforms to the Artisan design standard, which thousands of IC designers have come to rely on for their advanced system-on-chip (SoC) development. The Metro platform is targeted to support 180- to 65-nanometer process technologies.

"ARM has been working closely with Artisan to ensure our low-power products are complementary with the Artisan IP," said John Cornish, director, product marketing, ARM. "The new Artisan Metro platform will be an ideal foundation for our Intelligent Energy Manager products because it enables lower power consumption."

"Synopsys has been actively working with Artisan, ARM and National Semiconductor to develop the most comprehensive low-power solutions," said Rich Goldman, vice president of strategic market development for Synopsys. "Artisan's new Metro platform is designed to work with our Galaxy(TM) power solution to address the many power management challenges in nanometer design."

"Developing advanced solutions for nanometer designs requires close collaboration among industry leaders. Significantly more integrated solutions are essential to address low power, low voltage requirements at 90 nm and below," said Jan Willis, senior vice president of industry marketing, Cadence Design Systems. "We are working with Artisan and other members of the Silicon Design Chain to further develop and optimize low power solutions incorporating the Metro platform for customer first silicon success."

"National Semiconductor's PowerWise(TM) technology is enabling SoC designers to greatly extend the battery life of portable devices," said Peter Henry, vice president of portable power systems, National Semiconductor. "Artisan's Metro platform utilizes National's advanced voltage scaling technology, enabling seamless implementation of our PowerWise technology in mainstream product designs."

"The portable market is among the most rapidly growing semiconductor segments and managing power in all aspects of IC design has become a first-order issue," said Neal Carney, vice president of marketing for Artisan. "With our Metro platform, we believe IC designers will be equipped with a comprehensive set of analog, digital and mixed signal IP that will help ensure their successful delivery of power-efficient SoCs and help enable the differentiation of their products in the marketplace."

Metro Platform Availability

Metro front-end views are immediately available on Artisan's website and can be downloaded free of charge by licensed users. For more information about the new Metro platform, visit Artisan's website at www.artisan.com.

Artisan Components, Inc. is a leading provider of physical intellectual property (IP) components for the design and manufacture of complex system-on-a-chip integrated circuits. Artisan's products include embedded memory, standard cell, input/output, analog and mixed-signal components, which are designed to achieve the best combination of performance, density, power and yield. Artisan has licensed its IP components to over a thousand companies involved in integrated circuit design. Artisan is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. More information about Artisan Components, including free library access, can be found at www.artisan.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding Artisan's introduction of the Metro Platform for Portable IC Design, its performance in an IC and its acceptance by designers and semiconductor manufacturers. These statements are subject to various risk factors including, without limitation, whether there will be technical or other difficulties that delay or prevent Artisan from introducing the Metro Platform and technologies, the performance of semiconductors designed using the Metro Platform, market acceptance of the Metro Platform and products designed with it and uncertainties attendant to any new product offering. We refer you also to the documents that Artisan files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, in particular the section entitled "Factors Affecting Future Operating Results" in Artisan's annual report on Form 10-K and its quarterly reports on Forms 10-Q.

Artisan Components and Artisan are registered trademarks of Artisan Components, Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE: Artisan Components, Inc.