CoWare Partners with ACE Associated Compiler Experts bv For Breakthrough C Compiler Generation Technology

D.A.T.E. CONFERENCE, PARIS, FRANCE--February 16, 2004 -- CoWare, Inc., the leading supplier of system-level electronic design automation (EDA) software and services, announced it is partnering with ACE Associated Compiler Experts bv to shorten time-to-market for customers developing embedded processors. The business and technology relationship between CoWare and ACE—the market leader in configurable C compiler generation technology—includes the incorporation of the recently announced ACE CoSy® Express technology into the C Compiler Designer option in the latest version of CoWare's LISATek products.

CoWare collaborated with ACE to develop and integrate the CoSy Express technology, which enables designers to easily create C compilers for their embedded processors through LISATek™—a fully integrated solution for embedded processor and Application Specific Instruction Processor (ASIP) modeling and creation. Previously, manual creation of C compilers was a significant barrier for designers wanting to develop their own embedded processors, due to the complexity of the task and high development costs.

"With C compiler creation taking several man years and up to a million dollars, it is expensive for companies to create their own custom C compilers for particular projects," said Mark Milligan, vice president of marketing, CoWare. "With the combination of revolutionary C compiler generation technology and the existing software tool generation capabilities of LISATek, this task can be reduced from man years to man weeks. This enables more companies to enjoy the benefits of software programmability for their processor IP. Many of our customers have used the CoSy technology for standard processors with excellent results, and we are confident that it is the right technology for LISATek's embedded processor solution."

"We are thrilled to be working with CoWare, the system-level EDA leader, to incorporate ACE's new CoSy Express technology into their LISATek design flow," said Martijn de Lange, CEO, ACE. "This partnership brings together two industry leaders who will provide architecture designers with unprecedented flexibility, efficiency and accuracy in design exploration, enabling greater avenues for growth of complex architectures. ACE's 28 years of extensive expertise in development of compiler technology and generation systems completes the hardware/software design flow for emerging architectures. As a result, compiler development is now made possible for the large community of architecture designers."

More information about the latest version of the LISATek products, featuring the ACE CoSy Express technology, is available on the CoWare website at www.coware.com or by contacting John MacDermott, director, business development, at johnm@coware.com. More information about the CoSy Express technology is available in a separate press announcement from ACE, issued on January 29, 2004. To access this announcement, visit www.ace.nl.

About ACE
ACE Associated Compiler Experts bv (a wholly owned subsidiary of ACE Associated Computer Experts, Amsterdam, the Netherlands) is a world leader in compiler development tools. Its open CoSy compiler development system gives compiler developers the ability to achieve a similar leading edge position in the construction of better and faster optimizing compilers for architectures ranging from 4-bit micro-controllers to 24-bit DSPs and 256-bit VLIW processors. CoSy also accommodates a wide range of programming languages including C, DSP-C, C++, Fortran and Java. For more information about ACE Associated Compiler Experts and its products and services, including the recent CoSy Express press announcement, please visit http://www.ace.nl.

About CoWare
CoWare is the leading supplier of system-level electronic design automation (EDA) software tools and services. CoWare offers a comprehensive set of electronic system-level (ESL) tools that enable SoC developers to "differentiate by design" through the creation of system-IP including embedded processors, on-chip buses, and DSP algorithms; the architecture of optimized SoC platforms; and hardware/software co-design. The company's solutions are based on open industry standards including SystemC. CoWare's customers are major systems, semiconductor, and IP companies in the market where consumer electronics, computing, and communications converge. CoWare's corporate investors include ARM Ltd. [(LSE:ARM);(Nasdaq: ARMHY)], Cadence Design Systems (NYSE:CDN), STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM), and Sony Corporation (NYSE:SNE). CoWare is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., and has offices around the world. For more information about CoWare and its products and services, visit http://www.coware.com.