Carbon and MIPS Technologies Partner for Model Distribution

-- Carbon Design Systems™, the leading supplier of tools for the automatic creation, validation and deployment of system-level models, and MIPS Technologies, Inc. (NasdaqGS: MIPS) announced today that they have partnered to deliver models of MIPS® processor cores to Carbon’s SoC Designer customers. Development teams will now have the capability to debug their MIPS firmware code in the industry’s fastest cycle-accurate virtual prototyping environment.

Fast Platform for Firmware Development and Architectural Analysis
“We are extremely pleased to add MIPS to our growing IP ecosystem,” stated Bill Neifert, Carbon’s vice president of business development. “Our customers are using SoC Designer to architect and debug some of the world’s most complex system on chip (SoC) designs. Adding MIPS processor models to our IP offerings broadens the appeal of the SoC Designer platform and gives our customers the ability to leverage the advanced capabilities of the platform across more of their designs.”

“MIPS Technologies is committed to expanding the ecosystem around our broad range of processor cores to ease our customers’ design process in applications ranging from microcontrollers to the highest performance products for the digital home,” said Art Swift, vice president of marketing, MIPS Technologies. “Partnering with Carbon to make models of our processors available in SoC Designer gives our customers access to a valuable platform to debug complex firmware issues before actual silicon is fabricated. The accuracy and visibility of the environment can help our customers rapidly find and fix their firmware and architectural issues.”

About the Integration
This agreement enables Carbon to integrate and distribute MIPS Technologies’ existing cycle-accurate MIPSsim™ models with Carbon SoC Designer. These integrated models can then be used to develop and debug MIPS firmware well in advance of silicon, find hardware issues in the SoC and identify areas for architectural tradeoffs. Models are available for all MIPS processors. MIPS models integrated with SoC Designer can utilize all of SoC Designer’s advanced software and hardware debug features to quickly isolate and fix issues in both hardware and software.

Availability
The MIPS processor integration will be available in the second quarter from Carbon Design Systems.

About Carbon Design Systems
Carbon offers the leading system validation solution for complex system-on-chip (SoC) designs. Target applications range from model generation and deployment to virtual platform creation, execution, and analysis. Carbon provides 100% implementation accuracy on the critical components required for accurate architectural analysis and pre-silicon hardware/software validation. Solutions are based on open industry standards, including SystemC, IP-XACT, Verilog, VHDL, OSCI TLM, MDI, SCML, CASI, CADI and CAPI. Carbon’s customers are systems, semiconductor, and IP companies that focus on wireless, networking, and consumer electronics. Carbon is headquartered at 125 Nagog Park, Acton, Mass., 01720. Telephone: (978) 264-7300. Facsimile: (978) 264-9990. EWebsite: www.carbondesignsystems.com.

About MIPS Technologies, Inc.
MIPS Technologies, Inc. (NasdaqGS: MIPS) is the world’s second largest semiconductor design IP company and the number one analog IP company worldwide. With more than 250 customers around the globe, MIPS Technologies is the only company that provides a combined portfolio of processors, analog IP and software tools for the embedded market. The company powers some of the world’s most popular products for the digital entertainment, home networking, wireless, and portable media markets—including broadband devices from Linksys, DTVs and digital consumer devices from Sony, DVD recordable devices from Pioneer, digital set-top boxes from Motorola, network routers from Cisco, 32-bit microcontrollers from Microchip Technology and laser printers from Hewlett-Packard. Founded in 1998, MIPS Technologies is headquartered in Mountain View, California, with offices worldwide. For more information, contact (650) 567-5000 or visit www.mips.com.