Tensilica Announces Design Center Agreement With Genesis Technology Inc.

New Authorized Design Center Will Provide Turnkey LSI Design Services For Tensilica Customers

SANTA CLARA, Calif. and YOKAHAMA, Japan, May 24, 2004 – Tensilica, Inc., the leading supplier of configurable and extensible microprocessor cores, today announced an agreement with Genesis Technology Inc. (GTI), one of the leading independent LSI design companies, also the largest independent semiconductor testing company in Japan. Under this agreement, GTI will become a recommended design center for Tensilica and GTI’s engineers will be fully trained on Tensilica’s Xtensa® processor design technology. GTI, having technical expertise in LSI hardware and software design, provides solutions ranging from specification to physical layout for a number of Japan’s top semiconductor and electronics manufacturers.

GTI joins a growing list of third-party companies that have joined the popular “Tensilica Xtensions Network.” Design center members have been authorized to assist Xtensa licensees with the configuration, implementation and evaluation of system-on-chip (SOC) designs.

“We wanted to work with Tensilica because we are very impressed with their ability to automate much of the design process,” stated Akira Nakazumi, Director of LSI Design Division, GTI. “By providing Xtensa-based SOC solutions to our customers, we believe we can bring a lot of value to them due to our expertise in digital signal processing for speech, audio, video and communication applications. With Xtensa technology, we can very quickly bring customized programmable solutions to our customers’ designs.”

 “As an established LSI design company with a solid customer list, we’re very proud that GTI decided to join our partner network and provide Xtensa design services to its customers,” said Larry Przywara, director of strategic alliances for Tensilica.  “Having met Tensilica’s high standards for an authorized design center, GTI will now play a significant role in ensuring the broad and rapid proliferation of Xtensa cores in high-volume consumer applications.”

About Xtensa
The Xtensa configurable and extensible microprocessor architecture provides a powerful, integrated hardware and software development environment with thousands of configuration options and an unlimited range of customer-specific extensions. The environment enables designers to carefully tune the processor for their particular application. With an easy-to-use graphical interface, designers can take advantage of Tensilica’s processor generator to create customized MPU solutions with specialized functional and instructions. Because these instructions are recognized as “native” by a complete set of software development tools, developers can simultaneously tune both application software and processor hardware to meet specific speed, power and feature goals.

About Genesis Technology Inc.
Genesis Technology Inc. (GTI) is a Japan’s largest independent semiconductor testing company and one of the biggest in the world. On April 1, 2004, GTI purchased business from KOBELCO LSI Design, Inc. (KLDI), which is a leading independent LSI design company for semiconductor and electronics manufacturers. Through this consolidation, GTI became able to offer a unique combination and comprehensive services of LSI design, assembly and testing services to meet outsourcing requirements in the semiconductor industry. GTI can provide LSI solutions with its advanced capability in digital signal processing for speech, audio, video and communication applications.   More information is available at www.gti.co.jp.

About Tensilica
Tensilica was founded in July 1997 to address the growing need for optimized, application-specific microprocessor solutions in high-volume embedded applications. With a configurable and extensible microprocessor core called Xtensa, Tensilica is the only company that has automated the time-consuming process of generating a customized microprocessor core along with a complete software development tool environment, producing new configurations in a matter of hours. For more information, visit www.tensilica.com.

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Editors’ Notes:

• “Tensilica”  and “Xtensa” are registered trademarks belonging to Tensilica Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.
• Tensilica’s announced licensees include Agilent, ALPS, AMCC (JNI Corporation), Astute Networks, Avision, Bay Microsystems, Berkeley Wireless Research Center, Broadcom, Cisco Systems, Conexant Systems, Cypress, Crimson Microsystems, ETRI, FUJIFILM Microdevices, Fujitsu Ltd., Hudson Soft, Hughes Network Systems, Ikanos Communications, LG Electronics, Marvell, NEC Laboratories America, NEC Corporation, Nippon Telephone and Telegraph (NTT), Olympus Optical Co. Ltd., S2io, Solid State Systems, Sony, STMicroelectronics, TranSwitch Corporation, and Victor Company of Japan (JVC).