Sonics Partners with VDEC to Expand SMART Interconnect Adoption

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Oct. 24, 2005--Sonics Inc.®, the premier supplier of system-on-chip (SoC) SMART Interconnects(TM), announces a licensing agreement with the VLSI Design and Education Center (VDEC) of the University of Tokyo for Sonics' SMART Interconnects. This agreement helps engineers to better address SoC design challenges using SMART Interconnects.

VDEC is an intellectual education center for VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) technology chartered to improve education, awareness and advancements in VLSI design and chip fabrication at national, public, and private universities and colleges in Japan. VDEC also has on-going research collaborations with the Japanese-based Semiconductor Technology Academic Research Center (STARC) to promote the development and education of semiconductor intellectual property (IP) reuse.

Today's announcement underscores Sonics' growing popularity with top semiconductor companies and OEMs that are increasingly adopting SMART Interconnects as an economic alternative to developing similar interconnects in house.

"Our funding base clearly indicates that as they transform their SoC architectures to a platform strategy, VDEC should dedicate time and resources to help them better utilize the Sonics SMART Interconnects into their platform design flows," says Kunihiro Asada, director of VDEC.

One of the ways VDEC promotes the education of VLSI design in Japan is by providing a VLSI chip fabrication environment. This consists of a platform-based design environment with on-chip test facilities, as well as an IP-reuse design methodology. Sonics SMART Interconnects will form the cornerstone of this platform because of its performance and flexibility benefits. Since testability of fabricated chips and IP-reuse design is critical to future SoC development, VDEC's platform-based design environment is expected to become highly influential in the design of SoCs in Japan.

"We will work very closely with VDEC to increase the awareness and understanding of our value proposition so customers can achieve continued success in their SoC architecture transformation," says Phil Casini, vice president of marketing at Sonics.

About Sonics

Sonics, Inc. is the premier supplier of SMART Interconnects that deliver high SoC design predictability and increased design efficiency. Major semiconductor and systems companies including Broadcom, Samsung, Texas Instruments and Toshiba have applied Sonics' SMART Interconnects in leading products in the wireless, digital multimedia and communications markets. Sonics is a privately-held company funded by Investar Capital, Smart Technology Ventures, TL Ventures, Easton Hunt Capital, JAFCO Ventures, and H&Q Asia-Pacific. For more information, see www.sonicsinc.com.