Forte Hires David Sear as CEO to Extend Leadership in ESL Design Solutions

San Jose, CA - January 9, 2006 - Forte Design Systems today announced that David Sear has been named President and Chief Executive Officer and elected to its Board of Directors. Dr. Sear will oversee all daily operations to drive the company's global growth strategy.

Dr. Sear joins Forte with more than 25 years of senior management experience in the semiconductor industry. Most recently he was a strategic consultant, serving as an interim CEO for various pre-IPO semiconductor companies. Prior to his consulting work, Dr. Sear held numerous executive management positions, including: President and CEO of Vaishali Semiconductor, LLC; COO of Quality Semiconductor (now part of IDT); President and CEO of Integrated Circuit Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: ICST); and President and COO of Catalyst Semiconductor, taking that company public.

"We are excited to have such a high-caliber executive as David join Forte," said Lucio Lanza, Managing Director of Lanza Tech Ventures and Forte Board member. David brings the level of business acumen we believe the company needs to fully capitalize on its potential. His extensive experience in the semiconductor industry and demonstrated leadership abilities will complement Forte's existing strengths. Under his management, the company will continue to expand its technology leadership, grow its customer base toward a more global expansion, and strengthen its leading position in the ESL market.

"I am pleased to be joining Forte as ESL design is gaining traction on a worldwide basis," said the incoming CEO Sear. "Forte has an outstanding team, is backed by a very strong board of directors and investors, and has already built a strong customer base and partnership network. I look forward to working with the rest of the team to take our company to the next phase of growth."

About Forte's Cynthesizer

Forte's Cynthesizer significantly reduces the time needed to create complex chips and systems by automatically generating high-quality RTL designs from high-level algorithms. Cynthesizer is silicon-proven with uncompromising quality of results that often exceed hand-coded RTL. It is the only behavioral synthesis product that offers designers a complete environment including synthesis, verification, and co-simulation. Cynthesizer has been used on over 90 designs and is in production use in many of the largest systems and semiconductor companies worldwide.

About Forte Design Systems

Forte Design Systems is a leading provider of electronic design automation products that enable design at a higher level of abstraction. Forte's innovative behavioral synthesis technology allows design teams creating complex electronic systems from algorithmic designs using ASICs, FPGAs, and SoCs to significantly reduce their overall design and verification time.

Forte is headquartered at 100 Century Center Court, San Jose, CA 95112. For more information, visit http://www.ForteDS.com/.