New CoWare Virtual Platform Product Family Provides Unprecedented Capabilities For Device Software Development

Product Family Enables the Creation, Distribution, and Use of Virtual Hardware Platforms to Shorten Development Cycles, Improve Productivity, and Lower Costs

San Jose, Calif.--March 27, 2006--CoWare Inc., the leading supplier of platform-driven electronic system-level (ESL) design software and services, announced today its new Virtual Platform product family that will enable the company to expand into the software development market. CoWare Virtual Platform product family delivers new tools and technologies that support the creation, distribution, and use of virtual hardware platforms for device software development and validation. Virtual hardware platforms are models of the device hardware and the environment it evolves in, and are suitable for the development and validation of an entire device software stack up to the application level. They also enable electronics companies to engage more effectively with their customers and ecosystem partners. The solution is integrated with and supports the CoWare platform-driven ESL strategy.

Traditional software development and validation solutions have either been non-representative of the device hardware, too slow, available too late, or have not provided enough hardware controllability and observability. Virtual hardware platforms provide fast execution speed, scalability, early availability, unprecedented hardware controllability, observability, determinism, and easy distribution.  By using virtual hardware platforms, software developers and development teams can reap the benefits of an earlier start to device software development and validation, improved productivity, and lower development costs.

Virtual hardware platforms will facilitate supply chain interaction because they can be distributed to customers and ecosystem partners. This results in earlier product feedback and software development for faster time-to-market and increased return on investment.

“CoWare Virtual Platform provides an innovative solution for validating embedded device software before the target hardware is available,” said Matt Volckmann, senior embedded software analyst at Venture Development Corporation, Natick, Mass. “This new solution puts CoWare into a position to directly support the device software development process and deliver value to semiconductor companies and device manufacturers.”

“Working with CoWare and their Virtual Platform has helped us reduce some of the challenges associated with software simulation,” said Al Von Ruff, Manager, Simulation Technology, Motorola Mobile Devices. “By leveraging a system-level, standards-based approach, we can enjoy highly accurate models and early availability, which can translate into more cost savings and faster time-to-market.”
 
CoWare Virtual Platform Product Family Includes:
·   CoWare Virtual Platform Designer: the first virtual hardware platform creation environment based on SystemC includes a graphical modeling and high performance SystemC environment, an Eclipse-based SystemC IDE, and automated virtual platform software package generation.

·   CoWare Virtual Platform: the self-contained, distributable virtual platform software package generated by the CoWare Virtual Platform Designer, includes the executable virtual platform model, the software tools to leverage the unique capability of the virtual platform, and the scripting and application programming interface to integrate the virtual platform in the software development and validation environment.

“Customer engagements and technology expertise have enabled us to deliver an optimized and integrated platform-driven ESL design solution that meets the requirement of the device software development market,” said Marc Serughetti, director of marketing, CoWare. “Our new solution provides the infrastructure required so that electronic companies can focus on their core expertise in order to design and deliver differentiated products to their target markets in a more reliable and efficient manner.”

Availability and Pricing
CoWare Virtual Platform product family is available today. For pricing information please contact the CoWare sales office nearest you. For more information about CoWare Virtual Platform product family and CoWare’s other products, visit http://www.coware.com.

CoWare will be demonstrating the Virtual Platform product family in Booth 838 at the Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose, Calif., April 4 – 6, 2006.

About CoWare
CoWare is the leading supplier of platform-driven electronic system-level (ESL) design software and services. CoWare offers a comprehensive set of ESL tools that enable electronics companies 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; hardware/software co-design; and virtual platforms for software development. 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 [(LSE: ARM); (Nasdaq: ARMHY)], Cadence Design Systems (Nasdaq: CDNS), 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.