ARC Licenses AXYS Design's MaxCore™ and MaxSim™ Developer Suites For Modeling of its Configurable Processor

April 29, 2002, Palo Alto, CA. ARC International (LSE:ARK) and AXYS® Design Automation, Inc. today announced that ARC has licensed AXYS Design's MaxCore™ and MaxSim™ Developer Suites to develop, package and distribute processor models for the new ARCtangent™-A5 microprocessor, a user-customizable 32-bit RISC core for ASIC, SoC (System-on-Chip), and FPGA integration. Under the multi-year agreement, AXYS Design will supply development tool suites to ARC's architecture and model development teams.

The tools extend the flexibility already offered by the synthesizable, configurable, and extendable ARCtangent™-A5 architecture by enabling the creation of processor models that can be used standalone, or integrated into third party simulation or hardware/software co-simulation tools. The models will also be integrated with ARC's MetaWare High C/C++™ Tool Suite and the task-aware SeeCode™ debugger.

Farzad Zarrinfar, SVP of marketing and business development for ARC International, said, "After an extensive evaluation, we chose MaxCore and MaxSim to create very fast, reliable and accurate models for our processor that our customers can utilize for effective development of complex embedded SoC's. Our goal to become the leader in integrated embedded system solutions requires the use of best in class tools to satisfy the sophisticated needs of our customers. AXYS Design's tools and technical support more than met our expectations and in combination with their attractive technology roadmap provide the right solution for our processor modeling needs."

An important aspect is that the modeling tools needed to support ARC's user-reconfigurable architecture. MaxCore offers various features to support user configurability at the core level, including a model API that allows the addition of customer specific instructions. MaxCore can generate instruction-, cycle- or fully pipeline-accurate processor models to address varying needs throughout the SoC development cycle. While instruction accurate models provide maximum performance for early software development, SoC integrators and embedded software developers need more accurate models to verify the architecture and to co-simulate software against the actual chip design.

"As the leader in user-customizable processors and software for communications and consumer products, ARC International is dedicated to offer its customers the best cores, software and tools in a complete package. We are extremely pleased that ARC chose MaxCore and MaxSim to complement and extend their unique offering of System-on-Chip solutions," said Vojin Zivojnovic, president and CEO of AXYS Design.

MaxCore generated processor models support the MaxSim component API as native interface but can also be used standalone or integrated with other tools. MaxSim allows the rapid extension of a model beyond the actual processor core to the processor sub-system, including components such as caches, memory management and interrupt control, while preserving full cycle-accuracy where necessary. In addition, MaxSim allows the creation of complete application-specific multicore platform models that can be used as virtual reference platforms to enable early architecture exploration and embedded software development. MaxSim provides powerful debug features including memory and register windows and supports a variety of standard debuggers through its unique debug server, enabling fully synchronous multi-processor debugging using heterogeneous processors and debuggers.

About ARC International

ARC International is a leading developer of user-customizable, high-performance 32-bit RISC/DSP processor cores (including ARCtangent™), with integrated development tools, peripherals and software. Its integrated intellectual property solutions assist customers in rapidly developing next generation wireless, networking and consumer electronics products, reducing time to market for system-on-chip products. Products based on ARC's technology include digital still cameras, set-top boxes, and network processors.

ARC International employs over 200 people in research and development, sales, and marketing offices across North America, Europe and Israel, with key offices in Elstree (England) and San Jose (CA, USA). Full details of the company's locations and other information are on the company's web site, www.ARC.com. ARC International is listed on the London Stock Exchange as ARC International plc (LSE:ARK).

Statements made in this press release that are not historical facts include forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ from those indicated by such forward-looking statements include, among others, market acceptance of the ARC technology; fluctuations in and unpredictability of the Company's quarterly results; general economic and business conditions; regulatory policies adopted by governmental authorities; assumptions regarding the Company's future business strategy; changes in technology; competition; ability to attract and retain qualified personnel; risks associated with the Company's international operations; and other uncertainties that are discussed in the "Investment Considerations" section of the Company's listing particulars dated 28 September 2000 filed with the United Kingdom Listing Authority and the Registrar of Companies in England and Wales.

ARC, the ARC logo, and ARCtangent, are trademarks of ARC International. All other brands or product names are the property of their respective holders.

About AXYS Design Automation, Inc.

AXYS® Design Automation, Inc. is a provider of fast, accurate, and integrated processor and SoC (System-on-Chip) C/C++ modeling and simulation solutions for the development of high software content SoC devices. The use of AXYS Design's tool suites in the pre?silicon phase substantially shortens the SoC design cycle by enabling early system integration and embedded software development, thus reducing NRE cost and time to market.

AXYS Design's customers and partners are companies involved in cutting edge technologies for the electronics industry and include Adelante Technologies, ARM Ltd (NASDAQ: ARMHY), Conexant Systems (NASDAQ: CNXT), DSP Group (NASDAQ: DSPG), Infineon Technologies (NYSE: IFX), LSI Logic (NYSE: LSI), Mentor Graphics (NASDAQ: MENT), MIPS Technologies (NASDAQ: MIPS) and STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM).

The MaxSim™ Developer Suite is a tool enabling the modeling and verification of multi-core SoC designs. The MaxCore™ Developer Suite is a toolset for the automatic generation of processor models and software development tools. MaxLib™, AXYS Design's growing library of models for popular SoC components. For more information, visit the AXYS Design web site at http://www.AXYSdesign.com. AXYS is a registered trademark of AXYS Design Automation, Inc. MaxSim, MaxCore and MaxLib are trademarks of AXYS Design Automation, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owner.