Membership Grows for Open Core Protocol International Partnership

Cadence Becomes Sponsor Member

PORTLAND, ORE. — November 3, 2003 — Open Core Protocol International Partnership (OCP-IP) today announced Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NYSE:CDN) has joined the organization as a Sponsor Member and is a participant in OCP-IP’s Working Groups. The association provides a common standard for intellectual property core interfaces, or sockets, that facilitate “plug and play” SoC design. As the leading supplier of industry standard, multi-language verification technology, Cadence’s involvement in the OCP-IP Working Group adds tremendous value in ensuring synergy among the open core protocol, existing industry standards and semiconductor tools for SoC development.

“Cadence is committed to open standards that help make SoC designs more efficient,” said Victor Berman, group director for Cadence’s language and standardization strategy. “The Incisive verification platform can assist in speeding verification by unifying system-level design and RTL implementation. The OCP-IP approach helps speed design through the use of standard interfaces that support interoperable IP sockets. By participating in OCP-IP working groups, Cadence will help develop enhancements and support infrastructure for OCP, proactively addressing the needs of members using the specification and continuing our ongoing efforts to maintain and strengthen standardization initiatives by the IEEE and Open SystemC Initiative.”

“The addition of Cadence to the working groups enhances an already highly talented team drawn from members such as Nokia, Texas Instruments and STMicroelectronics,” said Franck Seigneret, Texas Instruments’ OCP-IP Governing Steering Committee member. “The Verification Working Group looks forward to collaborating with them.”

OCP-IP members receive free training and support, free software tools, and free documentation, enabling them to focus on the challenges of SoC design. Leveraging OCP-IP’s infrastructure eliminates the need to internally design, document, train and evolve a proprietary standard and support tools, freeing up critical resources for the real design work and providing enormous cost savings.

“There is a recognized need for an industry socket that is not limited or tied to specific application,” said Ian Mackintosh, president of OCP-IP. “The addition of Cadence to our membership roster clearly illustrates the support and adoption we are seeing throughout the industry.”

About OCP-IP
The OCP International Partnership Association, Inc. (OCP-IP) was announced in December 2001 to promote and support the open core protocol (OCP) as the complete socket standard that ensures rapid creation and integration of interoperable virtual components. OCP-IP’s Governing Steering Committee participants are: Nokia [NYSE: NOK], Texas Instruments [NYSE: TXN], STMicroelectronics [NYSE: STM], United Microelectronics Corporation [NYSE: UMC], Sonics and other industry-leading companies. OCP-IP is a non-profit corporation delivering the first fully supported, openly licensed core-centric protocol that comprehensively fulfills system-level integration requirements. The OCP facilitates IP core reusability and reduces design time and risk, along with manufacturing costs for SoC designs. VSIA endorses the OCP socket, and OCP-IP is an Adoption Group of the VSI Alliance. For additional background and membership information, visit www.OCPIP.org.


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