Nuvation Opens Engineering Design Center in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

SAN JOSE, CA--(MARKET WIRE)--Sep 27, 2004 -- Nuvation, a leading Electronics Design Services (EDS) firm, announced today that it has opened a design center in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Nuvation, based in San Jose, CA, has been experiencing exceptional business growth over the past few years in its EDS business and licensable Intellectual Property (IP) Cores. The Waterloo Design Center will expand Nuvation's global EDS capabilities as well as Nuvation's IP Portfolio.

Nuvation, established in 1997, provides FPGA and ASIC design, printed circuit board (PCB) development, and embedded software design services to technology organizations worldwide. The Waterloo Design Center (WDC) will focus on the expanding FPGA logic design market, including developing licensable IP Cores for FPGA and ASIC designs. Nuvation's current IP portfolio includes Ethernet over SONET (GEOS family of cores), Generic Framing Protocol (GFP), and ATA-4/5. Other Intellectual Property developments are as of yet unannounced.

The market for Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) and associated design services and IP cores has been soaring. Gartner's "Semiconductor Forecast Update 3Q 2004" estimates that the FPGA/Programmable Logic Device market will grow at a CAGR of 19.2% between 2003 and 2008. And according to Canada's Technology Triangle, a private-public economic development organization, there are over 18,000 high-tech and knowledge workers in the Waterloo region.

"Waterloo was selected for its available engineering talent, entrepreneurial spirit, and familiar culture," stated Michael Worry, CEO of Nuvation. "Waterloo is the home of the University of Waterloo, one of the premier engineering schools in North America. This is my alma mater, and along with our management team, we are exceptionally familiar with the region and operating there. Waterloo is one of Canada's most innovative technology hubs."

The University of Waterloo is attended by over 20,000 students and graduates 10% of Canada's engineers every year. In addition to the exceptional engineering talent, Nuvation is leveraging the exchange rate and lower labor costs in its expansion plans. According to KPMG's "Competitive Alternatives: Comparing Business Costs in North America, Europe and Japan" (January 2004) study, Canada ranked as the leading cost-competitive industrial country.

"Many of our clients are seeking an alternative to offshoring for cost-sensitive projects. Our WDC offers top-tier design talent without the barriers of physical distance, culture, and language inherent in the offshoring model," stated Nuvation's VP of Sales and Marketing, Chris Hallahan, "Our clients have come to rely on Nuvation's Engineering Excellence, and this organically-grown extension adheres to our world-class methodologies and culture. The WDC is a natural extension of our capabilities and is seamless to our clients."

Nuvation's Waterloo Design Center is located in the heart of Waterloo Region's high technology community at 460 Phillip Street in Waterloo. The office is fully operational and is currently staffed with four engineers including the General Manager of the WDC. Nuvation plans to increase the staff to 5 to 10 by year-end, and to expand to 20 to 30 engineers at the WDC over time.

Alex Leyn, GM of the WDC, added, "Nuvation's reputation is already well-known here as a Waterloo alumni success story and a heavy recruiter on campus. It is a great opportunity to join a first-class organization and lead the expansion team. I look forward to working with many of Nuvation's new and existing clients, and to rapidly advancing our IP portfolio which our clients increasingly utilize as an off-the-shelf accelerator for their product developments."

About Nuvation

Nuvation is a leading Engineering Design Services (EDS) firm that provides accelerated chip, board, and software design services for the embedded systems industry. Established in 1997, Nuvation is based in San Jose, CA and has satellite operations in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Nuvation's clients include industry leaders in Communications, Medical Devices, Defense/Security, Consumer Devices, Test & Measurement, and Semiconductor markets. More information is available at www.nuvation.com

NUVATION and NUVATION LABS CORPORATION are registered trademarks of Nuvation Research Corporation. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the company with which they are associated.