DAFCA and Denali Software Announce Collaboration to Expand FlashPoint Platform Integration Features

DAFCA Instrumentation Automates SoC and ASIC System Validation

Framingham, MA – June 3, 2008 – DAFCA Incorporated, the leading vendor of tools for on-chip, at-speed silicon validation, and Denali Software, Inc., a world-leading provider of electronic design automation (EDA) and intellectual property (IP), today announced a collaboration focused on various feature improvements to Denali’s NAND Flash memory controller, as part of the recently announced FlashPoint™ platform. The collaboration focuses on accelerating the system-level transaction, function, and protocol validation of Denali’s Databahn™ NAND Flash memory controller.

"DAFCA’s on-chip, at-speed, in-system validation solution will extend the integration features of our PCIe-based chip development," said Robert Pierce, senior director of NAND Flash products at Denali Software. "Denali’s FlashPoint platform solution offers the flexibility and feature set demanded by customers. By working closely with DAFCA, Denali is proactively heading off hardware/software integration issues that can up-end the traditional design cycle. We were very impressed by their silicon success, by their automation and analysis capabilities, and by the perfect match to our customer-centered culture. Denali provides fully-verified, validated, qualified and designed-in IP to our customers’ devices and by aligning with DAFCA will improve features in our IP offering."

Today's SoCs are complex systems, comprised of a variety of third-party blocks, embedded and inhomogeneous cores, and re-used IP that is often retargeted from other chips or other customers. The larger IP blocks are accompanied by device drivers, hardware abstraction layers and application software. Long, costly development cycles are exacerbated by the need for standardized approaches and solutions to streamline the design effort and a need to develop a variety of features that support the different NAND manufacturers. Denali's NAND Flash controller, as part of the FlashPoint platform, is unique and highly configurable for a variety of performance, power and NAND devices, and supports a broad variety of platforms.

DAFCA CEO Peter Levin said, "DAFCA has already been very successful in the IP validation market, where vendors have to prove the reliability of their designs prior to mass production. By collaborating with Denali, we see a terrific opportunity to become the de-facto embedded instrument inside of these blocks. Denali’s IP customers, in turn, will have a much easier and predictable job of integrating systems-on-chip (SoC) devices; this is the kind of win-win the industry has been crying out for in recent years."

"Post-silicon validation has become a hot technology over the past year," said industry analyst Gary Smith. "Denali’s adoption of the DAFCA solution shows that they continue to be on the leading edge of IP design."

About Denali Software

Denali Software, Inc. is a world-leading provider of electronic design automation (EDA) software and intellectual property (IP) for system-on-chip (SoC) design and verification. Denali delivers the industry’s most trusted solutions for deploying PCI Express, NAND Flash and DDR DRAM subsystems. Developers use Denali’s EDA, IP and services to reduce risk and speed time-to-market for electronic system and chip design. Denali is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and has offices around the world to serve the global electronics industry. More information about Denali, its products and services is available at www.denali.com.

About DAFCA, Inc.

DAFCA, Inc, is an electronic system validation software company that offers a framework for the design and implementation of on-chip system validation protocols. Our ClearBlue™ product family provides at-speed visibility and transaction control with a library of compact reprogrammable instruments that are seamlessly inserted into RTL, pre-silicon. Our off-chip analysis software configures, operates and dynamically controls our infrastructure IP, which can be memory mapped to support hardware-software co-validation. Our customers move seamlessly between simulation, emulation and FPGA-prototype environments – in addition to final silicon – without special pins or cell libraries. ClearBlue is compatible by design with all major EDA tool flows. More information can be found at www.dafca.com.