Guido Arnout, a Silicon Valley EDA veteran, joins Elixent board

Bristol, England, 1 December 2003: Elixent, the leader in reconfigurable semiconductor IP, has appointed Dr Guido Arnout as a non-executive director. As a pioneer of electronic design automation (EDA) in Silicon Valley for nearly 25 years

and a founder of the Open SystemC Initiative (OSCI), in addition to successful EDA companies such as CoWare, Inc. and Silvar-Lisco, Dr Arnout brings to Elixent considerable experience in semiconductor business development and high-tech start-ups.

Dr. Arnout is the chairman of CoWare, Inc., the leading supplier of system-level EDA, a company he co-founded as CEO in 1996 to develop and market hardware/software co-design tools for systems-on-silicon. He is also president and co-founder of OSCI which was created to drive the semiconductor industry towards a unifying language for system-level design and interoperable IP. As a result of this initiative, the SystemC language is now emerging as an industry standard for hardware verification.

Prior to starting CoWare, Dr Arnout was senior vice-president of marketing and business development at CrossCheck Technology, a design-for-test EDA start-up company. Before this he was vice-president of engineering at Silvar-Lisco, one of the first commercial EDA companies, which he co-founded in 1979.

“Dr Arnout has been a part of the EDA industry from its academic beginnings to the multi-national business it is today. His knowledge and experience is invaluable for our understanding of this community,” commented Kenn Lamb, CEO of Elixent. “The fact that he's joining us shows that he believes reconfigurable technology is now mainstream and that he wants to be associated with a leader in the field.”

Dr Arnout commented: “With new approaches to system design, and new platform technologies like Elixent’s D-Fabrix, this is an exciting time for the semiconductor industry. I'm looking forward to applying my experience to the reconfigurable market as it evolves and grows.”

About Elixent

Elixent is the leader in reconfigurable semiconductor IP, a technology that provides users with the ability to change the function of a chip even whilst in use.

D-Fabrix, the company’s patented reconfigurable algorithm processing (RAP) technology, provides ASIC designers with a flexible alternative to fixed function chips but without consuming the level of power normally associated with programmable technologies.

This combination is of particular benefit to companies producing electronic products for imaging and communications applications in consumer and industrial markets. The low power consumption makes D-Fabrix particularly attractive for mobile and battery powered products. Visit http://www.elixent.com for more information.