Magma Delivers Design Enablement Kit for IBM-Chartered 90-Nanometer Process Platform

Integrated RTL-to-GDSII system and kit provide Magma users with a predictable flow and fast ramp-up for 90-nanometer designs

SANTA CLARA, Calif., November 16, 2004 - Magma® Design Automation Inc. (Nasdaq: LAVA), a provider of chip design solutions, today announced that a fully-validated RTL-to-GDSII design enablement kit for the IBM-Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing jointly developed 90-nanometer (nm) process platform is now available online. The kit includes technology files, a methodology guide and scripts and Magma-qualified libraries. Used in conjunction with Magma's Blast CreateTM, Blast PlanTM Pro and Blast Fusion® products, the kit allows designers to immediately begin developing systems-on-chip (SoCs), eliminating risk and minimizing ramp up time and effort, while allowing maximum flexibility for dual-source manufacturing at IBM's and Chartered's 300-millimeter facilities.

"Our comprehensive process offering with IBM at 90 nanometer - combined with Magma's integrated, yet open design system - provide an effective solution that is available now to meet the requirements of products ranging from wireless mobile to high-performance networking," said Kevin Meyer, vice president of worldwide marketing and services at Chartered. "We're very impressed with the technical expertise of the Magma team and with the speed at which the design enablement kit was developed."

"Magma's IC implementation system and design enablement kit will help customers optimize their design process for the common IBM-Chartered 90-nanometer CMOS process technology," said Tom Reeves, vice president, semiconductor products and solutions, IBM Systems & Technology Group. "The availability of these tools can accelerate the development of high performance chips designed to leverage the leading-edge IBM-Chartered platform."

"Working with the world-class teams at IBM and Chartered has been a great experience," said Michael Ma, vice president of foundry and IP relationships at Magma. "It's incredible what can be achieved when three companies share the common goal of providing customers with a fast path to volume silicon."

Magma's Integrated, High-Capacity Approach & Advanced Capabilities Solve 90-Nanometer Design Challenges

Each component of the Magma system is based on a unified data model and uses the same timing, power and signal integrity analysis and optimization engines. As a result, the Magma system provides an accurate and highly integrated IC implementation solution that allows designers to address key 90-nanometer design issues such as on-chip variation (OCV) consideration, complex physical design rules and noise avoidance during implementation. By providing concurrent optimization within a unified environment, the Magma system helps designers to achieve performance goals and meet delivery schedules.

Blast Create, Blast Plan Pro and Blast Fusion are the key components of the Magma system. Blast Create is a predictable RTL-to-placed gates solution that enables designers to determine whether their design will meet timing prior to handing it off to layout. The high-capacity hierarchical design planning and prototyping capabilities in Blast Plan Pro enable designers to minimize the cycle time for top-level analysis and optimization on large and complex designs. Blast Plan Pro leverages Magma's unique GlassBox™ modeling technology to retain the relevant timing information in each block, allowing full optimization with minimal data. Blast Fusion is a fast physical design system for advanced methodologies and nanometer process technologies. It provides advanced analysis and optimization capabilities for designing high-performance, low-power designs. Blast Fusion enables rapid design closure, taking into account new nanometer design challenges such as OCV.

Availability of the Magma Design Enablement Kit for the IBM/Chartered 90-nm Process Platform

The Magma design enablement kit is available now and includes the following:

90-nm technology files including capacitance, resistance, design, antenna and EM rules are available for download from both the IBM Technology Connect and Chartered Online Access System (COLAS) websites.
A reference methodology kit that contains a methodology guide as well as scripts that enable the user to run the entire RTL-to-GDSII flow smoothly and predictably is available from Magma's foundry support website at http://www.magma-da.com/FoundryPartners.html
Magma-qualified libraries for the cross foundry platform are available at leading library vendors such as Artisan Components and Virage Logic.

About Magma

Magma provides leading software for designing highly complex integrated circuits while maximizing Quality of Results with respect to area, timing and power, and at the same time reducing overall design cycles and costs. Magma provides a complete RTL-to-GDSII design flow that includes design planning, prototyping, synthesis, place & route, and signal and power integrity chip design capabilities in a single executable, offering "The Fastest Path from RTL to Silicon"™. Magma's software also includes products for advanced physical synthesis and architecture development tools for programmable logic devices (PLDs); capacitance extraction; and characterization and modeling. The company's stock trades on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol LAVA. Visit Magma Design Automation on the Web at www.magma-da.com.

Magma and Blast Fusion are registered trademarks and Blast Create, Blast Plan, GlassBox and "The Fastest Path from RTL to Silicon" are trademarks of Magma Design Automation Inc. All other product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Forward-looking Statements:
Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, including statements that Magma's software and the Magma design enablement kit for the IBM-Chartered 90-nm process platform eliminate risk, minimize ramp up time and effort, allow maximum flexibility for IBM's and Chartered's 300-millimeter facilities, accelerate design closure and the development of high performance chips and about the features and benefits of Magma's software and the IBM-Chartered 90-nm process platform are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially including but not limited to the ability of Magma's, IBM's and Chartered's products to produce the desired results, the companies' abilities to keep pace with rapidly changing technology and the companies' decisions to continue working together. Further discussion of these and other potential risk factors may be found in Magma's public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (www.sec.gov). The companies undertake no additional obligation to update these forward-looking statements.