Axis Systems' Xtreme Verification System Increases Chip Quality for Matsushita's Newest Digital Video Camera

Xtreme contributes to first silicon success, reduces R&D costs for 1.3-million-gate image processing chip

Sunnyvale, CA - November 12, 2002 - Axis Systems, Inc. today announced that AVC Company, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (Osaka, Japan, NYSE/PCX: MC) used the Xtreme™ verification system from Axis to increase the quality and reduce verification time of an image processing chip for Matsushita's DIGICAM NV-MX5000 digital video camera.

The new chip is a system large-scale integration (LSI) chip that contains more than 1.3 million logic gates and more than 20 Mb of embedded dynamic random access memory (DRAM). The chip, which uses the Advanced Pixel Interpolation System (AXIS) technology that Matsushita developed, is the first to enable a digital video camera to record three-million pixel still images with extremely high resolution and outstanding image quality. In addition to the AXIS technology, the camera system also uses three charge-coupled devices (CCDs), giving it the quality of a professional broadcast video camera.

Xtreme, which integrates software simulation, accelerated simulation, and emulation in one system, enabled Matsushita designers to run long tests on the chip, vastly improving verification results over their previous software simulation solution. Because the chip was thoroughly verified, Matsushita achieved first silicon success.

"Matsushita has been a loyal customer of Axis for a long time," said Mike Tsai, president and CEO of Axis. "We're pleased to know that our products and services have reduced Matsushita's verification costs and virtually eliminated silicon respins, which is essential for a worldwide leader in the development and manufacture of electronic products."

"We could not have done such thorough chip verification with our previous software simulation solution," said Mr. Koichi Toyomura, Staff Engineer in the AVC Network Business Group, AVC Company, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. "Xtreme was very easy to adopt. We incorporated it into our current methodology with very little effort, and it came up in acceleration mode in half a day."

Mr. Koichi Toyomura added that Xtreme makes it very easy to debug a design, using features like VCD on demand and hot swapping. Because the design team reduced their verification time by two-thirds, they had more time to verify the chip, using longer image vectors and more kinds of vectors than ever before.

About Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (Panasonic)
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., best known for its Panasonic, National, and Technics and Quasar brand names, is a worldwide leader in the development and manufacture of electronics products for a wide range of consumer, business, and industrial needs. Based in Osaka, Japan, the company recorded consolidated sales of US$51.7 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2002. In addition to the Tokyo and other Japanese stock exchanges (6752), Matsushita Electric is also listed on the Amsterdam, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, New York, Pacific (NYSE/PCX: MC), and Paris stock exchanges. For more information, visit Panasonic's web site at: http://www.panasonic.co.jp/global/top.html.

About Axis Systems
Axis Systems, Inc. offers high-performance verification systems for the hardware and software development of complex electronic system and system-on-a-chip designs. Axis' products help increase confidence in new designs, improve overall verification productivity and shorten time to market. On a single system and with one design database, Axis' patented ReConfigurable Computing (RCC) technology provides software simulation, accelerated simulation, system emulation and hardware/software co-verification. Customers include the world's leading graphics, networking, multimedia, and processor companies. Axis is headquartered at 209 Java Drive, Sunnyvale, CA 94089. To learn more about Axis, www.axiscorp.com.