Artisan Introduces Velocity PHY Series for High-Speed Interconnect Standards; Series Includes Flagship PCI Express and DDR/DDR2/GDDR3 PHYs

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 22, 2004 -- Artisan Components, Inc., (Nasdaq:ARTI), a leading provider of physical intellectual property (IP), today announced the introduction of its Velocity PHY(TM) (physical layer) Series for high-speed interconnect standards. The PHYs meet the stringent requirements for high-speed serial and parallel interconnect standards such as PCI Express, Serial ATA, XAUI, DDR, DDR2 and GDDR3. The Velocity PHY Series provides a comprehensive solution including support for leading EDA tools, detailed data sheets, application notes, silicon lab reports, characterization boards and expert customer support.

Growth in the emerging market for high-speed serial and parallel interconnect architectures is expected to be driven by the simultaneous requirements for increased performance and reduced cost in electronic systems. Artisan's Velocity PHYs offer silicon-proven performance, ease of integration and broad foundry support, and are fully compatible with Artisan's memory, standard cell, I/O and analog IP products.

All Artisan Velocity PHYs are architected for easy integration into complex system-on-chip (SoC) designs. Performance and feature sets are optimized to give SoC designers greater implementation flexibility at the system-level. As an example, the low jitter, small size and low power of the Velocity PCI Express PHY enables the designer more flexibility in allocating the overall system jitter, area and power budget.

Velocity PCI Express PHY
The Velocity PHY Series includes a PCI Express solution that offers a high-level of integration and includes a spread spectrum compliant PLL, dynamic impedance calibrator and PCI Express and PIPE (physical interface for PCI Express architecture) compliant PHY with all logic implemented in silicon for predictable and optimal performance. The Velocity PCI Express PHY is now available in 1x, 2x, 4x and 8x lane configurations for flip-chip and wire-bond packages on TSMC's 130-nanometer process.

Artisan worked closely with leading networking, graphics and ASIC companies to develop a rich feature set for the Velocity PCI Express PHY. The PHY's small size saves die area and reduces cost on many of today's I/O bound ICs. It also exhibits excellent low power performance with less than 80mw consumed per lane. The low transmit jitter and high receiver jitter tolerance enables error-free data transfer operation over a wide-range of operating conditions and environments.

Velocity DDR/DDR2/GDDR3 PHY
The Velocity DDR PHY is a comprehensive, programmable solution encompassing DDR, DDR2, and GDDR3 memory interfaces. Dynamic impedance allows for operation of up to 1Gb/s. Calibrated on-die termination resistors eliminate the need for external on-board components, reducing cost and design time, while improving performance. The complementary master/slave DLL with an operating range of 200Mb/s to 1.4Gb/s allows for a wide range of memory speeds, reduces the power/area product and improves performance, and has low jitter.

"The emergence of multi-gigabit interconnect standards is creating a need for sophisticated mixed-signal IP beyond the traditional Verilog and GDSII 'black box' approach," said Callan Carpenter, Artisan's vice president and general manager, Analog/Mixed-signal Business Unit. "The bar has been raised for IP providers. Artisan is enabling IC companies to more quickly capitalize on the growth markets served by these standards by providing comprehensive, silicon and system validated IP solutions."

Velocity PHYs Availability
The Velocity PCI Express and DDR, DDR2 and GDDR3 PHYs are immediately available. For more information about the Artisan's Velocity PHYs, visit Artisan's website at www.artisan.com.

About Artisan Components
Artisan Components, Inc. is a leading provider of physical intellectual property (IP) components for the design and manufacture of complex system-on-a-chip integrated circuits. Artisan's products include embedded memory, standard cell, input/output, analog and mixed-signal components, which are designed to achieve the best combination of performance, density, power and yield. Artisan has licensed its IP components to over 1,200 companies involved in integrated circuit design. Artisan is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. More information about Artisan Components, including free library access, can be found at www.artisan.com.

Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding Artisan's introduction of the Velocity PHY Series, the performance and impact of such products, the market for high-speed serial and parallel interconnect architectures and the benefits of using Artisan's Velocity PHY Series products. These statements are subject to various risk factors including, without limitation, technical and other difficulties or delays in the introduction, implementation, adoption or performance of the Velocity PHY Series. We refer you also to the documents that Artisan files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, in particular the section entitled "Factors Affecting Future Operating Results" in Artisan's annual report on Form 10-K and its quarterly reports on Forms 10-Q.

Artisan Components and Artisan are registered trademarks and Velocity is a trademark of Artisan Components, Inc.

All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE: Artisan Components, Inc.