Open-Silicon Licenses Multiple RaSer Serial Link Cells Under the Cadence-Rambus Reseller Program

Enables Open-Silicon's Customers Access to Portfolio of Silicon-Proven, High-Speed Interfaces Along With Design Tools and Engineering Services

LOS ALTOS, Calif. & SAN JOSE, Calif., Mar 22, 2005 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Rambus Inc. (Nasdaq:RMBS), one of the world's premier technology licensing companies specializing in high-speed chip interfaces, and Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NYSE:CDN)(Nasdaq:CDN), the world's largest supplier of electronic-design technologies and engineering services, today announced that Open-Silicon, a fabless ASIC company, has licensed multiple Rambus RaSer(TM) serial link offerings through the Cadence-Rambus reseller program.

Under the agreement, Open-Silicon gains access to a portion of the portfolio of Rambus's silicon-proven, industry-standard RaSer PHY cells for applications such as PCI Express(1), 10-Gigabit Ethernet/XAUI and Serial RapidIO(R).

"Our customers are looking for the most predictable and reliable ASIC turnkey solution available. Integrating Rambus's serial links into multiple customer designs has been incredibly successful," said Naveed Sherwani, president & CEO of Open-Silicon. "As an IP aggregator, Open-Silicon can provide this silicon-proven IP to our customers, hence simplifying the transfer of Rambus's IP to ASIC designers."

The Rambus RaSer family of serial link interfaces offers designers scalable serial link architectures proven in volume production and is optimized to address current and future serial link systems applications requiring the highest bandwidth and channel count on a single chip. Under the Cadence-Rambus program, serial link PHYs from Cadence were acquired by Rambus and incorporated into the existing Rambus RaSer serial link product line. Cadence Engineering Services has access to the Rambus portfolio of serial link cells to deliver customized design solutions upon request.

"Cadence and Rambus deliver the combination of a broad portfolio of silicon-proven serial link products together with deep expertise in analog, mixed-signal integration," said Tim Henricks, vice president, engineering services at Cadence(R). "This combination enables customers to invest more in leveraging their core expertise to deliver winning products in the marketplace."

The RaSer serial link interfaces have been implemented across a variety of computing, consumer and communication systems, including networking switch backplanes, Gigabit and 10-Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, numerous PCI Express applications, 1/2/4 Gbps Fibre Channel systems, other fiber-optic network interfaces, as well as several custom high-speed chip interface applications. The portfolio of cells is available on multiple foundry and captive processes at every process node ranging from 180nm to 65nm.

"Customers are seeking long-term partnerships that combine strong technical leadership with a commitment to a roadmap of products," said Kevin Donnelly, vice president of engineering at Rambus. "The Cadence-Rambus alliance offers customers the benefits of streamlined design cycles, faster time to market, and a significant reduction in the total cost of ownership."

About Cadence

Cadence is the world's largest supplier of electronic-design technologies and engineering services. Cadence products and services are used to accelerate and manage the design of semiconductors, computer systems, networking equipment, telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics, and other electronics-based products. With approximately 4,900 employees and 2004 revenues of approximately $1.2 billion, Cadence has sales offices, design centers, and research facilities around the world. The company is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., and trades on both the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq under the symbol CDN. More information is available at www.cadence.com.

About Rambus Inc.

Rambus is one of the world's premier technology licensing companies specializing in the invention and design of high-speed chip interfaces. Since its founding in 1990, the company's innovations, breakthrough technologies and integration expertise have helped industry-leading chip and system companies solve their most challenging and complex I/O problems and bring their products to market. Rambus's interface solutions can be found in numerous computing, consumer, and communications products and applications. Rambus is headquartered in Los Altos, Calif., with regional offices in Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Bangalore, India; Taipei, Taiwan; and Tokyo, Japan. Additional information is available at www.rambus.com.

Cadence and the Cadence logo are registered trademark of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

(1) PCI Express is a trademark of PCI-SIG; RapidIO is a registered trademark of the RapidIO Trade Association.

SOURCE: Rambus Inc.