Open-Silicon Inc. Acquires IP Assets of Zenasis Technology

Acquisition Enables Open-Silicon to Increase Speed, Power, and Time-to-Market Solutions for ASICs


MILPITAS, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- May 7, 2007 -- Open-Silicon, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company delivering a reliable, predictable and cost-effective alternative to traditional chip design and supply chain models, today announces it has acquired the key intellectual property assets of Zenasis Technology. This acquisition expands Open-Silicon's Science of ASICs initiative.

"The focus of Open-Silicon's standardized design methodology is to address the challenges of complex ASIC design in a disciplined manner to produce cost-effective ASICs, with predictable on-time schedules and reliable working first-time silicon results," said Dr. Naveed Sherwani, president and CEO of Open-Silicon, Inc. "By incorporating this new technology, we will be able to optimize our customers' designs for performance, power, and area, and improve their time to market, which will allow them to differentiate themselves in the market. This is exactly what the ASIC market needs."

Most ASIC implementation tools optimize a design at the standard cell level and physical design levels only. The acquired Zenasis technology will enable Open-Silicon to combine the benefits of increased performance and power through design-specific cell creation by concurrently analyzing and optimizing designs at standard cell, physical and transistor levels. ASIC designs with embedded processor cores can greatly benefit from this technology. By using transistor-level design and analysis techniques, embedded processor cores running at the highest frequencies can be realized. For example, a processor core whose frequency would otherwise limit its applicability to specific market applications due to performance could now be increased by up to 10% to meet broader markets such as video or communication.

"We are excited about the acquisition of Zenasis' hybrid optimization technology," said Dr. Satya Gupta, vice president of engineering at Open-Silicon. "By incorporating this new technology into our design flow, we will be able to give ASIC customers access to technology enhancements that were previously only available to high-end IDM customers. This technology will help Open-Silicon bridge the performance gap between standard cell based ASIC designs and custom designs."

About Open-Silicon, Inc.

Open-Silicon, Inc. is a fabless ASIC company delivering the most cost-effective, predictable and reliable custom ASIC solution to electronics product customers worldwide. Open-Silicon's OpenMODEL™ is the semiconductor industry's first end-to-end custom ASIC solution based on a revolutionary business model that provides a seamless, low-cost, low risk alternative to traditional models for complex ASIC design and development. For more information, visit Open-Silicon's website at www.open-silicon.com or call 408-240-5700.

Contact Information: Press Contact: Darwa Peterson Open-Silicon 408-240-5720 cell: 650-576-2866 Email Contact