Oki reduces custom LSI layout design time in half with Pulsic technology

Tokyo, Japan and Bristol, England -- July 13, 2006 -- Oki Electric Industry Company Limited (TSE:6703) and Pulsic Limited today announced that Oki has adopted Pulsic’s routing and full interactive editing technology. This is designed to handle the exacting demands of Oki’s custom LSI layout designs such as Flat Panel Display Driver (TFT-LCD and OLED(*1)) and Memory DRAM (P2ROM™(*2)). As a result, Oki has halved the overall design time for its custom LSI layout by implementing Pulsic’s Lyric™ technology in its design flow and methodology.

In order to achieve the smallest die size possible in custom LSI layout, the vast majority of the design must be done manually, as traditional automated tools cannot produce the quality of results required to achieve performance targets while meeting area requirements. This inevitably results in longer time to market factors and increased costs. It also relies heavily on the skill and know-how of highly experienced designers - of which Oki was no exception.

Oki extensively used Pulsic’s unique and patented “spine and stitch” routing technology to provide outstanding high quality results in seconds while accurately controlling advanced rules and constraints. In the case of the LCD driver designs, Oki was also able to specify tight controls for specific wiring layers per region of the design coupled with highly flexible via control.

Ichiro Yamamoto, Senior Manager, Design System Department in the Common Technology Development Division of Oki Electric’s Silicon Solutions Company, explained, “Pulsic provides a high quality handcrafted routing result. We have achieved at least a two-fold decrease in total layout turnaround time by using Lyric for the routing phase alone.” Mr. Yamamoto continued, “The tool’s ease of use and its flexibility to provide the required results in a fraction of the time it previously took, has prompted us to move to standardizing on Lyric.”

Fumiaki Sato, VP Business Development Japan for Pulsic, added, “We are delighted to make such a contribution to a leading semiconductor company such as Oki, and we look forward to yet further success as our business relationship continues.”

Oki licensed Lyric through Jedat Incorporated, which is one of Pulsic’s distribution outlets in Japan.
[Glossary]

*1 OLED:
Organic Light Emitting Diode.
*2 P2ROM™:
Production programmed ROM developed by Oki Electric Industry Co. Ltd.

About Pulsic

Pulsic Limited is the leading software company in delivering shape-based physical IC design solutions. Pulsic provides advanced physical design automation to high-volume IC markets and specializes in memory, complex analog, custom digital and mixed-signal IC designs. Pulsic’s product range includes hierarchical floorplanning, detailed placement, automatic routing and interactive editing. Pulsic has delivered more than 150 tape-outs with over 40 customers worldwide and is the only supplier of specialized layout automation for memory; six out of the top ten memory manufacturers use Pulsic. Pulsic was founded in January 2000 and is a privately held company, headquartered in Bristol, UK. For more information, telephone +44 (0)117 325 5000 or visit www.pulsic.com.

About Oki Electric Industry Company Limited

Founded in 1881, Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. is Japan’s first telecommunications manufacturer, with its headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. With the corporate vision, “Oki, Network Solutions for a Global Society,” Oki provides top-quality products, technologies and solutions to its customers through its info-telecom system business, semiconductor business and printer business. All three businesses function as a collective force to create exciting new products and technologies that satisfy a spectrum of customer needs in various markets. Visit Oki’s global web site at http://www.oki.com/.

About Jedat Incorporated

For more information on Jedat Incorporated, visit www.jedat.co.jp.
Notes:

* Pulsic and Lyric are trademarks of Pulsic Limited.
* All other trademarks and trade names are the property of their respective holders.

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