Press Release

Accent Joins Open Core Protocol International Partnership

Membership Helps Accent Customers in Design Reuse and Further Strengthens OCP-IP’s Presence in Europe

PORTLAND, ORE. — November 25, 2002 — Open Core Protocol International Partnership (OCP-IP) today announced that Accent, a joint venture between STMicroelectronics and Cadence Design Systems, a leading provider of electronic design services and platform-level intellectual property (IP), is joining the organization. Accent is using OCP to shorten customers’ design cycles and get products to market quicker. Accent’s membership further strengthens an already solid OCP-IP presence in Europe.

“Time-to-Market pressure, multi-million gates design complexity and cost of masks are driving the industry towards more disciplined design styles that favor fast and accurate IP integration and verification processes to warrant correct-the first-time implementations. On these lines common IP interfaces are increasingly important to deliver solutions to customers rapidly, efficiently and cost-effectively,” said Massimo Vanzi, general manager for Accent.

“Thanks to hundreds of complex devices successfully taped out over last 10 years, Accent possesses a solid experience in SoC/IP design and Silicon Layout Implementation and we do believe OCP technology will contribute to improve our design productivity and the quality of our results through design reuse.”

The addition of Accent bolsters OCP-IP already strong European presence. Recent European members to join the organization include: Amphion Semiconductor, Siroyan, VCX and Valiosys among others.

“We are pleased to have Accent among our members,” said Ian Mackintosh, president of OCP-IP. “OCP-IP’s rapidly expanding membership roster shows OCP has quickly become the industry standard socket. It’s a socket everyone can use, no matter their on-chip architecture or processor cores.”

OCP-IP offers a complete socket solution to its members including tools, training and technical support necessary to quickly begin making IP cores OCP-compliant and ready for rapid SOC integration with other third-party IP. OCP-IP saves enormous time and R&D investment that would otherwise be required to maintain a proprietary socket specification, training, support and tools. For more information please visit www.ocpip.org.

About Accent
Accent Srl is a joint venture incorporated in 1993 between STMicroelectronics (51%) and Cadence Design Systems (49%). Accent is a leading provider of electronic design services and platform-level intellectual property (IP) in the field of multimedia, telecom, automotive applications and low-power general computing. Accent’s offerings include System-on-Chip Design, Silicon Implementation, Analog and Mixed Signal Design, Embedded SW porting, and IP Reuse services. Additional information is available at www.accent.it.

About OCP-IP
The OCP International Partnership Association, Inc. (OCP-IP) was formed in December 2001 to promote and support the open core protocol (OCP) as the complete socket standard that ensures rapid creation and integration of interoperable virtual components. OCP-IP's founding members and initial Governing Steering Committee participants are: Nokia [NYSE: NOK], Texas Instruments [NYSE: TXN], MIPS Technologies [NasdaqNM: MIPS], United Microelectronics Corporation [NYSE: UMC], and Sonics, Inc., the inventor of the OCP technology. OCP-IP is a non-profit corporation focused on delivering the first fully supported, openly licensed core-centric protocol that comprehensively fulfills system-level integration requirements. The OCP facilitates IP core reusability and reduces design time and risk, along with manufacturing costs for SoC designs. For additional background and membership information, visit www.OCPIP.org.  

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