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Berkeley Design's Full SPICE Accuracy and 5X-10X Performance Reduces Verification Time

SANTA CLARA, Calif. —January 15, 2007— Berkeley Design Automation Inc., provider of Precision Circuit Analysis(TM) technology for advanced analog and RF integrated circuits, today announced that Spansion, Inc. the world's largest pure-play provider of flash memory solutions, has adopted Analog FastSPICE(TM). Spansion adopted Analog FastSPICE after validating the tool’s full-SPICE accuracy and 5X-10X performance across a rigorous test suite of circuits.

“Our award-winning Spansion® MirrorBit® Flash memory technology pushes the limits of  circuit design creativity, simulation size and accuracy, so we are very careful about any new simulators we deploy,” said Jim Thomas, corporate vice president of product development at Spansion. “Frankly, we were skeptical when Berkeley Design Automation said Analog FastSPICE could produce results with the accuracy of our current SPICE simulator and run much faster without any changes to the netlist or our environment. After an extensive evaluation and qualification, we found that the tool delivers as promised.”

Analog FastSPICE uses Berkeley Design Automation’s proprietary Precision Circuit Analysis(TM) technology to deliver full SPICE accuracy, 5X to 10X performance, and extremely robust DC convergence compared to traditional SPICE tools – all without block-level tuning. The tool uses the original device equations without any approximations, abstractions, or short cuts, so it delivers identical waveforms as SPICE at every node on every run. It is ideal for simulations that take hours, days, or weeks in traditional SPICE simulators. In addition to leading-edge flash memories, Analog FastSPICE has been proven on a wide range of production circuits including full 802.11 a/b/g transceivers, sigma-delta ADCs, automatic gain control circuits with bandgap and bias, high-speed I/Os, memory interfaces, and multi-GHz PLLs and DLLs.

“We are delighted that Spansion has chosen Analog FastSPICE”, said Ravi Subramanian, president and CEO of Berkeley Design Automation. “Passing Spansion’s rigorous qualification process is the best testament to our Precision Circuit Analysis technology and the value it can deliver to design teams that push the limits of silicon technology.”

About Berkeley Design Automation
Berkeley Design Automation Inc. is the recognized leader in advanced analog/RF verification. Its Precision Circuit Analysis technology combines the accuracy, performance, and robustness needed to verify GHz designs in nanometer-scale silicon. Berkeley Design Automation is the recipient of the 2006 Red Herring 100 North America Award, making it the first EDA company to earn such a distinction in 5 years. Founded in 2003, the company is funded by Woodside Fund, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Matsushita Electric Industrial. For more information, see http://www.berkeley-da.com.

Analog FastSPICE, RF FastSPICE, PLL Noise Analyzer, and Precision Circuit Analysis are trademarks and Berkeley Design is a registered trademark of Berkeley Design Automation, Inc.
Spansion is a trademark and MirrorBit is a registered trademark of Spansion, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPSN).

PR for Berkeley Design Automation – Cayenne Communication LLC
Michelle Clancy, 252-940-0981, michelle.clancy@cayennecom.com