NEWS & EVENTS

Epson Research and Development Center Chooses Forte's Cynthesizer to Design Next Generation Image Processing SoCs

San Jose, Calif. – June 13, 2005 - Forte Design Systems has announced that Seiko Epson Corporation (Epson) has chosen Forte's Cynthesizer behavioral synthesis product to design its next generation image processing applications. Epson's decision was based on Cynthesizer's superior stability and performance as well as Forte's industry leadership in behavioral design.

"After closely evaluating Forte's Cynthesizer and other options in behavioral synthesis and verification, Epson picked Forte's behavioral synthesis as the high-level design technology we will incorporate into our design flow for our next generation consumer products in our development projects." said Akinari Todoroki, General Manager of the Information and Communications Technology Communications Device R&D Development Division at Seiko Epson Corporation Research and Development Center. "Conventional design methods can not utilize design results of algorithm verification at the C language level forcing RTL designers to hand-coded their hardware. We have now confirmed that we obtain consistent quality of results at the C language level and the hardware (RTL) design by incorporating Forte's Cynthesizer into our system-level development process. We have chosen Cynthesizer for the design projects in our division and are aiming for significant reduction in SoCs development time by designing IP reusable in other projects and deriving projects."

"We are very pleased that companies on the leading edge of consumer product design, such as Epson, has adopted Forte's product for their SystemC and behavioral synthesis solutions," said Brett Cline, Forte's vice president of customer operations & services and corporate communications. "Epson's decision to rely on Cynthesizer to develop their next-generation image processing applications demonstrates the reliability and sophistication of Forte's SystemC-based approach for handling the challenges inherent in leading-edge electronics design."

About Forte Cynthesizer
Forte's Cynthesizer significantly reduces the time needed to create complex chips and systems by automatically generating high-quality RTL designs from high-level algorithms. Cynthesizer is silicon proven with uncompromising quality of results that often exceed hand coded RTL. It is the only behavioral synthesis product that offers designers a complete environment including synthesis, verification, and co-simulation. Cynthesizer has been used on over 75 designs and is in production use in many of the largest systems and semiconductor companies worldwide.

About Forte Design Systems
Forte Design Systems is a leading provider of software products that enable design at a higher-level of abstraction. Forte's innovative behavioral synthesis technology allows design teams creating complex electronic systems from algorithmic designs using ASICs, FPGAs, and SoCs to significantly reduce their overall design and verification time. Forte is headquartered at 100 Century Center Court, San Jose, CA 95112. For more information, visit us at www.ForteDS.com.

About Epson
Epson is a global leader in imaging products including printers, projectors and LCDs. With an innovative and creative culture, Epson is dedicated to exceeding the vision and expectations of customers worldwide with products known for their superior quality, functionality, compactness and energy efficiency.

Epson is a network of 85,647 employees in 115 companies around the world, and is proud of its ongoing contributions to the global environment and to the communities in which it is located. Led by the Japan-based Seiko Epson Corp., the Group had consolidated sales of 1479.7 billion yen in fiscal 2004. For more information, visit www.epson.co.jp/e.