Tensilica Appoints Virtual IP Group as an Authorized Design Center

Santa Clara, CA, October 9, 2000 – Tensilica, Inc., a Santa Clara-based provider of configurable application-specific processor cores and development tools for System-on-Chip (SOC) designs today announced that Virtual IP Group, Inc. has been appointed a Tensilica Authorized Design Center and a charter member of the Tensilica Xtensions Network Program.

Design enters provide essential services to many organizations that are defining and building their leading edge SOC designs today. Through the company’s Authorized Design Center program, a part of the Tensilica Xtensions Network Program, Tensilica ensures that these services will be available to its licensees. Tensilica Authorized Design Center engineering personnel receive extensive training on the Xtensa™ architecture, configuration and software development tools, on-going support and access to technology updates, and direct access to applications engineering.

“Virtual IP Group’s broad range of capabilities span traditional design services to providing and integrating processor peripheral IP and software,” said Bernie Rosenthal, Tensilica’s vice president of marketing and business development commented, “Their expertise in these areas will enable designers to realize the full potential of the Xtensa architecture. We are excited to be partnered with them to support our customers’ stringent performance demands and time-to-market requirements.”

“There is a wide range of high performance SOC-based applications achievable with the configurable Xtensa Processor. This partnership further enhances our ability to provide SOC design services using this platform,” said Joseph Hong, Virtual IP Group’s vice president of marketing.

About Virtual IP Group, Inc.

Virtual IP Group was established in 1994. It is a leading design foundry providing intellectual property (IP) development, licensing and integration services as well as front end and back end design services. The company offers a comprehensive library of silicon-proven, synthesizable intellectual property cores for implementation in FPGA, ASIC and COT design platforms. In March 2000, ZiLOG Inc. purchased a 20-percent equity stake in Virtual IP Group and QualCore Logic Ltd., an affiliate of Virtual IP Group located in Hyderabad, India. For additional information, visit www.virtualipgroup.com or call 408-733-3344.

About Tensilica

Tensilica was founded in July 1997 to address the fast-growing market for configurable microprocessor cores and software development tools for high volume, embedded systems. Using the company's proprietary Xtensa Processor Generator, system-on-a-chip (SOC) designers can develop a processor subsystem hardware design and a complete software development tool environment tailored to their specific requirements in hours.

Tensilica's solutions provide a proven, easy-to-use, methodology that enables designers to achieve optimum application performance in minimum design time. The Company is engaged in research, development, and customer support from its offices in Santa Clara, California, Waltham, Massachusetts, Princeton, N.J., Houston, Texas, Oxford, U.K. and Yokohama, Japan.

Tensilica is headquartered in Santa Clara, California (95054) at 3255-6 Scott Boulevard, and can be reached at (408) 986-8000 or via www.tensilica.com on the World Wide Web.

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"Tensilica" is a registered trademark and "Xtensa" and “Xtensions” are trademarks belonging to Tensilica, Inc.