Tensilica Appoints Paula Jones as Director of Corporate Communications

Seasoned Communications Professional Will Spearhead Worldwide Communications Programs

Santa Clara, Calif., July 22, 2002 – Tensilica, Inc., the leading supplier of configurable and extensible processor technology, today announced it has hired industry veteran Paula Jones as director of corporate communications. Applying more than 20 years of experience in marketing communications, public and investor relations for numerous semiconductor and electronic design automation (EDA) companies, Jones will spearhead Tensilica’s worldwide communications programs. Jones replaces Kim Alfaro, who retires after working with the company since shortly after it was founded.

“We are very excited to have Paula join our team. Her extensive experience with both high profile and small microprocessor and EDA companies has given her the rare, diverse background that is necessary to continue evangelizing the benefits of our technology. Tensilica’s communications program has been highly successful under Kim’s direction, and we will miss his valuable insight and talent,” said Bernie Rosenthal, senior vice president of marketing and Sales for Tensilica.

Jones joins Tensilica after nearly five years as president of her own communications firm, New Ideas in Communications. Her company served the public relations and marketing communications needs of a number of small, growing companies in the semiconductor industry, including Tensilica. As one Tensilica’s earliest consultants, she was a valuable contributor to the launch of the company’s Xtensa® microprocessor technology.

Prior to founding her own firm, Jones held director-level positions with a variety of companies including MMC Networks, Synopsys and Cirrus Logic. She played an instrumental role in the successful IPOs of both MMC and Cirrus Logic. As director of corporate communications for Synopsys, she built and managed a staff of 25 people and was responsible for all internal and external communications for numerous high-profile acquisitions, mergers and strategic partnerships. She has extensive experience in both product and corporate marketing and public relations, as well as an in-depth understanding of the financial and investor communities.

About Tensilica, Inc.

Tensilica was founded in July 1997 to address the fast-growing market for configurable processors and software development tools for high volume, embedded systems. Using the company's proprietary Xtensa Processor Generator, system-on-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 in Santa Clara, California; Burlington, Massachusetts; Princeton, NJ; Austin, Texas; Raleigh, NC; Oxford, U.K.; Stockholm, Sweden; Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.; 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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Editors’ Notes:

"Tensilica" and "Xtensa" are registered trademarks belonging to Tensilica, Inc. All other registered trademarks or trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Tensilica's announced licensees are Avision, Berkeley Wireless Research Center, Broadcom, Cisco Systems, Conexant Systems, FUJIFILM Microdevices, Fujitsu Ltd., Hughes Network Systems, IC4IC, Ikanos Communications, JNI Corporation, Marvell (Galileo Technology), Mindspeed Technologies, National Semiconductor, NEC Networks, NEC Solutions, Nippon Telephone and Telegraph (NTT), Olympus Optical Co., ONEX Communications, OptiX Networks, Osaka & Kyoto Universities, TranSwitch Corporation, Victor Company of Japan (JVC) and ZiLOG.