New JasperGold Verification System 4.0 Delivers 100% Actual Coverage to ABV Users and Eases Migration to High-Level Requirements

Jasper Technology Wins Benchmarks in PSL Verification And Formal Engine Performance

Mountain View, Calif. - May 24, 2005 - Jasper Design Automation, provider of breakthrough high-level formal verification solutions, today announced JasperGold® Verification System 4.0, a major new release of the company's flagship formal verification solution. Also introduced today was JasperGold Verification System Express, a new push-button version of JasperGold Verification System for assertion-based verification (ABV), offering an easy-to-use, easy-to-adopt solution for simulation ABV users migrating to formal verification. The JasperGold Verification System 4.0 product line is the culmination of an integration of leading technologies from Jasper Design Automation and Safelogic Corporation, which Jasper acquired in January 2005, plus significant new development. New capabilities in the JasperGold Verification System 4.0 product line include the industry's strongest implementation of the Property Specification Language (PSL) for formal verification, new high-performance formal proof engines, a redesigned user interface improving ease-of-use, and a unique new graphical specification environment for visualizing and debugging properties. JasperGold Verification System 4.0 delivers faster, easier, and more complete assertion-based verification, with the industry's only ability to scale to 100% actual coverage on difficult assertions and high-level requirements.

The new push-button verification features in JasperGold Verification System Express enable simulation users to easily leverage the assertions they have written for simulation, with the majority achieving 100% actual coverage with simple push-button ease. For difficult assertions, which other ABV solutions cannot complete, users can employ JasperGold Verification System's unique Design Tunneling capability to scale to 100% actual coverage. Once in place for formal ABV, the JasperGold Verification System solution provides an easy migration to full formal verification of designer-size blocks using high-level requirements. High-level requirements work like assertions - but at a higher level - so they cover much more of a design's functionality than any sum of lower-level assertions, and therefore, once proved, provide greater proof of correctness.

"We see users migrating from simulation-based ABV solutions to formal solutions, only to find that not all their assertions can be 100% verified in other tools, and they don't get to choose which of their important assertions complete," said Kathryn Kranen, president and CEO at Jasper Design Automation. "In contrast, JasperGold Verification System's unique Design Tunneling enables the user to reach 100% actual coverage on the toughest assertions and high-level requirements. In addition, the combination of these products will provide a smooth, low-risk path from simulation-based ABV to full formal verification of blocks using high-level requirements".

Industry's Strongest Formal PSL Implementation
Jasper's PSL implementation, the industry's strongest for formal verification, leverages the work done by Safelogic in this area, which was recently ranked first out of seven solutions evaluated by a major European wireless equipment provider.

"PSL is a rapidly burgeoning standard, but unfortunately there are many rudimentary and incomplete implementations in the market today," said Harry Foster, chairman of the IEEE-1850 PSL Committee and chief methodologist at Jasper Design Automation. "Jasper's Sweden team is widely recognized as having made major contributions to the development of the PSL standard, particularly as it relates to formal proof, and have developed the most comprehensive support of PSL in the formal industry."

New Formal Engines Enable Fast Push-Button Verification
JasperGold Verification System 4.0 brings to market several new internally-developed formal proof engines, including one of the world's fastest formal engines as measured by an international technical competition. The new engines provide fast and efficient handling of simultaneous multiple assertions, enabling a rapid push-button assertion-based verification flow supported in both JasperGold Verification System and JasperGold Verification System Express.

In addition, JasperGold Verification System's graphical user interface has been overhauled to support PSL-style grouping of properties for enhanced performance and easy management of assertion tracking. JasperGold Verification System also now features a new graphical capability for graphical waveform visualization and debug of properties. This unique feature enables the rapid development of validated properties prior to the start of RTL coding.

Pricing and Availability
JasperGold Verification System and JasperGold Verification System Express will be available in Q3 of this year. JasperGold Verification System Express is priced at $45,000 for a one-year time-based license. JasperGold Verification System, which includes all the functionality of JasperGold Verification System Express plus a floating Design Tunneling license, is priced at $120,000 for a one-year time-based license.

About Jasper Design Automation
Jasper Design Automation is a privately-held Electronic Design Automation (EDA) company with a mission of making full formal IC verification a competitive advantage for its customers. The company's flagship product, JasperGold® Verification System, is the first verification product to deliver 100% actual coverage, and accomplishes this task within predictable, finite schedule constraints. JasperGold Verification System formally verifies that complex IC design blocks meet high-level requirements defined in their specifications, and also pre-verifies IP blocks for use under all usage modes, without any testbench development. JasperGold Verification System automatically isolates bugs with a unique, fast debugging capability. By isolating bugs earlier than simulation or formal-assisted simulation tools, and then proving the absence of bugs, JasperGold Verification System trims crucial months off design schedules. For further details on how to achieve 100% actual coverage, and improve verification productivity, predictability and verification reuse, please visit http://www.jasper-da.com.

#                      #                      # 

Jasper Design Automation, the Jasper Design Automation logo, JasperGold Verification System, PreCognitive Engine, Design Tunneling and Jasper Formal Testplanner are trademarks of Jasper Design Automation, Inc. All other names mentioned are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of their respective companies.