Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDNS), the leader in global electronic-design innovation, and Silicon Integration Initiative (Si2), a worldwide consortium of industry-leading companies in the semiconductor, electronic systems and EDA tool industries, announced today that they have reached agreement for Si2 to facilitate standardization of the Common Power Format (CPF) through the IEEE. Si2 agrees to join the IEEE-SA as a corporate member and, once the CPF Working Group (WG) has been approved by the IEEE, Si2 has agreed to be available, at the request of the WG, to serve as secretary of the IEEE CPF WG to enable closer synchronization with Si2's recently announced Low-Power Coalition (LPC).

As part of this agreement, CPF will be made available to LPC members for their review. CPF has been developed with significant input from a broad cross-section of industry leaders in the Power Forward Initiative. LPC members will receive access to CPF by October 31, 2006. Membership in the LPC is open to all Si2 members, which currently includes 108 companies.

"CPF has excellent potential to serve a foundation role in low-power design flows," said Steve Schulz, president and CEO of Si2. "We have listened to industry on the importance of open and unified standards-based flows, so we are pleased to contribute by aligning the CPF standardization efforts through inclusion of LPC members by taking an active role in approved IEEE standardization processes."

"Cadence has had many positive experiences with Si2 in building user coalitions and driving market adoption," said Jan Willis, senior vice president, Industry Alliances at Cadence. "We are delighted to support Si2 through the Low-Power Coalition to facilitate industry-wide market development of the Common Power Format."

More details about this agreement will be presented by Si2 at the Low Power Workshop hosted by Si2 and Accellera on October 5 in San Jose. This workshop is an open forum for technical leadership of end-user companies to identify critical needs in the area of low power design, verification, and analysis of integrated circuits.

About CPF
CPF is a new design language that addresses the limitation in the design automation tool flow by capturing the designer's intent for power management and enabling the automation of advanced power-lowering design techniques. The Common Power Format enables all design, verification, implementation—and technology-related power objectives to be captured in a single file and allows the application of that data across the design flow, providing a consistent reference point for design development and production.

About Si2
Si2 is an organization of industry-leading semiconductor, systems, EDA and manufacturing companies focused on improving the way integrated circuits are designed and manufactured in order to speed time-to market, reduce costs, and meet the challenges of sub-micron design. Si2 is uniquely positioned to enable collaboration through a strong implementation focus driven by its member companies. Si2 focuses on developing practical technology solutions to industry challenges. Si2 represents over 100 companies involved in all parts of the silicon supply chain throughout the world.