SANTA CLARA, Calif., and HSINCHU, Taiwan, October 8, 2003 - Magma Design Automation Inc. (Nasdaq: LAVA), a provider of chip design solutions, and UMC (NYSE:UMC), a world-leading semiconductor foundry, today announced the availability of the first fully validated, proven-in-silicon RTL-to-GDSII reference flow slated for chip designers utilizing UMC’s 0.18-micron, 0.13-micron and 90-nanometer process technologies. For the first time, UMC’s customers will have access to a comprehensive reference methodology that accelerates the high-level design through tape-out process. The flow can be downloaded today from either company’s website.

Mutual customers that have already successfully implemented designs using the RTL-to-GDSII flow include WIS Technologies, which has a video compression chip currently in production, and Faraday, which has successfully validated multiple silicon intellectual property cores and libraries for UMC’s 90-nanometer process using the Magma-UMC flow.

"We’re very pleased to see the availability of the UMC-Magma reference flow,” said Phil Brennan, vice president of operations at WIS Technologies. ”With complete and well-maintained reference flows for all of UMC’s key technologies, we can accelerate the migration of our designs to finer process geometries.”

“Our goal is to help our customers achieve first-time silicon success," said Ken Liou, director of the Design Support Division at UMC. “By offering validated RTL- and netlist-to-silicon reference flows on our website, we save our customers time and cost, and also ensure them a smoother transition between design and manufacturing."

“We are always working to provide our customers with the fastest path from RTL to silicon, and to tighten the link between foundry process rules, libraries and the design flow,” said Lung Chu, vice president of Asia-Pacific Operations for Magma. “To accomplish this, we’ve been working closely with UMC and library vendors to validate our reference flow. We’re very pleased to be the first to deliver a silicon-proven UMC reference flow based on our IC implementation solution and believe that it will provide our mutual customers with a high degree of confidence in achieving silicon success.”

The UMC-Magma Reference Flow is a comprehensive RTL-to-GDSII flow for UMC’s 0.18-micron, 0.13-micron and 90-nanometer process technologies. Included with the customer download kit is a summary document describing the flow, run scripts, a tutorial design, design rule volcano and test case results. This reference flow deploys the Magma Blast Create™, Blast Noise®, Blast Rail™ and Blast Fusion® solutions that allow designers to quickly complete the design implementation while addressing signal and power integrity throughout the flow. This enables UMC's customers to deliver high-quality results in terms of timing, area, power, signal integrity, manufacturability and reliability while minimizing the design cycle.

UMC (NYSE: UMC, TSE: 2303) is a leading global semiconductor foundry that manufactures advanced process ICs for applications spanning every major sector of the semiconductor industry. UMC delivers cutting-edge foundry technologies that enable sophisticated system-on-chip (SOC) designs, including 90nm copper, 0.13um copper, embedded DRAM, and mixed signal/RFCMOS. UMC is also a leader in 300mm manufacturing; Fab 12A in Taiwan is currently in volume production for a variety of customer products, while Singapore-based UMCi is now in pilot production. UMC employs over 8,500 people worldwide and has offices in Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Europe, and the United States. UMC can be found on the web at http://www.umc.com.

Magma software is used to design fast, multimillion-gate integrated circuits, providing “The Fastest Path from RTL to Silicon"^TM enabling chip designers to reduce the time required to produce complex ICs. Magma’s products for prototyping, synthesis, and place & route provide a single executable for RTL-to-GDSII chip design. The company's Blast Create™, Blast Fusion®, Blast Fusion AP™, Blast Plan^TM; and Blast Noise® products utilize Magma’s patented FixedTiming® methodology and single data model architecture to reduce the timing-closure iterations often required between the logic and physical processes in conventional IC design flows. Magma also provides the PALACE™ and ArchEvaluator™ advanced physical synthesis and architecture development tools for programmable logic devices (PLDs). The company's stock trades on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol LAVA. Visit Magma Design Automation on the Web at www.magma-da.com.

Magma, Blast Fusion, Blast Noise and FixedTiming are registered trademarks, and ArchEvaluator, Blast Create, Blast Fusion APX, Blast Plan, Blast Rail, PALACE and “The Fastest Path from RTL to Silicon” are trademarks of Magma Design Automation. All other product and company names are trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, including statements about the features and benefits of Magma’s software and UMC’s foundry services are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially including, but not limited to, the ability of Magma's and UMC’s products to enable timely and successfully design and manufacturing and to produce the desired results and Magma's and UMC’s abilities to keep pace with rapidly changing technology. Further discussion of these and other potential risk factors may be found in the parties’ latest filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission on form 10-K, and any subsequent updates thereto on form10-Q. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. The parties disclaim any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.