SoftRISC and Aptix Collaborate On Announce VoIP development platform

Partnership Facilitates Development of Leading Edge Communications Solutions

Santa Clara, CA, March 24, 2004 – SoftRISC Communication Systems, a leading supplier of field-deployed communication software solutions and Aptix Corporation, a leading supplier of pre-silicon prototyping tools and platforms for embedded system-on-chip (SoC) design, announced today that they have signed an agreement to collaborate and produce a high performance Voice over IP (VoIP) development and prototyping environment based on the ARM PrimeXsys(TM) Platform.

The VoIP development and prototyping environment consists of an Aptix System Explorer(TM) integrated with SoftRISC VoIP applications software products. The Aptix System Explorer incorporates an ARM926EJ-S in a Logic Tile configuration. The ARM PrimeXsys(TM) Platform IP is pre-mapped into an Aptix Flexible Prototyping Module, and is available to ARM926EJ(F)-S PrimeXSys Platform licensees as a ready-to-use bitstream from Aptix. Aptix debugging tools provide full visibility into the internal registers of both the ARM 926 and the PrimeXsys(TM) Platform. The hardware configuration supports full multi-layer AMBA bus transactions.

SoftRISC VoIP applications including G.7xx voice codecs, G.167 AEC, G.168 LEC, DTMF, CPT, CallerID, and T.38 fax have been ported to the development and prototyping environment. As a close working partner with ARM on their PrimeXsys program, SoftRISC has been implementing VoIP and multimedia software solutions on several ARM platforms -- including ARM7T, ARM9T, and ARM9E. SoftRISC's ARM centric communication software eliminates the need for a separate DSP chip, as used in a traditional approach. SoftRISC's customers are taking advantage of a way to design out the DSP from their end products such as IP phones, PDAs, residential gateways, and multimedia set top boxes.

"Further to the premium working relationship with ARM that SoftRISC enjoys, we have been working closely with Aptix to enable their development platform with SoftRISC's VoIP solution," said Ashok Setty, CEO of SoftRISC. "As is evident, a very healthy growth in the VoIP space is taking place and SoftRISC is ready to deploy its robust software on ARM platforms."

"We see VoIP applications mushrooming in the near future," said Charlie Miller, Aptix Sr. Vice President of Marketing and Business Development. "Our development environment gives customers a huge head start in getting their applications up and running. Bringing together multiple IP's and software to produce an embedded SoC design can be a daunting task. With this collaboration between Aptix and SoftRISC, customers can start from a known working system and make modifications and additions as needed."

Price and Availability

The development and prototyping environment will be available to customers in Q2. Aptix System Explorer prototype development platforms including ARMINT3 Logic Tile Interface and sufficient FPGA capacity for the PrimeXsys(TM) Platform and 1-million gates of customer design logic are and priced starting at $80,000 (USD). Pricing for SoftRISC VoIP software components starts at $75,000 and are available from SoftRISC.

About SoftRISC
Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, SoftRISC Communication Solutions, Inc. provides field-deployed communication software solutions. SoftRISC's unique value lies in providing highly optimized software applications on RISC platforms. Applications available from SoftRISC include VoIP, FoIP, Audio, Video, Imaging, Wireless, Encryption, etc. The software modules can be licensed as optimized packages on a variety of RISC platforms including ARM. SoftRISC also undertakes custom development and implementation of proprietary applications on either industry-standard RISC processors or on a customer's in-house processor.

About Aptix
Aptix Corporation is a leading provider of high-performance pre-silicon prototype (PSP) solutions to System-on-Chip (SoC) developers, enabling them to accelerate their time-to-market, reduce costs and improve their product performance. Aptix's reconfigurable and portable PSPs enable hardware developers to integrate custom logic and to verify and debug complex SoC designs in a real-world environment and software developers to accelerate the firmware and application software development timeline. In addition, these flexible prototypes can be deployed for field-testing and to multiple customers for evaluation, providing a development head start.