• Optimized IP Cores and Actel FPGA Solutions Well Suited for Communications, Military, Aerospace, Industrial and Automotive Systems Utilizing PowerPC Microprocessors

SUNNYVALE, Calif., May 5, 2003 - Actel Corporation (Nasdaq: ACTL) today announced that a new CompanionCore Alliance program partner, Eureka Technology, Inc., has optimized three PowerPC™ interface intellectual property (IP) cores for use with Actel's nonvolatile ProASIC^PLUS, Axcelerator, SX-A and RTSX-S field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). With support for the PowerPC 603, 604, 740, 750 and 8260 bus protocols, the EP201 PowerPC Bus Master, EP100 PowerPC Bus Slave and EP300 PowerPC Bus Arbiter cores from Eureka Technology also support many advanced features of the PowerPC CPU bus architecture, including burst data transfers, data pipelining, extended data transfer sizes and support for multiple bus masters. The combination of Actel's single-chip, nonvolatile FPGAs and Eureka's silicon-proven IP cores is ideal for communications, military, aerospace, medical, industrial and automotive systems utilizing or connecting to PowerPC microprocessors.

"Eureka Technology's membership in our CompanionCore Alliance program provides system designers with ready access to the company's proven PowerPC interface cores as optimized building blocks for our ProASIC^PLUS, Axcelerator, SX-A and RTSX-S FPGAs," said Yankin Tanurhan, senior director, Applications and IP Solutions Group at Actel. "The combination of our secure, low-power FPGAs with Eureka's PowerPC IP cores will not only accelerate development cycles for customers leveraging this bus architecture, but will also allow them to quickly develop communications, military, aerospace and industrial systems while reducing design risks and decreasing costs."

"Today, Actel and Eureka already have mutual customers implementing our cores in Actel FPGAs. We are very excited about becoming a member of Actel's CompanionCore Alliance program and are equally excited to develop products targeted for the company's successful FPGA solutions," said Simon Lau, president of Eureka Technology. "Eureka's silicon- and production-proven PowerPC IP solutions optimized for Actel's FPGAs allow system designers to accelerate the development of system-on-chips (SoCs) and enhance productivity for our mutual customers."

Pricing and Availability

Optimized for Actel's FPGAs, the three PowerPC interface cores are available today in VHDL and Verilog RTL source code formats and EDIF netlist formats directly from Eureka Technology. List prices for a single-use license start at $6,000. Detailed product information for each core is available from the Eureka Technology Web site at http://www.eurekatech.com or via Actel's Web site at http://www.actel.com/products/ip/bus.html.

Actel DirectCore and CompanionCore Solutions

Actel offers its own system-level IP solutions, called DirectCores, specifically designed and optimized for use with Actel devices. The company also offers third-party IP blocks, called CompanionCores, that have been tested and verified in Actel FPGAs. Covering applications ranging from embedded systems to consumer and communications, functions include bus interfaces, communication controllers and interfaces, processors and peripherals, encryption, memory controllers as well as multimedia and error correction.

Actel DirectCores and CompanionCore products offer seamless implementation through Actel's suite of internal and third-party EDA development tools, documentation, and quality service and support, thereby streamlining the design process, enabling faster time-to-market and minimizing design costs and risks. For more information on the CompanionCore Alliance program, DirectCores or CompanionCores, visit the IP section on the Actel Web site at http://www.actel.com/products/ip/index.html.

About Eureka Technology

Eureka Technology is a leading intellectual property (IP) provider for FPGA and ASIC designers. The company offers a wide range of silicon-proven system core logic functions and peripheral functions to support different CPU and bus standards, including PowerPC, ARM™, MIPS™, ARC™ and SH2/3/4™, PCI™, Cardbus™, DDR SDRAM and PCMCIA™. These IP cores are designed to improve the design time-to-market delay, eliminate design risks, and reduce development costs for SoC designs. Founded in 1993, the company has a strong customer base in the United States, Japan and Europe. For more information about the company, please visit the Web site at http://www.eurekatech.com or send email to info@eurekatech.com.

About Actel

Actel Corporation is a supplier of innovative programmable logic solutions, including field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) based on antifuse and flash technologies, high-performance intellectual property (IP) cores, software development tools and design services, targeted for the high-speed communications, application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) replacement and radiation-tolerant markets. Founded in 1985, Actel employs approximately 500 people worldwide. The Company is traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol ACTL and is headquartered at 955 East Arques Avenue, Sunnyvale, Calif., 94086-4533. Telephone: 888-99-ACTEL (992-2835). Internet: http://www.actel.com.

Editor's Note: The Actel name and logo are registered trademarks of Actel Corporation. All other trademarks and servicemarks are the property of their respective owners.

Actel Contact:
Clive Jones
Actel Corporation
>888-992-2835
clive.jones@actel.com
http://www.actel.com

Eureka Technology Contact:
Annie Leung
Eureka Technology
>650-960-3800
annie@eurekatech.com
http://www.eurekatech.com

Actel Media Contact:
Stephanie Mrus
Porter Novelli
>408-369-1500 x26
stephanie.mrus@porternovelli.com