SANTA CLARA & SUNNYVALE, Calif.--Jan. 19, 2004-- Sequence Design today announced that Artisan Components?, Inc., a leading provider of physical intellectual property (IP), (Nasdaq:ARTI - News) joined its InSequence Technology Partner Program, promoting EDA interoperability, modeling accuracy, and education.

Within the InSequence Technology Partner Program, Sequence and Artisan plan to collaborate to advance EDA technologies for low-power design, including techniques addressing leakage power modeling and optimization, and signal-integrity methodologies.

Artisan is already working with Sequence to validate its power libraries using Sequence's PowerTheater RTL and gate-level power-analysis tool suite. The companies intend to make the results of this library validation work available to mutual customers to establish baseline accuracy for power verification.

Artisan and Sequence also plan to work together to address issues of power integrity, design for manufacturing, on-chip process variations, and other critical issues for nanometer design. Artisan's dual-threshold libraries are already being used by mutual customers for leakage-power reduction using Sequence's PhysicalStudio.

"As we move into the realm of nanometer design, we see great value in Sequence's expertise in developing tools for low-power design and the optimization of signal integrity," said Mark Templeton, president and chief executive officer of Artisan. "We look forward to providing a solution that will benefit our mutual customers."

"Teaming with Artisan is a natural for us," according to Vic Kulkarni, Sequence president and CEO. "We benefit tremendously from working with a team at the forefront of IP design, and look forward to refining our toolset and methods to overcome the complex challenges of power and signal integrity at 90 nanometers and below."

According to Kulkarni, validated accuracy of power and signal-integrity analysis with Artisan libraries and Sequence tools will lead to greater confidence in meeting power budgets, avoiding over-designing the power grid, and less guardbanding in final timing analysis as dynamic voltage-drop effects are taken into account directly.

About InSequence

The program is designed to foster close working relationships between four broad industry groups:
EDA -- Promotes interoperability between vendors to improve performance and ease of use Infrastructure -- Ensures validated modeling accuracy for library providers, silicon foundries, and IP vendors Design Services -- Provides access to tools and methodologies for leading-edge designs to address power and SI issues Education -- Offers students and faculty the opportunity to interface directly with industry R&D to share ideas while making the latest tools readily available

In addition to Artisan, InSequence partners include Novas Software and Xpedion Design Systems. For complete details on the program, interested parties may contact Sequence at insequence@sequencedesign.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, Artisan's plans to work with Sequence on technologies for low power integrated circuit design and other critical issues regarding nanometer designs, its intention to make the results of such efforts available to mutual customers, and the expected benefits of its collaboration with Sequence. These statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, whether there will be technical or other difficulties that delay or prevent Artisan from being able to provide products enhanced by its collaboration with Sequence to Artisan's customers, market acceptance of these enhanced products, and uncertainties attendant to any new product offering. We refer you also to the documents that Artisan files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, in particular the section entitled "Factors Affecting Future Operating Results" in Artisan's annual report on Form 10-K and its quarterly reports on Forms 10-Q. Artisan disclaims any obligation to update or correct the information contained in this press release as a result of financial, business or any other developments occurring after the date of the release.

About Artisan Components

Artisan Components, Inc. (Nasdaq:ARTI - News) is a leading provider of physical intellectual property (IP) components for the design and manufacture of complex system-on-a-chip integrated circuits. Artisan's products include embedded memory, standard cell, input/output, analog and mixed-signal components, which are designed to achieve the best combination of performance, density, power and yield for a given manufacturing process. Artisan has licensed its IP components to over 1,200 companies involved in integrated circuit design. Artisan is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. More information about Artisan Components, including free library access, can be found at www.artisan.com.

About Sequence

Sequence Design, Inc. enables system-on-chip designers to bring higher-performance and lower-power integrated circuits quickly to fabrication. Sequence's power and signal integrity software give its more than 100 customers the competitive advantage they need to excel in aggressive technology markets, despite demanding complexity and time-to-market issues of nanometer design.

Sequence has worldwide development and field service operations. The company was recently named by Reed Electronics as one of the top 50 companies to watch in the electronics industry. Sequence is privately held. Sequence is a member of Cadence Design Systems' Connections^(TM) and Mentor Graphics' Open Door^(TM) partnership programs. Additional information is available at sequencedesign.com.