TOOL Corp. Supports Solution-Soft's File Compressors with LAVIS

Tokyo, Japan – May 31, 2007 -- TOOL Corporation (headquarters in Tokyo Japan, president Hideaki Hontao) announced the adoption of Solution-Soft's (headquarters in Santa Clara CA, president Paul Wang) GDSII and MEBES file compression solutions, gdzip and mezip with LAVIS, a layout visualization platform featuring ultra-fast display of large-scale design data.

As design complexity increases, the size of the data to be handled consequently increases as well, and as a result, data transfer speed is lowered, network performance is affected and disc space is used. Solution-Soft's high performance gdzip and mezip can compress files as much as 10 times more than generic compressors, and are optimum solutions to these problems. Moreover, supporting these compressors with LAVIS, featuring ultra-fast display of large-scale design data by its original fast displaying and memory saving technology, can reduce TAT. The latest version LAVIS Ver.7 can directly load a compressed GDSII file via gdzip achieving much faster file loading speed, and because decompressed files are no need to be stored, disc space is not affected.

"Adoption of our file compressors gdzip and mezip into LAVIS, featuring ultra-high-speed loading of IC design data is a dream-come-true for many of our mutual customers. We are very happy to deliver this integration for them." said Paul Wang, president of Solution-Soft. "We will continue providing our customers with our breakthrough solutions through integration with other tools."

"LAVIS supports compress, gzip and some other generic file compressors," said Hideaki Hontao, president of TOOL. "Now, we are very pleased to enhance the usability of LAVIS by adding support for Solution-Soft's high-performance file compressors gdzip and mezip."

About LAVIS

LAVIS is a versatile layout visualization platform that supports fast large data display and multiple file formats. Its' fast displaying and memory saving technology dramatically reduces large data load and display time. Various design data, including GDSII, OASIS, LEF/DEF, and E-beam formats, are supported. Easy integration into other tools and machines allows LAVIS to be used as a "standard layout platform" in a wide range of flows including design, verification, mask data preparation, inspection and failure analysis.

About TOOL

TOOL is a Japanese software development company focused on the EDA sector. TOOL has a proven track record, especially in back-end design phases, of software development symbolized by its LAVIS. TOOL leverages its long and successful experience in both commercial and custom software development to optimize customers' design environments. For more information about TOOL and its products, visit the website at http://www.tool-corp.com/.

About Solution-Soft

Solution-Soft is the leading provider of Intelligent Data Optimization (IDO) solutions, which address the urgent need for automated management of data in complex networking environments. IDO solutions facilitate automated data selection, compression, movement, and redirection that optimize high availability, storage scalability, and system performance. The company has developed robust data-management software solutions for corporate data centers and storage solution providers. Solution-Soft boasts more than 1,500 customers, including 3M, AT&T, Boeing, Chartered Semi, Citibank, Dai Nippon Printing, Ford, French Telecom, Hewlett Packard, Merck, Photronics, Qualcomm, Toppan, TSMC, UMC and Xilinx. Solution-Soft’s market presence is bolstered by partnerships with Citrix Systems (Nasdaq:CTXS), FalconStor (Nasdaq:FALC), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HWP), IBM (NYSE:IBM), Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT), Network Appliance (Nasdaq: NTAP), Oracle (Nasdaq:ORCL), Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq:SUNW) and Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq:SNPS).

Founded in 1993, Solution-Soft is privately held and based in Santa Clara, Calif. For more information, visit www.solution-soft.com or call +1.408.346.1400.

Contact:
TOOL Corporation
Asako Nakane
Marketing Group
+ (81)-3-5723-8124
marketing@tool.co.jp

Product Inquiry:
TOOL Corporation
EDA Sales Department
+ (81)-3-5723-8144
sales@tool.co.jp

The distributor of Solution-Soft in Japan is Keirex Technology Inc.
Keirex is the EDA Solution Provider.
+(81)-3-3537-1925
keirex-support@keirex.com

Contact:
Solution-Soft
Michael Morrison,
Solution-Soft
408.346.1415