Pyxis Forms Technical Advisory Board with Design for Manufacturing Expertise

Experts in design, lithography, and yield will advise company in developing DFM solutions

Santa Clara, Calif., October 28, 2005 -- Pyxis Technology, an electronic design automation (EDA) company founded in 2004, today announced the formation of a Technical Advisory Board (TAB) with four industry notables as founding members. The TAB includes experts from industry and academia in the fields of semiconductor yield and lithography who will provide guidance in the Company’s technology development and long-term roadmap. The 18-month old EDA startup is developing new tools for chips being designed in sub-100 nanometer technology nodes.

The TAB includes Warren Grobman, Ph.D., a consultant in manufacturability-driven design who was director of design-to-manufacturing solutions for Motorola until he retired last year; Mark McDermott, principal and general partner in the Silicon Web Group and an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Texas; David Z. Pan, assistant professor and director of the University of Texas Design Automation Laboratory in Austin; and Riko Radojcic, a consultant to semiconductor and EDA companies who specializes in the integration of semiconductor process and design considerations.

"Sub-100 nanometer technologies require a new vision that merges design and manufacturing," said Naeem Zafar, Pyxis president and CEO. "Our new TAB draws upon manufacturing talent in lithography and yield, and merges it with the Company’s own physical design expertise. The advice of these experts will supplement our internal expertise and the input of our Board of Directors to provide designers with a true DFM solution. We’re thrilled to welcome such a distinguished group of industry experts to our founding technical advisory board."

After receiving his Ph.D. from Princeton University, Warren Grobman served IBM as a research scientist, led the company’s electron beam lithography effort, started the synchrotron X-ray lithography program, was head of the Semiconductor Technology Development Laboratory and program director for the GaAs joint program with IBM Fishkill and Rockwell International, and was program director of technology modeling. After that he served in Motorola’s Semiconductor Products Sector where he led advanced technology modeling development activities and began the resolution enhancement technologies activities; he was director of Design to Manufacturing Solutions until he retired last year. He is a Fellow of the IEEE.

Mark McDermott received his MSEE from the University of Texas and has since co-founded six companies, led engineering teams in the development of PowerPC processors and Intel x86 processors, and been granted 19 patents in microprocessor design and test. He has served as CEO of DynaFlow Computing, VP engineering and co-founder of Somerset Embedded Technologies, VP engineering and co-founder of VisionFlow, general manager and director of the Texas Development Center for Intel Corporation, director of the PowerPC Somerset Design Center, and director of the Austin Design Center for Cyrix.

David Z. Pan received his Ph.D. in computer science from UCLA. Before going to UT, he was a research staff member at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center. His research interests include nanometer physical CAD, design for manufacturability (DFM), variation-tolerant designs, novel circuitry and CAD for low power, and vertical integration of architecture, circuit and technology. He has served in the program committees of many major conferences, including ICCAD, DATE, ASPDAC, ISPD, ISQED, and ISCAS. He has received numerous awards, including the SRC Inventor Recognition Award in 2000 and the IBM Faculty Award in 2004 and 2005.

Riko Radojcic received his PhD from University of Salford, UK, and has more than 20 years of experience in the semiconductor industry. He served in management roles for PDF Solutions, Tality and Cadence, specializing in design technology integration and process characterization and modeling. He has also held management and engineering positions with Unisys, Burroughs, and Ferranti Electronics.

About Pyxis
Pyxis Technology is developing software that addresses the problems that chip designers and foundries face in the physical design, layout, and routing of nanometer-scale integrated circuits (ICs) and systems on a chip (SoCs). Pyxis was founded in 2004 by three industry veterans with extensive experience in semiconductor IC design and EDA software development. The company has raised Series A funding from Austin Ventures and CMEA Ventures. For more information, see www.pyxistech.com.