Special Discount for Initial Purchase

MICROSIM ANNOUNCES NEW VERSION OF POPULAR ANALOG CIRCUIT OPTIMIZER

June 12, 1995 -- IRVINE, Calif. -- MicroSim Corporation today introduced
MicroSim PSpice Optimizer, Version 6.2, an analog performance optimization
product that improves the performance of analog and mixed-signal designs
while reducing engineering time by over a third. The company also
announced a $ 1,089 special savings for those users who initially purchase
both the MicroSim PSpice A/D simulator and PSpice Optimizer for Windows.

"With MicroSim PSpice Optimizer, we were able to carry out analyses that
were previously impractical," said Mike Barnes, research scientist at
TRIUMF, a research facility with the world's largest cyclotron, located in
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada which recently completed a design
using MicroSim PSpice Optimizer. "The results of the optimization allowed
us to simplify the design, which led to a product that's simpler to build
and less expensive."
The optimizer tool was developed to give engineers higher yields and better
design performance -- higher speed, lower power, lower distortion, wider
bandwidth. The product simulates circuit designs with MicroSim PSpice or
MicroSim PSpice A/D. adjusting design parameter values for the best
solution to meet target performance specifications. It is the only analog
optimizer in the industry that can handle design problems with nonlinear
constraints.

"At TRIUMF, MicroSim PSpice Optimizer allowed us to fit an equivalent
circuit to data, and therefore to model and compensate for important
effects before the overall circuit was built," said Barnes. "We used the
optimizer to automatically optimize circuit designs and manually explore
design tradeoffs. It provided us with complete control over performance
goals and constraints .

MicroSim--PSpice Optimizer for Windows is priced at $2,989 ($3.900
internationally) and MicroSim--PSpice Optimizer for Sun is priced at
$3,900 ($5,100 internationally). The products are now available for
shipment.

Engineers can save $ 1,089 if they purchase MicroSim PSpice A/D and
MicroSim PSpice Optimizer for Windows together in their initial purchase.
MicroSim sells a bundled product, MicroSim Advanced Simulation System for
Windows at a discounted price of $9.800 ($12,750 internationally), which
includes MicroSim Schematics. MicroSim PSpice A/D. and MicroSim PSpice
Optimizer for analog performance optimization.

MicroSim PSpice Optimizer is a productive tool for engineers who want to
get closer to specifications, or investigate tradeoffs at optimum design
points. The product can solve optimization problems efficiently and
accurately, and reveal detailed information about tradeoffs.

"Many analog design problems involve optimization to minimize or maximize
an objective while meeting a number of requirements," said Wolfram Blume,
president and founder of MicroSim. "Solving these types of problems
requires special techniques for optimization with nonlinear constraints.
MicroSim PSpice Optimizer tackles these types of problems, which are
difficult for other optimizers found elsewhere in the EDA industry."

Example application areas include: in discrete designs of amplifiers (gain.
power consumption, phase margin), power supplies (efficiency),
high-voltage switches (voltage distribution), and filters (meeting
specifications with non-ideal components). In IC designs of amplifiers.
filters (trading specs against area/power), A-to-D and D-to-A converters
(accuracy against area), and cells. In modeling, fitting measured data to
a specific model and porting? between semiconductor models.

Running MicroSim PSpice Optimizer is an iterative loop. The optimizer
determines the partial derivative of each specification with respect to
each design parameter. It then computes trial values for the parameters,
simulates using these values, and measures the resulting performance. New
derivatives are determined, and the process repeats until the requirements
are met, the engineer interrupts the optimization, or no further progress
can be made.

MicroSim PSpice Optimizer uses gradient-based algorithms. As the
optimization proceeds, MicroSim PSpice optimizer displays the values of
all the goals and constraints. Once an optimum or near-optimum has been
found, it is possible to make tradeoffs between the reduced goal value and
the active constraints. The cost of each of these tradeoffs -- the
Lagrange Multipliers -- are calculated by MicroSim PSpice Optimizer. The
optimizer can also solve least-squares problems, often used to fit model
parameters given a set of measurements, and are utilized to explore
circuit tradeoffs interactively.

The company introduced its flagship product, MicroSim PSpice, in 1984 as
the first SPICE-based program available for IBM PC compatibles. MicroSim
PSpice significantly expands the capabilities of the SPICE program
developed at the University of California, Berkeley. The product is so
widely used, with over 23,000 customers, that many corporations and
universities refer to MicroSim "PSpice" in place of the generic "SPICE"
(Simulation Program With Integrated Circuit Emphasis).

MicroSim offers a family of powerful, integrated EDA software products for
schematic capture (MicroSim Schematics), analog simulation (MicroSim
PSpice and MicroSim PSpice ' Basics), mixed analog/digital simulation
(MicroSim PSpice A/D and MicroSim PSpice A/D Basics+), CPLD synthesis
(MicroSim PLSyn), logic simulation (MicroSim PLogic), analog performance
optimization (MicroSim PSpice Optimizer). printed circuit board layout
(MicroSim PCBoards with Autorouter for Windows), signal integrity analysis
(MicroSim Polaris), and Mentor and Cadence integration. MicroSim products
are available for Microsoft Windows, Windows NT. DOS, Sun Microsystems,
and Hewlett-Packard systems.

The company sells directly to engineers and through VARs (value added
resellers). 'Because we do not have an expensive sales force, we can pass
our savings on to our customers and VARs," Blume said. MicroSim customers
receive high-end EDA software at affordable "shrink-wrapped" prices
substantially below those of companies using a field sales force.

MicroSim application engineers provide same-day response technical support
free to customers. More information on MicroSim products is available by
phone at (714) 770-3022 and (800) 245-3022. via fax at (714) 455-0554, or
on Internet at Sales@MicroSim.com.

MicroSim Corp
20 Fairbanks
Irvine, CA 92718
714-770-3022,  fax 714-455-0554,  BBS 714-830-1550

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