August 30, 2000. Zuken is offering engineers the chance to have their designs routed free of charge within 48 hours to demonstrate the market-leading performance of the company's new embedded router in the CADSTAR 4.5, entry-level PCB design tool.

Designers who want to take part in the CADSTAR Challenge simply post their PCB outline, together with placed components and a brief text description of constraints, onto the web site at www.free-routing.com. The design is routed by Zuken within 48 hours using CADSTAR 4.5 and the solution is e-mailed to the participant or posted to a secure area on the CADSTAR site. Zuken also reveals the total time taken to carry out the work, allowing the designer to compare CADSTAR 4.5 performance with that of his or her present routing tool. A free CADSTAR viewer is available for participants who are not currently CADSTAR customers.

The CADSTAR Challenge is complemented by a discount offer for those companies migrating to CADSTAR 4.5. Customers can upgrade from any other version of CADSTAR at a 30% discount from the list price. Prospective customers who migrate from any other PCB design tool can purchase CADSTAR 4.5 at a 20% discount from the normal retail price.

CADSTAR Product Manager, Stuart Wilkes, commented:
"We have absolute confidence in CADSTAR 4.5 as the most productive PCB design tool in its class and we are certain that it offers faster, more effective routing than comparable products. This challenge was conceived to let customers and prospective customers prove CADSTAR's superiority for themselves using real-world designs. We hope that they take it up in large numbers - they have nothing to lose and everything to gain."

As an added incentive, the first 50 participants are to be entered into a prize draw for a Palm Pilot Vx.

The CADSTAR Challenge allows each company to post one design to be routed by Zuken and the offer ends on December 31st 2000.

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Editorial Contacts:

Company contact:
Ev Milker
Zuken Ltd.
1500 Aztec West
Almondsbury
Bristol BS32 4RF
UK
Tel: +44 1454 207800
Fax: +44 1454 207803
E-mail: Ev.milker@zuken.co.uk

Issued by:
Bob Jones
Publitek Ltd.
Tel: +44 117 956 2626
E-mail: bob@publitek.com

About Zuken
Zuken is one of the world's leading providers of professional software solutions for the design of PCB/MCM/IC packages and systems. These advanced tool sets facilitate schematic capture, placement, routing and analysis, and manufacture and test. Used by the world's top 30 electronic product manufacturers, the solutions operate under both UNIX and Microsoft Windows. Zuken is the market sector leader in Japan and has offices throughout Europe and the USA. It is a global organization employing over 1000 people and the company is listed on Level 1 of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

For more information, visit http://www.zuken.com