NEWS RELEASE

ASC WINS FIRST ANNUAL "TIBBETTS AWARD"

Cited as New Hampshire SBIR Model of Excellence

August 26, 1996 -WINDHAM, New Hampshire – Alternative Systems Concepts Inc. (also known as ASC), headquartered here, was chosen as a winner in the First Annual "Tibbetts Awards" by the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy in Washington, D.C.

ASC, a provider of Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software for integrated circuit design, was granted the Tibbetts Award in recognition of its unique contributions as a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Model of Excellence. It has received eleven grants since it was founded in 1990.

These national awards are presented to recipients at a ceremony at the United States Capital Building in Washington, were made to individuals and organizations recognized as providing outstanding leadership. Tibbetts Awards, given to companies in each state, are named for Roland Tibbetts, the founder of the SBIR program at the National Science Foundation.

A local award ceremony was held in honor of ASC during a New Hampshire High Tech Council Meeting in Manchester, N.H.

"I am personally delighted that ASC has been recognized for the outstanding work its done over the last six years," says U.S. Senator Judd Gregg, who represents the state of New Hampshire. "The SBIR program has achieved international recognition as a special partnership between small businesses and the federal government."

"It’s an honor to be selected as a winner of the Tibbetts Award," remarks Jake Karrfalt, ASC’s president. "I knew Roland Tibbetts and considered him to be my personal mentor."

ASC was founded in 1990 with the mission to provide hardware description language (HDL)-driven synthesis design tools to the electronics engineer. Its VBIT family of boundary scan design tools is marketed and sold by Mentor Graphics Corporation under the name BSDArchitect™ ;. ASC is privately held and self-funded. More information on ASC and its product offerings can be found on its Web Site at http://www.ascinc.com.

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