SYDNEY, Australia - June 1, 2004 - Altium Limited (ASX: ALU), a leading developer of Windows-based electronics design software, today released version 3.0 of its TASKING M16C software development toolset that has been enhanced with next-generation Viper compiler technology. A wide variety of real-life applications and benchmarks have shown that this version of the toolset enables significant increases in code efficiency, with increases in execution speed of up to 40% and code size decreases of 15% compared to using the previous TASKING M16C toolset. The new version of the toolset excels in performance of generated code and compliance with industry standards.

"Altium has already proved to be a powerful tool partner with its TASKING M16C compiler chain," said David Noverraz, Product Manager, Support tools, Renesas Technology Europe. "However, the version 3.0 release represents a huge step forward in terms of the performance of generated code and I expect it to have a significant impact on increasing application speed and decreasing development time for M16C applications."

Pricing and availability
The TASKING M16C software development toolset v3.0 is a comprehensive toolset which supports both the Renesas M16C and the Renesas R8C/Tiny. It contains the TASKING Embedded Development Environment (EDE), C/C++/EC++ compiler with MISRA C code checking, assembler, linker/locator, CrossView Pro simulator debugger, and TASKING ROM monitor debugger and M16C flasher. The toolset is available for PC/Windows and SUN/Solaris platforms and is priced at US$2,790 for the complete C/C++/EC++ compiler and debugger PC toolset.

About Altium Limited
Altium Limited (ASX: ALU) is a global developer and supplier of electronics design software for the Microsoft Windows environment. Founded in 1985, Altium released the world's first Microsoft Windows-based printed circuit board design tool in 1991 and continues to provide advanced, easy-to-use and affordable software design tools to electronics engineers, designers, and developers worldwide. Altium's products offer tailored solutions covering a range of hardware and software design processes including the well-known Protel, P-CAD and TASKING brands. Altium is headquartered in Sydney, Australia and has sales and support offices in Australia, the United States, Japan and Europe.