FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Greg Chien

ProtoDesign, Inc.

(630)759-9930

gchien@protodesign-inc.com

ProtoDesign Unveils SansGUI Version 1.0

Bolingbrook, IL., April 16, 2001 (www.protodesign-inc.com) - ProtoDesign, Inc. today announces the release of SansGUI^® version 1.0, a modeling and simulation environment for developing and deploying scientific and engineering simulators without writing any Graphical User Interface (GUI) code. With the SansGUI Modeling and Simulation Environment, scientists and engineers can concentrate on developing the underlying logic and mathematics of their simulation programs, rather than spending precious time on learning and programming the GUI details.

Traditional GUI development involves the use of a rich application programming interface (API) with layers of system functions to be called and user events to be processed and synchronized. SansGUI eliminates all these requirements by providing simulation users with a highly interactive Run-Time Environment which includes but is not limited to: configuring models from building blocks, entering model specifications and parameters, interactively running simulations, examining and plotting intermediate and final simulation results. Using the SansGUI Development Environment, simulation developers can create and maintain the model building blocks for their users, generate skeleton code for the behavior of these model building blocks which significantly eases development, and implement the simulator programs that communicate with the SansGUI environment via a simple data object format and a single API function prototype. The end result is that the developers get a high quality GUI for their simulators with only minimal effort, whether they are developing new simulators or migrating legacy software.

"It is our goal to provide the scientific and engineering communities with a world-class graphical user interface and development environment. This goal is driven by the idea that simulation developers should be allowed to concentrate on what they are good at - which is the development of models to study real-world systems and improving design," said Greg Chien, Principal Software Designer at ProtoDesign, Inc. "We are very excited about this unprecedented solution that really can help developers save resources, eliminate the complexity in programming for Windows, and ultimately reduce the time-to-market while improving overall quality."

SansGUI supports Microsoft Visual C++^® and Compaq Visual Fortran^® for developing tightly-coupled and highly interactive in-process simulators. Developers using other languages can take advantage of the external process simulation support in the SansGUI environment. For multi-dimensional arrays, SansGUI supports both row-major order data storage for programming languages, such as C/C++; and column-major order data storage for other languages, such as Fortran and MATLAB^®. These data storage types can be specified by the simulation developer on a per-class basis within the same simulator.

SansGUI version 1.0 is available immediately on Microsoft Windows^® platforms. The SansGUI Professional Edition is priced at US$899 per license; while, the Run-Time Edition costs US$49. Another key advantage of using SansGUI for simulation development is that there is no royalty fee involved in distributing simulators created with the SansGUI environment. An educational license for the Professional Edition costs US$299 and a Student Edition with limited capabilities is available for US$99. All items can be ordered from ProtoDesign's on-line store.

About ProtoDesign, Inc.

ProtoDesign, Inc. is a privately held software company with a mission to help customers break the complexity barriers to incorporate emerging technologies into interactive computing. Established in 1997, ProtoDesign, Inc. has provided customers with human computer interface (HCI) software tools, applications, and integration services. Further information on ProtoDesign, Inc. is available at http://www.protodesign-inc.com or call (630)759-9930.

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ProtoDesign and its logo is a registered service mark and SansGUI and its logo is a registered trademark of ProtoDesign, Inc. Microsoft Windows and Visual C++ are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Compaq Visual Fortran is a registered trademark of Compaq Computer Corporation. MATLAB is a registered trademark of The MathWorks, Inc.