SMS Electronics Triples XJTAG Licenses to Meet Upsurge in Demand

-- SMS Funds Additional Licenses by Switching to XJTAG's New
Corporate Licensing Plan with Its Unbeatable Five-Year Price
Promise

-- XJTAG Boundary Scan is a Strategic Product for SMS as Many of
Its Customers Are Now Designing Their Complex BGA-Populated
Boards with the System in Mind
CAMBRIDGE, England--(Business Wire)--
SMS Electronics, one of the UK's leading electronics manufacturing
services (EMS) companies, has tripled the number of XJTAG boundary
scan system licenses it holds to enable it to meet an upsurge in
production demand at its 11,000 square metre manufacturing facility in
Nottingham, England.

The new licenses will be funded by SMS switching to XJTAG's credit
crunch beating corporate licensing plan, which is aimed at corporate
customers with multiple licenses. The new license plan, which includes
a five-year price promise, as well as support, maintenance and annual
upgrades, is designed to help customers expand their capability while
keeping a handle on costs.

"The XJTAG system is now a strategic product for us and we are
increasingly using it in place of traditional and costly in-circuit
test fixtures," said Chris Hunt, sales and marketing director of SMS
Electronics. "We therefore had no hesitation in tripling the number of
XJTAG seats at our facility, particularly as XJTAG's new corporate
licensing plan allows us to take advantage of the incredible five-year
price promise - keeping a tight reign on capital expenditure is
important during the current climate."

SMS Electronics has seen a substantial increase in production
output in 2008 following a spate of new contract wins, the success of
its fast turnaround printed circuit board prototyping operation, and
the launch of SMS Product Services which provides full product
lifecycle support. SMS Electronics was as an early adopter of XJTAG
boundary scan and uses it throughout its operation and also encourages
customers to utilise the system as a debug and development tool.

"Several of our OEM customers now have their own XJTAG licences
and as a result of this and the success of our own prototyping
business, an increasing proportion of the high complexity boards that
we are manufacturing are XJTAG-enabled," added Chris Hunt. "XJTAG is
gaining wide market acceptance because it's remarkably easy-to-use,
designer-friendly and because it consistently and significantly
reduces new product introduction timescales and lifecycle costs."

XJTAG's IEEE Std. 1149.x compliant boundary scan development
system is cost-effective solution for the entire product lifecycle. It
is used worldwide by design engineers, developers, OEMs and contract
manufacturers for debugging, testing and programming complex ball grid
array populated printed circuit boards (PCBs) and systems.

"It's great to see that SMS is increasing the investment in XJTAG
and that their use of our systems at the development and prototyping
stage is contributing to the upsurge in production volumes," said
Simon Payne, XJTAG's CEO. "Our corporate licensing plan is designed to
provide our growing corporate customer base with a means of expanding
their boundary scan capability whilst at the same time keeping tight
control of costs."

SMS Electronics is committed to providing high quality contract
electronics manufacturing. By continually investing in
state-of-the-art equipment, the company has the ability to place
components from as small as 01005 through to 85mm square and
odd-shaped components of up to 125mm long. With a placement capacity
of up to 5 million components per day, coupled to a full product build
capability, SMS Electronics offers a true cradle-to-grave service from
prototype to end-of-life WEEE disposal.

For more information about the XJTAG's corporate licensing plan,
please contact XJTAG, The Irwin Centre, Scotland Road, Dry Drayton,
Cambridge CB23 8AR, UK. Telephone +44 (0) 1954 213888, fax +44 (0)
1954 211565 or email enquiries@xjtag.com. Alternatively, visit
www.xjtag.com.

For more information on SMS Electronics or SMS Product Services
please contact SMS Electronics, SMS House, Technology Drive, Beeston,
Nottingham NG9 1AD. Tel +44 (0) 115 957 5757, fax +44 (0) 115 957 5758
or email sales@smselectronics.co.uk. Alternatively, visit
www.smselectronics.co.uk.

Photography to accompany this news release is available at:

http://www.xjtag.com/company/press/

For accompanying images, please click on the links below:

Chris Merrick, test development engineer at SMS Electronics using
XJTAG - with probe

http://www.xjtag.com/images/press/23-10-08a.jpg

Left to right - SMS Electronics' Chris Hunt (sales and marketing
director), Christopher Johns (test development manager) with Simon
Payne, CEO XJTAG

http://www.xjtag.com/images/press/23-10-08b.jpg

-ends-

About SMS Electronics (www.smselectronics.co.uk)

SMS Electronics is one of the UK's leading electronics
manufacturing services (EMS) companies. With over 240 employees,
11,000 square metres of floor space and a manufacturing heritage
stretching back more than 100 years, the Nottingham, England-based
company offers a full range of services including prototyping, design
for manufacture and test, printed circuit board assembly (surface
mount and through hole), extensive test capability, and system
assembly. It also offers product lifecycle support through its sister
company, SMS Product Services. SMS Electronics serves UK-based
original equipment manufacturers across a variety of market sectors
including: consumer, industrial, instrumentation, leisure, medical,
security and telecoms.

About XJTAG (www.xjtag.com)

XJTAG is a leading global supplier of IEEE Std. 1149.x compliant
boundary scan development systems. XJTAG offers a highly competitive
solution for designers and developers of electronic printed circuit
boards and systems. Utilising XJTAG allows the circuit design,
development and manufacturing process to be shortened significantly by
facilitating early development of reconfigurable and re-useable test
scripts that can be used from design validation through prototype
debugging and on into manufacturing.

The XJTAG development system enables engineers to debug and test a
high proportion of the circuit (both JTAG and non-JTAG/cluster
devices) including BGA and chip scale packages, such as SDRAMs,
Ethernet controllers, video interfaces, Flash memories, FPGAs and
microprocessors. XJTAG also enables In-System Programming of FPGAs,
CPLDs and Flash memories, and XJTAG clients have access to a library
of device-centric test scripts. XJTAG is based in Cambridge, UK, and
is part of the Cambridge Technology Group. XJTAG has a global network
of distributors servicing Europe, the Far East, North and South
America, the Middle East and Australasia.

Media contact (for XJTAG):
EML
Katie Robertson
Tel: +44(0)20-8408-8000
katier@eml.com

Copyright Business Wire 2008