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Mentor Graphics Announces Synthesis Support for New Altera Arria GX FPGA Family

Business Wire, May 8, 2007

WILSONVILLE, Ore. -- Mentor Graphics Corporation, (NASDAQ:MENT), today announced that its suite of advanced synthesis products supports the newly introduced Arria GX field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) from Altera Corporation. Both companies have been in close cooperation to ensure Precision([R]) Synthesis support for the full range of Arria GX devices with release 2007a3.

Arria GX, Altera's latest family of FPGA devices, is designed to deliver protocol-optimized transceivers at a cost point attractive to high-volume applications. "Arria GX expands Altera's already impressive offering of FPGAs, broadening the portfolio of products with integrated transceivers," said Simon Bloch, general manager, Mentor Graphics Design Creation and Synthesis Division. "Designers using Arria GX FPGAs will benefit from the advance features of Precision Synthesis to meet their design goals both predictably and rapidly."

The companies began collaboration late last year on supporting the Arria GX FPGA family within the Mentor Graphics family of synthesis tools. "Precision Synthesis' high quality of results, advanced design optimization and analysis capabilities enable users to reduce costs and accelerate the overall design process," said Danny Biran, vice president of product and corporate marketing at Altera. "We recommend Precision Synthesis to our customers for all Altera families including our new Arria GX family."

Precision Synthesis forms the centerpiece of Mentor Graphics' FPGA flow -- the industry's most comprehensive vendor-independent solution for FPGA design. With advanced support for ASIC prototyping (support for DesignWare([R]) libraries, SDC constraints, gated-clock handling, etc.) plus advanced implementation and optimization techniques, such as automatic mapping and inferencing of dedicated DSP and RAM blocks, Precision Synthesis is uniquely suited to handle today's high-end FPGAs. In addition, Precision Synthesis features an award-winning design analysis capability, allowing designers to cross-probe between multiple views as well as perform interactive static timing for rapid "what-if" analyses. Precision Synthesis reduces design iterations and enables faster, more predictable completion of designs, while delivering high quality of results.

As a part of the Mentor Graphics synthesis product line, LeonardoSpectrum[TM] offers customers a well-proven, mature synthesis solution for both FPGAs and ASICs.

About Mentor Graphics

Mentor Graphics Corporation (NASDAQ:MENT) is a world leader in electronic hardware and software design solutions, providing products, consulting services and award-winning support for the world's most successful electronics and semiconductor companies. Established in 1981, the company reported revenues over the last 12 months of over $800 million and employs approximately 4,250 people worldwide. Corporate headquarters are located at 8005 S.W. Boeckman Road, Wilsonville, Oregon, 97070-7777. World Wide Web site: http://www.mentor.com/.> Mentor Graphics and Precision are registered trademarks and LeonardoSpectrum is a trademark of Mentor Graphics Corporation. All other company or product names are the registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective owners.