Accelerated Technology's Nucleus USB Modem Communication Class Driver Eases Migration for Legacy Modem Applications

MOBILE, Ala., October 14, 2005 - Accelerated Technology®, a Mentor Graphics division (Nasdaq: MENT), today announced the Nucleus® USB Modem Communication class driver, an extension to its popular Nucleus USB software. The driver helps embedded developers migrate legacy modem applications and build new devices that use the Universal Serial Bus (USB) standard as a connection medium.

Traditionally, legacy modems are connected to computers via an RS-232 port. Because USB offers a plug-and play interface, higher data transfer rates and greater flexibility in terms of hot-swapping, it is rapidly replacing RS-232 for transmitting data, for example, over telephone or cable lines. However, various carrier modulation standards exist for modems to support specific legacy control signals and state variables. To solve these dependencies, it is important that new modems provide an Abstract Control Model (ACM) type communication class interface to the USB host.

The Nucleus USB Modem Communication class driver incorporates the ACM implementation and is released for use with the Nucleus USB host and function stack, which are both USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 compliant. The Nucleus USB Host Modem Communication class driver enables the embedded host to connect with USB ACM-compliant modem device. The Nucleus USB Function Modem Communication class driver creates the USB ACM-compliant modem device. Typical applications that can use the Nucleus USB Modem Communication class driver to migrate legacy modems to USB include data, fax, voice, cellular and text phone modems.

The Nucleus USB Host Modem Communication class driver works seamlessly with the Nucleus NET protocol stack and the Nucleus Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) software. This allows the embedded USB host to directly communicate with the Internet via a USB CDC-ACM-compliant modem connection.

Availability and Pricing The Nucleus embedded software is licensed with source code and without royalty fees. Available now, licenses for the Nucleus USB software start at U.S. $14,995 and licenses for the class drivers begin at U.S. $2,995. For more information, please contact Accelerated Technology at 800-468-6853 or info@acceleratedtechnology.com.  

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 about $700 million and employs approximately 3,900 people worldwide. Corporate headquarters are located at 8005 S.W. Boeckman Road, Wilsonville, Oregon 97070-7777; Silicon Valley headquarters are located at 1001 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose, California 95131-2314. World Wide Web site: http://www.mentor.com/.

Accelerated Technology, a division of Mentor Graphics Corporation, is located in Mobile, Alabama and has engineering sites, sales offices and distributors worldwide. As a leading provider of royalty-free, embedded real-time operating system (RTOS) software, Accelerated Technology helps developers accelerate product time-to-market in a wide range of embedded device applications. Its comprehensive Nucleus RTOS includes software design tools, evaluation, test and versification software, kernels, middleware and Eclipse-based development tools. For more information, please visit www.acceleratedtechnology.com.