Mentor Graphics Announces Additional IP Netlist Availability for High-Performance Actel SX-A FPGAs

- Extending its support for the high-performance SX-A FPGA family from Actel Corp., Mentor Graphics Corp. announced today that a further selection of its Inventra[tm] Intellectual Property (IP) cores is available on the Mentor Graphics Inventra Web site (http://www.mentor.com/inventra).

The latest selection of pre-verified Inventra IP cores for the SX-A devices are the popular 8051Warp 8-bit microcontroller and supporting peripherals. They include a number of common functions (PCMCIA, PC Card and I2C bus interfaces), plus the widely used HDLC Controller and T1/E1 framer. These cores are all provided as optimized netlists, targeted blocks of soft-IP, and verified using Mentor's FormalPro[tm] verification tools.

Optimized netlists simplify IP integration in advanced system designs, accelerating time-to-market for applications in the high-growth telecommunications infrastructure, networking and e-appliances markets. In addition, with Inventra's "IP Evaluation Risk-Free program," designers can easily download ModelSim[tm] simulation models of these cores to verify suitability for their application prior to licensing the core. By using optimized netlists with Actel FPGAs, designers can make key system changes late in the development cycle, avoiding costly and time-consuming silicon re-spins that have been the leading cause of missed-market opportunities. Mentor Graphics plans additional netlist availability in upcoming months.

"This is an important advancement in our IP initiative with Mentor Graphics," said Dennis Kish, Actel's corporate vice president of marketing. "A broad selection of Inventra FPGA cores is now available to Actel customers. We look forward to working with Mentor to continue to offer our customers cost-effective and easy-to-use IP solutions for Actel devices."

"Sourcing standard and application specific IP functions from Mentor Graphics enables programmable device vendors to concentrate on differentiating their end product solutions, rather than redesigning common functions," said Pierre Bricaud, director of marketing for the Inventra IP division of Mentor Graphics. "Mentor offers a selection of its Inventra library over the Web, providing designers across the globe with a means to license and download the industry's broadest selection of pre-verified IP cores for FPGA design."

Mentor's FormalPro[tm] Used in Netlist Verification Process
To ensure accuracy of Inventra IP, Mentor Graphics performs functional verification of the netlists with its industry-leading equivalence checker, FormalPro. FormalPro lets users find, diagnose and eliminate all the errors inadvertently introduced when moving from one level of abstraction to another by comparing the behavior of the lower level design with the higher level design. When a difference is detected, FormalPro rapidly locates the cause of the fault and cross-references it to the original source; dramatically increasing productivity while shortening time-to-market.

List of Supported Cores
In March 2000, Mentor Graphics announced the availability of the M1284H and M16x50. Today, Mentor announces the availability of the following netlists:

• M8051WARP - 8-Bit microcontroller
• M82365SL - PC Card interface control
• MI2C - I-squared C bus interface
• MPCMCIA 1- PCMCIA card interface
• T1E1-FRM - T1/E1 framer
• HDLC-CORE - Single channel HDLC Core

The combination of speed and low cost found in Actel's SX-A (0.25/0.22µ) FPGA family opens the door to next-generation designs that could not previously be implemented in programmable logic. Actel devices exceed the speeds of other FPGAs and provide time-to-market savings while offering an ASIC-like, single-chip, low-power solution-enabling Actel's SX-A FPGAs to deliver "performance without penalty."

Licensing and Availability
Inventra IP cores for Actel's SX-A line of high-performance FPGAs can be licensed and downloaded now from the Mentor Graphics Web site at http://www.mentor.com/inventra/netlist_program. Netlists of the available cores have been validated for use in the FPGA Advantage[tm] flow and with the FormalPro equivalence checker. For more information on the Mentor Graphics Inventra core portfolio, please contact your nearest Mentor Graphics sales representative or visit the Mentor Graphics Web site at http://www.mentor.com/inventra.

About Mentor Graphics Corp.
Mentor Graphics Corporation (Nasdaq: MENT) is a world leader in electronic hardware and software design solutions, providing products and consulting services for the world's largest electronics and semiconductor companies. Established in 1981, the company reported revenues over the last 12 months of more than $525 million and employs approximately 2,600 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: www.mentor.com.

Mentor Graphics is a registered trademark of Mentor Graphics Corp. Inventra, FormalPro, ModelSim and FPGA Advantage are trademarks of Mentor Graphics Corp. The Actel name and logo are registered trademarks of Actel Corp. All other company or product names are the registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective owners.