Mentor Graphics New Version of Platform Express Supports IP-XACT 1.4 Specification from The SPIRIT Consortium

WILSONVILLE, Ore., Mar. 18, 2008 - Mentor Graphics Corporation (Nasdaq: MENT) today announced the immediate availability of a new version of Platform Express™ with full support for the IP-XACT 1.4 IP databook specification, new mixed-level RTL and ESL design capabilities, and a new portable generator format.

The IP-XACT 1.4 IP databook format, standardized by The SPIRIT Consortium, offers a universal method to describe IP for Design Reuse, and enables that IP to be automatically integrated into designs using a range of IP-XACT enabled tools. As a founding member of The SPIRIT Consortium, Mentor has been at the forefront of delivering tool capabilities and proven design and verification flows with the IP-XACT specification as the foundation for those capabilities.

Platform Express has expanded mixed-level RTL and ESL design capabilities that enable a new range of system level design and verification options directly relevant to system modelers, and those using transaction-based verification methodologies such as the Open Verification Methodology (OVM). This expanded capability allows design and verification teams to more easily deploy system level modeling and verification methodologies geared toward bridging the gap between ESL and RTL centric design and validation flows.

In addition, the new version of Platform Express now supports TGI – the ‘write-once, run anywhere’ generator format of the IP-XACT 1.4 specification. Generators are the key ‘expert knowledge’ technologies that interpret the XML databooks to create real design data. TGI enables generators written in any programming language to run on every IP-XACT enabled Design Environment, giving designers an expanded range of functionality, and generator authors a bigger target market in which to deploy their work.

“With Platform Express, Mentor Graphics has shown a longstanding commitment to the pioneering effort required to make IP Reuse-based design a reality,” said Serge Leef, general manager of Mentor Graphics’ System-Level Engineering Division. “We continue to leverage our unique insight into the information in the IP-XACT data books to automate the widest range of design and verification tasks in a modular, scalable, integrated way.”

About Platform Express
Platform Express is the leading IP Reuse tool that can cut months off product development cycles through use of IP for highly automated design creation and verification. Platform Express is based on open standards, using the IP-XACT XML databook specification from The SPIRIT Consortium and other XML formats; is highly extensible; and is delivered as an Eclipse plugin for easy integration with other Eclipse-based applications.

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 $875 million and employs approximately 4,350 people worldwide. Corporate headquarters are located at 8005 S.W. Boeckman Road, Wilsonville, Oregon 97070-7777. World Wide Web site: http://www.mentor.com/.