Mentor Graphics Announces Logic and Physical Synthesis Support for Xilinx 7 Series FPGAs

WILSONVILLE, Ore., March 8, 2011 - Mentor Graphics Corporation (NASDAQ: MENT) today announced that its advanced synthesis products support Xilinx 28nm 7 series field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Xilinx 7 series FPGAs are built on a low-power and unified FPGA architecture that scales across low-cost and ultra high-end families. Support for the new 28nm Virtex-7 and Kintex-7 FPGA families is available now and support for Artix-7 will follow. Mentor Graphics is the first EDA FPGA synthesis provider to offer physical synthesis support for Virtex-7 and Kintex-7 FPGA designs.

The push-button capabilities of the Precision® tool works in conjunction with the new Xilinx ISE Design Suite 13 to provide superior Quality-of-Results (QoR). Designers can also leverage the Precision tool’s support for industry-leading SystemVerilog and mixed language support to implement their designs. During the implementation cycle, customers with large designs can reduce run time by utilizing the Precision tool’s unique automatic incremental synthesis and its integration with Xilinx SmartCompile.

Engineers from Xilinx and Mentor Graphics worked together to provide a smooth transition for customers migrating to the 7 series FPGAs. “Both teams worked jointly for the last several months to build on the success of our previous generation devices,” said Tom Feist, senior marketing director for ISE Design Suite at Xilinx. “With Precision’s physical synthesis support, mutual customers benefit from excellent quality of results for our next generation FPGAs.”

“Xilinx’s 7 series FPGAs address key requirements of higher capacity, faster performance and lower power for the new breed of FPGA designs,” said Daniel Platzker, product line director, Mentor Graphics design and synthesis division. “Our joint effort resulted in our mutual customers achieving superior quality of results and fast design closure.”

About Precision Synthesis

The Precision Synthesis tool forms the centerpiece of the Mentor Graphics FPGA flow—the industry's most comprehensive, vendor-independent solution for FPGA design. It’s the only synthesis tool which offers true push-button, multi-vendor physical synthesis for achieving the best quality of results. With comprehensive language support, including SystemVerilog, advanced ASIC prototyping flow and automatic incremental synthesis, the Precision Synthesis tool is uniquely suited to handle today’s high-end FPGAs. The Precision Synthesis tool features award-winning design analysis capability, allowing designers to cross-probe between multiple views as well as perform interactive static timing "what-if" analyses. The Precision Synthesis tool reduces design iterations, and enables faster, more predictable completion of designs, while delivering high quality of results.

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 electronic, semiconductor and systems companies. Established in 1981, the company reported revenues over the last 12 months of about $915 million. Corporate headquarters are located at 8005 S.W. Boeckman Road, Wilsonville, Oregon 97070-7777. World Wide Web site: http://www.mentor.com/.