Mentor Graphics and Gain Technology Deliver the First Complete USB 2.0 IP Reference Solution for System-on-Chip Designs

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 27, 2001-- Mentor Graphics® Corp. (NASDAQ:MENT) and Gain Technology(TM) today announced a collaborative effort to provide complete Intellectual Property (IP) reference solutions for Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0-compliant peripheral designs.

The reference solution combines the Gain Technology USB 2.0 physical layer (PHY) transceiver macrocell with the Mentor Graphics USB 2.0 function controller. In addition to the core offerings, Mentor Graphics provides the mixed-signal design tools and the necessary engineering support to rapidly integrate the analog and digital IP into a system-on-chip (SoC) design. Both cores have been verified in silicon making the USB 2.0 reference solution ideal for external storage peripheral designs of high density disk and zip drives, as well as peripheral designs including scanners, printers, video conferencing cameras and modems.

The reference solution complies with the Universal Transceiver Macrocell Interface (UTMI) specification, a standard designed to improve interoperability between all USB 2.0 products. The complete reference solution combines the USB 2.0 function controller and a high-speed M8051 E-Warp microcontroller from the Mentor Graphics InventraTM Intellectual Property division with the Gain Technology GT3100 USB 2.0 analog transceiver. The two cores have been proven to work on a board, the single stage before SoC implementation.

``The primary challenge today for designers lies in how to ease the integration of IP into a silicon design,'' said Dr. Susheel Chandra, general manager, Mentor Graphics, Inventra Intellectual Property division. ``Mentor Graphics and Gain Technology provide both a best-in-class reference solution with proven IP cores, and the necessary mixed signal services and support to ease the IP integration process, helping our joint customers bring their systems to market faster.''

``The availability of a complete USB 2.0 reference design that has been proven in silicon will help our customers verify performance expectations before integrating the solution into an expensive time-consuming SoC design,'' said Steve Millaway, President of Gain Technology. ``Our core, combined with the macrocell and tools expertise from Mentor Graphics, allows us both to provide customers with the best assurance that their USB 2.0 application will work at first pass.''

The USB 2.0 physical layer (PHY) transceiver from Gain Technology is a highly integrated mixed-signal semiconductor IP core that includes digital PHY technology licensed from Intel and analog PHY technology developed in-house. The USB 2.0 Macrocell is USB-IF ``Hi-Speed'' certified and is targeted at customers developing system-on-a-chip hub and device applications.

Mentor Graphics Delivers USB 2.0 Controller

Mentor Graphics is the industry leader in reusable soft core solutions for tomorrow's USB products. Its USB cores perform packet encoding, decoding and error checking functions, shielding the user from the details of USB transfer operations. The Mentor Graphics USB 2.0 function controller core supports high-speed, 480-Mbps transfers, 40 times faster than current USB 1.1 full-speed operation. Integrating the core into an ASIC, FPGA, or ASSP peripheral design ensures complete USB 2.0 compliance, device functionality and backward compatibility with USB 1.1. Industry-standard interfaces enable easy integration with all UTMI-compliant analog transceivers.

About Gain Technology

Gain Technology Corporation is a privately held fabless semiconductor company that designs, develops and supplies high performance analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits and semiconductor intellectual property (IP) cores to semiconductor and systems companies worldwide. Through partnerships with strategic customers, wafer foundries and other vendors, Gain Technology offers its customers both product design services and complete product delivery of Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Application Specific Standard Products (ASSPs) and semiconductor IP solutions. Gain Technology is headquartered at 2700 West Broadway Blvd., Tucson, AZ 85745, Ph: 520/628-9000, Fax: 520/622-0076. Visit www.gain.com for more information.

About Mentor Graphics Corporation

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 most successful electronics and semiconductor companies. Established in 1981, the company reported revenues over the last 12 months of more than $600 million and employs approximately 2,975 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 is a trademark of Mentor Graphics Corp. All other company or product names are the registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective owners.

Contact:
     Mentor Graphics
     Larry Toda, 503/685-1664
     larry_toda@mentor.com
        or
     Benjamin Group/BSMG Worldwide
     Victor Domine, 408/559-6090
     vdomine@bsmg.com