GiDEL Joins Mentor Graphics OpenDoor Program, Integrates Mentor's Advanced Synthesis Solutions with Its High-End FPGA Platforms.

EIN AYYALA, Israel -- GiDEL, a leading provider of FPGA development platforms, announced that it has joined Mentor Graphics(R) (NASDAQ: MENT) OpenDoor(SM) partner program. The partnership facilitates the integration of Mentor Graphics advanced synthesis and verification solutions, including the Precision(R) Synthesis and ModelSim(R) tools, with GiDEL's PROC development systems, to immediately benefit design teams developing system-level applications running at hardware speed on FPGAs. GiDEL will also work with Mentor Graphics to develop a flow that allows both the algorithm designer and the hardware designer to accelerate the verification of their designs by running the RTL directly on prototyping hardware built by GiDEL.

"The integration of Mentor Graphics Precision Synthesis and ModelSim products with our FPGA board and development tools delivers a new standard for rapid prototyping and hardware-software integration," said Reuven Weintraub, President and CTO of GiDEL. "FPGA co-processing accelerates the host program, and we believe that it will be the future of high-performance computation applications. By working with industry leaders like Mentor Graphics, this partnership represents an important step towards enhancing the performance of supercomputing and system applications."

"We are pleased to welcome GiDEL into the OpenDoor program," said Simon Bloch, general manager, Design Creation and Synthesis Division, Mentor Graphics. "By combining the ease-of-use, vendor-independence, and productivity benefits of our products with the advanced features of GiDEL's PROC Boards, PROCMultiPort and PROCWizard products, this agreement expands the choices available to our mutual customers. In tandem with GiDEL's leading-edge development platforms, Mentor Graphics suite of FPGA development tools will be a key factor for enhancing any rapid prototyping environment."

The GiDEL software enables the programming and configuration of the prototyping board, as well as the generation of all API code. It also handles the interfacing to ModelSim via the programming language interface (PLI) for verification. RTL would be synthesized in Precision Synthesis, PROCSim adds board information, and the design is run through an FPGA vendor's place and route tool. PROCSim allows blocks of RTL to be co-simulated using the ModelSim verification environment by running them on the PROC Board FPGAs. PROCWizard generates the necessary API drivers to access the hardware and aids the RTL to run on the prototyping board.

PROC Boards provides a high-capacity, high-speed FPGA-based platform. The PROC Boards have been designed to support prototyping and system applications. PROC Boards have a large range of cost and performance, from the PROCSpark II series with Cyclone II 35 through the PROCStar II series with 4 Stratix 180 FPGAs to the PROCSuperStar stackable system. For more information about PROC Boards, visit http://www.gidel.com/PROCBoards.htm

PROCMultiPort, a flexible 16-port advanced on-board memory controller, is used as a set of huge FIFOs between the FPGAs application and the host system, enabling real-time operations with regular operating systems. For more information about PROCMultiPort, visit http://www.gidel.com/procMultiPort.htm

PROCWizard is a convenient developer's environment that automatically generates the hardware/software interface. Here the user's software has immediate access to the hardware at system speeds while the FPGA continues to operate at its maximum performance. In addition, the PROCWizard Debug mode gives the user immediate access to the FPGA code. For more information about PROCWizard, visit http://www.gidel.com/procwizard.htm

The Precision Synthesis tool is optimized to quickly and easily deliver superior synthesis results. Tightly integrating both logical (Precision RTL) and physical (Precision Physical) optimization techniques, Precision Synthesis empowers customers to start designs right, improve designs quickly, and efficiently meet project requirements. Built on a unified data model, it allows users to cross-probe between multiple views, providing added control during design analysis. In addition, intuitive design project management and full-featured incremental timing analysis enables companies to solve next-generation FPGA implementation and timing challenges, resulting in shorter design cycles, improved competitiveness and significantly higher performance. More details at www.mentor.com/synthesis

The ModelSim high-performance verification environment provides the most advanced verification and debugging capabilities in the industry. ModelSim offers unmatched flexibility by supporting 32- and 64-bit UNIX and Linux, and 32-bit Windows(R)-based platforms, and is the cornerstone of Mentor Graphics verification methodology. The ModelSim tool enables the transparent mixing of VHDL and Verilog in one design, with a common, intuitive graphical interface for development and debug at any level, regardless of the language. With the best standards support in the industry, a complete set of integrated debug tools, high-performance compiler/simulator optimizations and the ability to customize the simulator, ModelSim is the choice for both ASIC and FPGA design.

Mentor Graphics OpenDoor program is the industry's leading and longest standing program supporting the development of integrated world-class solutions. OpenDoor provides access to a diverse number of partner companies that offer well integrated, leading edge software solutions that complement the Mentor Graphics suite of tools in all aspects of the design process. Over 95 OpenDoor partner companies have agreed to develop and maintain commercial integrations, expanding the choices available to Mentor Graphics users in all design processes. Hundreds of EDA products now interoperate with Mentor Graphics tools for ESDA, Top-Down Design, PCB Layout and IC Design. Check out www.mentor.com/company/partner_programs/opendoor/index.cfm

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 $700 million and employs approximately 3,850 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/.

About GiDEL

GiDEL Ltd, www.gidel.com, is a successful, profitable and innovative company which was founded in 1993. GiDEL has become one of the market leaders as a company that continuously provides cutting-edge reconfigurable technology utilizing FPGAs. GiDEL sees its customers as partners and uses its vast experience at the project-level & FPGA design to focus on its customers' projects success.