Toshiba Corporation Adopts the Mentor Graphics QuickUse Development System as Cross-Divisional Design Framework.

Business Editors, High-Tech Writers

WILSONVILLE, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 14, 2001

Solidifying its leadership in customizable design reuse infrastructures and methodologies, Mentor Graphics Corporation (Nasdaq:MENT) today announced that Toshiba Corporation is the first semiconductor company to standardize on a complete System-on-chip (SoC) design work flow based on the QuickUse(TM) Development System (QDS).

The Toshiba Design Framework, also known by the project code "Nautilus", was developed by Mentor Consulting in collaboration with Toshiba. The system drastically increases design productivity gains through automated design flow definition and enhanced quality management and reuse capabilities for SoC design. (See Mentor Graphics Optimizes QuickUse Development System for Design Knowledge Management, June 14, 2001)

Typically, the training and data management needs for design projects require more time and resources than can be allocated. These challenges have become major issues for product engineering teams as today's SoC designs become more complex. To further complicate matters, results and expertise need to be shared among and across engineering teams in large organizations to ensure design quality and accelerate design cycles. To leverage design work done previously and by other teams and share this information across organizations, a scalable management solution is required.

The custom-designed Toshiba Design Framework standardizes and automates the design qualification and management processes of the SoC design flow. The automation of these processes enables Toshiba Corporation to detect errors early in the design cycle and utilize an extremely efficient distribution channel to transfer design information and share design flows across organizations. These capabilities contribute to increased product quality and shortened SoC design cycles, ultimately reducing design cost and alleviating engineering resource issues.

"Expanding the practice of sharing the work flows will bring huge benefits like accelerating the design process, cutting costs, sharing expertise, eliminating bugs, and more. As the organization grows, there will be problems such as different design configurations and versions. The Nautilus system is an automation technology utilizing our major strength, that with Mentor Graphics(R) collaboration succeeded in overcoming this imperative problem," said Kiyofumi Ochii, General Manager, System LSI Design Division, Toshiba Corporation Semiconductor Company. "Nautilus also allows us to automatically enter new design blocks into the database without any additional work for reuse. This is one of the biggest advantages for our SoC business to reach new success."

The Toshiba Nautilus system employs QDS as a web-based interface for design search, selection, qualification, and data administration, and as a user interface for the SoC design flow from specification entry to tape out. Based on Java technology, the Nautilus system is tool- and platform-independent to help accelerate implementation within existing design environments. This is a particularly important benefit for achieving adoption of the system across a large organization.

"A design work flow initiative of this scope and magnitude has simply not been done before," said Wally Rhines, chairman and CEO of Mentor Graphics. "Toshiba's adoption of QuickUse Development System for cross divisional design collaboration validates Mentor's position as the leading provider of complete, standard-product infrastructures and methodologies for SoC design."

Toshiba engineers creating a new design are guided through the Toshiba standardized flow by the design framework. Once the new design has been verified against numerous industry or internal standards, it can be automatically incorporated into the Nautilus system and made available to designers in other Toshiba organizations for incorporation into SoC designs. By automating this process, the Nautilus system ensures no steps in the process are overlooked and that designers can effortlessly contribute to the company's design portfolio.

About the QuickUse Development System

The QuickUse Development System (QDS) is a complete internet-based knowledge management solution that automates IP management and SoC design processes. The QDS solution enhances design productivity by improving team communication and collaboration and provides automation for standardized procedures such as IP qualification and data integration and user guidance for complex processes such as functional verification. This highly scalable solution serves as the basis for customized SoC and IP design environments which are developed in conjunction with Mentor Consulting.

Since the introduction of the system at Toshiba for its multi-million gate design initiatives, QDS has been demonstrated to significantly reduce design-cycle time. In addition to custom design environments, Mentor Graphics also offers stand-alone QDS software solutions such as the QuickUse-IQ system for managing IP qualification. For more information on the QuickUse Development System or its stand-alone configurations, please visit http://www.mentor.com/quickuse.

About Mentor Graphics

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 2,850 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: www.mentor.com.

Mentor Graphics is a registered trademark and QuickUse is a trademark of Mentor Graphics Corporation. All other company or product names are the registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective owners.