Mentor Graphics Wins the Sixth Annual SMT China Vision Award for Valor MSS Production Planning

NEPCON China, Shanghai China, April 25, 2012 — Mentor Graphics Corporation, (NASDAQ: MENT), the market and technology leader in printed circuit board (PCB) design through manufacturing solutions, today announced receiving the sixth annual SMT China Vision Award for their Valor® MSS (Manufacturing Systems Solutions) Production Planning product in the manufacturing software category. The SMT China Vision award recognizes industry experts in the field of electronics manufacturing technology. Winning products were selected based on their contributions in helping the downstream industry to reduce cost, improve quality, increase efficiency, enhance reliability, ensure safety and protect the environment.

Mentor Graphics is the only supplier to provide a full, end-to-end solution from product design through to the manufacturing shop floor, which includes the Valor MSS suite. The Production Planning tool is one of several modules that make up the Valor MSS suite which covers all aspects of PCB assembly from the bare PCB to a fully completed product ready for shipping, a seamless integration of the entire PCB manufacturing process with one easy-to-manage platform.

“We are honored to accept the sixth annual China Vision Award for our Valor MSS Production Planning solution, which provides innovative technology designed to enhance a company’s planning ability across all factory lines” stated Kenny Chan, director of sales for China, Valor Division of Mentor Graphics. “The line downtime is saved which enhances productivity, reduces costs and enhances agility to help companies become more profitable.”

Valor MSS Production Planning is a machine-vendor independent solution that increases overall line utilization time for SMT manufacturers who assemble a mix of products. This tool focuses specifically on unique technologies of SMT work-order optimization by the advanced analysis of material positioning commonality between products together with actual program derived cycle times, as well as the regular resource and material constraints. The planning function can simply take up to thousands of work order instances, sequence and distribute them effectively across production lines to minimize changeover time and enhance performance, achieving the best possible factory plan.

"The Valor MSS Production Planning solution enables us to consolidate our production planning process by instantly grouping any quantity of work orders and their materials based on the finite capacity of the line, including any static feeder setups already in place,” said Stefan Schnake, manufacturing process support at Phoenix Contact Electronics GmbH in Bad Pyrmont, Germany.

Valor MSS Production Planning eliminates the guess-work in production planning by quickly creating an intelligent, optimized production plan, making it the ideal solution for simulating "what if" scenarios. For more information on the Valor MSS Production Planning tool and all Valor MSS solutions, visit the website at www.mentor.com/valor.

About Mentor Graphics

Mentor Graphics Corporation 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 in the last fiscal year of about $1,015 million. Corporate headquarters are located at 8005 S.W. Boeckman Road, Wilsonville, Oregon 97070-7777. World Wide Web site: http://www.mentor.com.

(Mentor Graphics and Mentor are registered trademarks of Mentor Graphics Corporation. All other company or product names are the registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective owners.)

For more information, please contact:

Larry Toda
Mentor Graphics
503.685.1664
larry_toda@mentor.com

Suzanne Graham
Mentor Graphics
503.685.7789
suzanne_graham@mentor.com