Mentor Graphics Releases Enhanced Flagship Suite for Electrical Systems Design

WILSONVILLE, Ore., August 3, 2004 - Mentor Graphics Corporation (Nasdaq: MENT) today announced availability of the Capital Harness Systems^TM product suite release 2004.1.  The Capital Harness Systems (CHS) product suite is a comprehensive data-centric, end-to-end software toolset for the design, analysis, engineering and production of large scale electrical interconnect systems.  Users can select from a wide range of integrated point tools within CHS.  These tools all act on a single data repository, thus eliminating data re-entry and greatly simplifying the complex change management issues commonly encountered.

The 2004.1 release of the CHS  product suite delivers significantly enhanced capabilities in several areas.  Examples include:

• Dynamic electrical simulation, which provides real-time feedback to design engineers.  This significantly speeds the process of designing complicated electrical circuits.
• Design abstraction, which allows engineers to visualize electrical designs at various levels of detail.  Simplified design data management and more selective reporting are typical benefits of this feature.
• Design comparison, which provides graphical representation of connectivity or properties differences between related designs.  This simplifies the process of evaluating complex design changes.
• Enhanced harness drawing features, such as display of composite wire tables, display of terminal materials and display of nested dimensions for complex bundle configurations.  These capabilities support the static drawing paradigm that is still common within this domain.
• New integrations with third party Mechanical CAD (MCAD) tools, such as UGS I-deas.

"The CHS product suite is updated on a regular six-month cycle," said Nick Smith, product marketing director, Integrated Electrical Systems Division, Mentor Graphics.  "The 2004.1 release adds many capabilities to this leading edge toolset.  It delivers against our vision of a much more efficient, repeatable design-to-manufacture process.  We are trying to release engineers from time-consuming and error-prone tasks such as documentation and checking.  This leaves the engineers free to undertake the truly value-add design tasks, which is where a company's competitive advantage often lies."

More information on the Capital Harness Systems product suite is available by visiting http://www.mentor.com/products/cabling_harness/.

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 electronics and semiconductor companies.  Established in 1981, the company reported revenues over the last 12 months of about $675 million and employs approximately 3,800 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/.

Mentor Graphics is a registered trademark, and Capital Harness Systems is a trademark of Mentor Graphics.  All other company or product names are the registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective owners.

###

For more information, please contact:
James Price Mentor Graphics 011.44.161.926.1637 james_price@mentor.com	Suzanne Graham Mentor Graphics 503.685.7789 suzanne_graham@mentor.com