Mentor Graphics Announces 22nd Annual PCB Technology Leadership Awards Program Winners

WILSONVILLE, Ore., November 9, 2010 - Continuing its tradition of promoting and recognizing printed circuit board (PCB) design excellence, Mentor Graphics Corporation (NASDAQ: MENT) today announced the winners of its 22nd annual PCB Technology Leadership Awards (TLA). Started in 1988, this program is the longest running competition of its kind in the electronic design automation (EDA) industry. It recognizes engineers and computer aided design (CAD) designers who use innovative methods and design tools to address today’s complex PCB systems’ design challenges and produce industry-leading products.

"The entries for Mentor's 2010 TLA reflect an excellent 'cross-section' of the electronics industry, representing today’s more advanced and complex electronic circuits,” said Happy Holden, vice president and chief technical officer, Foxconn Advanced Technology Group. “This year was more difficult to judge and all entries employed very advanced technologies. The high-pin count FPGAs and ASICs were particularly abundant and some went to new miniaturizations with very fine-pitch devices of 0.5 mm pitch. It was encouraging that most designers are leveraging their Mentor Graphics tools to implement innovative approaches with advanced PCB technologies like HDI/microvias.”

Industry experts judged entries from around the world in five categories representing a wide variety of industries. The PCB industry expert judges included Happy Holden, vice president and chief technical officer, Foxconn Advanced Technology Group; Gary Ferrari, technical support director, FTG Circuits; Pete Waddell, president of UP Media, publisher of Printed Circuit Design & Fab/Circuits Assembly Magazine; Andy Kowalewski, senior interconnect designer, AdvantagePCB; and Rick Hartley, senior principal engineer, Avionics Division of L-3 Communications.

2010 Technology Leadership Award Winners

Category: Best Overall Design
Company Name: GE Intelligent Platforms (UK) – Using: Expedition® Enterprise
Design Team: Paul Curran, Mike Tapp, Rob Savage, John Digby

Category: Consumer Electronics and Handhelds
Company Name: Seagate (USA) – Using: Expedition Enterprise
Design Team: Diane Williams, Dave Williamson, Mark Roberts

Runner Up: Qualcomm Inc (USA) – Using: Board Station® XE
Design Team: Larry Paul, Bryan Selby, Jason Yeo, Yongsheng Peng, Christine Henry, David Bahnemann, Andres March, Yang Zhang

Category: Industrial Control, Instrumentation, Security and Medical
Company Name: JSC ELINS, (Russian Federation) – Using: Expedition Enterprise
Design Team: Dmitry Belyaev, Vladimir Sikoev, Evgeniya Tevs

Runner Up: GE Intelligent Platforms (US) – Expedition Enterprise
Design Team: Howard Donaldson, Jack Henslee, Matt Ferguson

Category: Military & Aerospace
Company Name: General Dynamics (Canada) – Using: Board Station XE
Design Team: Rene Allard, George Claridge, Kevin Fitzgerald, Cristian Filip, Luc Bouchard

Runner Up: Astrium (UK) – Using: Expedition Enterprise
Design Team: Mark Walker, Sean Manning, Bob Masterton, Stephen Williams, Jon Hill

Category: Computers, Blade and Servers, Memory Systems
Company Name: ZTE, (China) – Using: Expedition Enterprise
Design Team: Zhang Meijuan, Guo Yonggang, Peng Shuifei, Chen Huifeng

Runner Up: Broadcom, (USA) – Using: Expedition Enterprise
Designer: Rich Pitta

Category: Telecom, Network Controllers, Line Cards
Company Name: Alcatel-Lucent (Italy) – Using: Board Station XE
Design Team: Lugi Aldeghi, Fabrizio Crippa, Massimiliano Severi, Giuseppe Sorbara, Lucia Marta, Ivan Malaspina, Luigi Brambilla

Runners Up:

• SIENNA ECAD Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (India) – Using: PADS®
  Design Team: Srinivas R, Savita Rajesh
• Alcatel-Lucent (Israel) – Using: Expedition Enterprise
  Design Team: Elad Noach, Rafi Zalalihin, Tamir Hazan

Category: Transportation & Automotive
Company Name: Huizhou-Desay Automotive (China) – Using: Expedition Enterprise
Designer: Tan Baichuan

Runner Up: Huizhou-Desay Automotive (China) – Using: Expedition Enterprise
Designer: Huaquan Li

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 about $800 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, Board Station, PADS, and Expedition 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