Success Stories

SAIC

Shanghai Automotive Industries Corporation

Shanghai Automotive Industries Adopts Mentor Graphics Volcano Automotive Network Design Tools

WILSONVILLE, Ore. Jan. 11, 2006– Mentor Graphics Corporation today announced that the Shanghai Automotive Industries Corporation (SAIC) has purchased Mentor's Volcano™ network design and testing tools to design automotive vehicle networks for SAIC's self-branded platforms. SAIC will use the Volcano Network Architect (VNA) and the Volcano TELLUS test and validation solutions. The company is the latest to join the long list of Volcano customers that includes Audi, BMW, Bosch, Visteon and Volvo.

“We are pleased to engage with an exciting company like SAIC to bring sophisticated electronic systems to the rapidly expanding Chinese automotive market. This arrangement is a prime example of Mentor's commitment to the global automotive industry.”

The Mentor Graphics Volcano solution provides SAIC with comprehensive networking and data communication design tools that support the development of in-vehicle networking systems. By using Volcano, network design is made easy and predictable, guaranteeing data communication, which reduces the verification effort to almost zero and eliminates warranty and change costs caused by networking issues. SAIC will use the Volcano TELLUS test and validation tools to automatically verify the communication parameters of the vehicle.

New Technology Department vice director Fei Hao of SAIC Automotive Engineering Academy said, "Mentor Graphics' Volcano suite for automotive networking enables us to develop our vehicles' multiplexed communication systems substantially quicker than starting from new platform design. SAIC design engineers can focus on the vehicles' characteristics, leaving the implementation of the communication to the Volcano tools. The tool suite is the ideal solution for companies like SAIC, challenged with taking a technological leap in terms of introducing multiplexed solutions concurrent with launching a new car."

"We are pleased to engage with an exciting company like SAIC to bring sophisticated electronic systems to the rapidly expanding Chinese automotive market," said Serge Leef, general manager for Mentor Graphics System Level Engineering Division. "This arrangement is a prime example of Mentor's commitment to the global automotive industry."

Ford

Ford Motor Company

Mentor Graphics Announces Ford is to Standardize on the Capital Electrical Design Tools Worldwide

Convergence® Conference, Detroit, MI, October 17, 2006 – Mentor Graphics Corporation announced today Ford Motor Company’s decision to standardize worldwide on Mentor Graphics Capital flow for the design of vehicle electrical systems. The intent is that Capital will be used by the entire Ford group including the Jaguar®, Land Rover®, Mazda® and Volvo® brands. Ford Motor Company will deploy Capital’s powerful electrical system design and integration software, and also the Capital harness engineering and costing tools.

“By standardizing on Capital, Ford will achieve cost, reliability and time-to-market advantages in terms of part number control, design error reduction and architectural optimization.”

This full Capital flow provides Ford with significantly enhanced engineering productivity by automating time consuming tasks. More importantly, Capital’s generative design flow promotes component and system re-use, thus consolidating purchasing volumes, and provides a rules-driven correct-by-construction paradigm that eliminates wiring integration errors. Using unique wiring synthesis technologies, Capital automates construction of all wiring interconnects taking into account the multiple options and variants that derive from the marketing configuration complexity of modern automobiles.

Because Ford will also adopt Mentor’s harness engineering and costing tools, data can be readily flowed throughout the design process, including to the tier 1 harness supplier base. This not only encourages a design-for-manufacture outlook but also supports robust design change processes.

Fundamental to Capital is the philosophy that design data management is key to solving the problem of electrical design complexity. Much of this complexity derives from the huge configuration challenge noted above, a problem faced by Ford and indeed all automotive OEMs. Capital is a data-centric toolset, with each software application built around a common object model contained within the Capital Manager application. By capturing and acting on the complex configuration relationships during the electrical design flow, Capital allows this complexity to be properly managed.

“By adopting Capital, Ford Motor Company is taking a very strong position in the deployment of these modern technologies. The electrical system is a high impact aspect of a modern automobile. By standardizing on Capital, Ford will achieve cost, reliability and time-to-market advantages in terms of part number control, design error reduction and architectural optimization” said Martin O’Brien, general manager of Mentor’s Integrated Electrical Systems Division.