NEC Electronics Selects Mentor Graphics Calibre nmLVS for Advanced Circuit Characterization at 40nm and Below

WILSONVILLE, Ore., November 13, 2008 – Mentor Graphics Corporation (Nasdaq: MENT) today announced that NEC Electronics Corporation (Kanagawa, Japan) has selected the Calibre® nmLVS product to establish a highly accurate circuit characterization flow for 40nm and below. The Calibre nmLVS verification tool has been enhanced and upgraded for nanometer large-scale integrated circuits (LSI) with new features including advanced device parameter (ADP) extraction to enable customer-specific circuit characterization, as well as greater interactive debugging capabilities, and improved performance to increase productivity and reduce cycle times for very large SoC devices.

“Mentor’s Calibre nmLVS product with the ADP extraction feature enables us to extract highly-accurate circuit characteristics better reflecting our industry-leading semiconductor processes by taking into account systematic variation of layout context among the transistors themselves, and within the surrounding region,” said Haruji Futami, Senior Manager, Core Development Division, Technology Foundation Development Operations Unit. “This capability allows NEC Electronics to ensure more accurately designed LSI without any additional changes to our existing design flow. For this reason we are incorporating Calibre nmLVS into our standard design flow for high-density, high-performance LSI development, starting with products implemented at 40nm and below.”

NEC Electronics uses the Calibre nmLVS solution in a design flow that estimates the systematic variation in electric characteristics caused by differences in the way layout shapes are implemented on the wafer, which is a growing concern at smaller process geometries. The Calibre nmLVS tool accurately extracts circuit values taking into consideration interactions among adjacent gates, and stress effects introduced by shallow trench isolation (STI). By using a new script developed by NEC Electronics, extracted geometric data is fed into NEC Electronics’ proprietary gate pitch dependent characteristics variation model, and an STI stress induced characteristics variation model, which was developed by the MIRAI project lead by Selete under contract to NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization). The Calibre nmLVS tool uses both models described in the script to generate a systematic variation aware net list. “We will continue to incorporate results from the MIRAI project and other layout-based variability factors into our design flow to further improve the accuracy of our LSI development," added Mr. Futami.

“Meeting the needs of our customers working at leading edge process nodes requires us to evolve our tools at every step of the IC implementation flow,” said Joseph Sawicki, vice president and general manager for the design-to-silicon division at Mentor Graphics. “Because our solutions are all based on a common Calibre nm Platform, we can provide functional and performance advancements in a timely and consistent manner, enabling our customers to create highly flexible and well-integrated flows.”

About Calibre nmLVS
The Calibre nmLVS solution provides a combination of capabilities and enhancements specifically addressing the challenges of nanometer IC designs, including multithreading and distributed computing performance improvements to enable LVS comparisons in minutes, even for the largest designs at 45nm and below. ADP extraction provides built-in device recognition and parameter extraction for standard devices with typical BSIM3/4 and PSP parameters, as well as user-defined parameters defined with SVRF and Tcl rules to enable extraction tailored to the customer’s manufacturing process and the layout design rules. The ADP extraction netlist is based on a simulation of the manufactured device with full litho modeling of line widths, spacings, and contours. Calibre nmLVS Advanced Debugging supports interactive verification and error correcting in a familiar design-oriented framework, with full cross-probing of SPICE netlists, browser and netlist comparison, identification of shorts and isolation, design-fix suggestions, and visual indication of the location of geometrical and electrical violations, such as shorts in the layout.

Pricing and Availability
The Calibre nmLVS solution is available now. Pricing starts at $126K.

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 $850 million and employs approximately 4,500 people worldwide. Corporate headquarters are located at 8005 S.W. Boeckman Road, Wilsonville, Oregon 97070-7777. World Wide Web site: http://www.mentor.com/.

About NEDO, Selete, and MIRAI
NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization) is one of the largest central R&D organizations in Japan created to promote research, development and proliferation of Japanese industrial technologies and energy/environmental technologies. Selete (Semiconductor Leading Edge Technologies) was established with investment from eleven Japanese semiconductor firms including NEC Electronics as a consortium. MIRAI is a government research project under a research contract with NEDO, to develop technology innovation to tackle the challenges in the technical areas of hp45nm and below. Selete is a key member in this project.

(Mentor Graphics and Calibre 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:

Gene Forte
Mentor Graphics
503.685.1193
gene_forte@mentor.com

Sonia Harrison
Mentor Graphics
503.685.1165
sonia_harrison@mentor.com