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SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov. 13 -- Mentor Graphics Corp. (Nasdaq: MENT) today announced that an optimized release of its VRTXsa(TM) Real-Time Operating System (RTOS) is now available as part of a complete System-on-Chip (SoC) development environment for ARM Powered(TM) applications. The comprehensive, multi-tasking development suite will be used to accelerate time-to-market for the VRTX® applications in mobile handsets, and other deeply embedded applications, incorporating members of the ARM7(TM) and ARM9(TM) Thumb® families of embedded RISC processors.

With the move to SoC design methodologies, designers face acute time-to-market pressures. For 3G mobile handset manufacturers in particular, a failed or delayed product release can mean the difference between market success and failure. To alleviate the risks involved in SoC design, Mentor provides a scalable, reliable, reduced-footprint RTOS, coupled with a range of RTOS-aware development tools, that are uniquely tailored to the needs of both application and system-level debugging.

``As the industry's leading 16/32-bit embedded RISC microprocessor, the ARM architecture continues to gain acceptance in a wide range of applications through our partnership approach,'' said Lester Perera, product manager for ARM. ``For mobile applications, the combination of the ARM and VRTX technologies provides system designers with the flexibility to minimize development time for applications built around the ARM architecture and the VRTX RTOS.''

New for ARM Powered applications is an enhanced version of the VRTXsa RTOS, which has been optimized to reduce footprint, minimize code size and to offer superior performance in both ARM and Thumb execution states. The enhanced RTOS offers the same scalability, reliability and performance features found in other VRTX development suites, such as per-call configuration of the system and priority inheritance, a feature designed to prevent performance problems such as priority inversion.

``The small footprint and high-functionality of VRTX make it ideal for SoC-based mobile applications and will become even more important with the introduction of future 3G systems,'' said Mark Saunders, senior product marketing manager, Mentor Graphics Embedded Software Division. ``ARM is the undisputed leader in the mobile telephony market and our VRTX RTOS is exploiting a phenomenal growth opportunity in this market with features such as high-performance, scalability, and best-in-class debugging solutions winning over several leading handset manufacturers.''

Sophisticated Development Tools for ARM Powered Applications

The VRTX Development System, used to build VRTX-based applications, provides users with configuration and build tools as well as two distinct but complementary levels of debugging support -- the System and Application Developer's Kits -- based on the XRAY® Debugger, that help to ensure speedy deployment of SoC solutions.

VRTX Development Platform

The Development Platform is the fundamental building block of the whole system. It includes the VRTXsa libraries, networking and file system support, board support packages (BSP), run-time libraries (RTL), configuration tools, and the ARM C and C++ compilers.

System Developer's Kits

The System Developer's Kit includes an XRAY RDI Debugger with built-in VRTX awareness and connectivity to both the ARMulator(TM) (Instruction-Set Simulator) and hardware-assist solutions -- including the ARM Multi-ICE(TM) unit with comprehensive ARM core support -- offering complete, instruction-by-instruction control over the target code. This kit is targeted at engineers developing device drivers, boot code and handling the hardware/software interface, so it is ideally suited to the task of debugging the initialization of the operating system for the first time on new hardware as well as completing the integration of the final application into the SoC.

Application Developer's Kits

The Application Developer's Kit utilizes the Spectra® Backplane to provide unique, unobtrusive, application-level debugging and performance profiling. In addition to fast, network-wide connectivity, the Spectra Backplane enables the debugger to not only view and edit system resources, such as queues and threads, but also supports run-mode debugging. In run-mode, the debugger is able to stop a single thread on the target and allow all the other threads to remain active, as opposed to the stop-mode solution provided in the System Developer's Kit, in which a breakpoint stops the whole system. For the application-level developer, run-mode debugging is one of the most important features of an RTOS-aware solution because it minimizes intrusion -- the effect of the debugging connection on the normal operation of the system -- thereby enabling each developer to focus solely on their part of the overall problem.

The combination of System and Application Developer's Kits provides the most complete range of debugging connections possible for ARM core-based application developers using VRTX. With these new approaches to the debugging problem, developers will have access to the unique multi-tasking debug features of XRAY regardless of the connection options and they select and the debugging tasks they need to complete.

Availability and Pricing

For additional information on Mentor's VRTX Real-Time Operating System, visit the web site at www.mentor.com/embedded/vrtxos .

About Mentor Graphics Corp.

Mentor Graphics Corporation is a world leader in electronic hardware and software design solutions, providing products and consulting services for the world's largest electronics and semiconductor companies. Established in 1981, the company reported revenues over the last 12 months of more than $525 million and employs approximately 2,600 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: www.mentor.com.

NOTE: Mentor Graphics, XRAY, VRTX and Spectra are registered trademarks of Mentor Graphics Corporation. VRTXsa is a trademark of Mentor Graphics Corporation. ARM is a registered trademark of ARM Ltd. ARM Powered, ARM7, ARM9 and ARMulator are trademarks of ARM Ltd. All other company or product names are the registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective owners.

CONTACT: Larry Toda of Mentor Graphics Corp., 503-685-1664, or larry_toda@mentor.com; or Jeremiah Glodoveza of Benjamin Group/BSMG Worldwide, 415-352-2628, ext. 559, or jeremiah@benjamingroup.com, for Mentor Graphics Corp.