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BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 5, 2001--Mentor Graphics Corporation (Nasdaq:MENT) today added Tensilica®, Inc. as the sixth announced member to its Embedded Technology Adoption Program (ETAP).

Tensilica will use the ETAP membership as a springboard to leverage Mentor's leading embedded software technology and complement the capabilities of its flagship Xtensa® 32-bit configurable processor technology. Tensilica will also license the Mentor Graphics® XRAY® Debugger technology, which they will distribute to customers developing complex System-on-Chip (SoC) embedded designs.

As the latest member of ETAP, Tensilica will join companies such as, ARM Ltd., Philips Semiconductors, OSE Systems, Siroyan Ltd and Virtio, who have leveraged Mentor's proven embedded technology platform. By integrating Mentor's XRAY Debugger into its configurable processor environment, Tensilica addresses critical software elements, such as multi-core debug, and allows developers to focus and tune hardware specifics without compromising design time and accuracy.

``The extendable technology offered by the Mentor Graphics Embedded Software Division was a key factor for entry into the Embedded Technology Adoption Program,'' said Bernie Rosenthal, Tensilica's vice president of marketing and business development. ``Through this program, we can now harness Mentor's embedded software technology and integrate the core tools seamlessly into our processor environment. For our developers, this results in less time focused on application software specifics and more focus applied to speed, power and features within the processor hardware.''

Licensing the XRAY Debugger

Mentor Graphics is currently developing a version of XRAY Debugger for the Xtensa processor, which will be licensed for distribution on Tensilica's Web site to core customers. A key factor for the agreement is Mentor's ability to provide the XRAY Debugger technology as a platform that can be easily integrated into the Xtensa processor environment. XRAY's configurable interface from code development to debug can be automatically adapted to each unique Xtensa configuration, allowing embedded system developers to rapidly build application optimized processor cores for their SoC designs.

In addition to this agreement, Tensilica supports Mentor's Seamless® Co-Verification Environment(TM) (CVE) for HW/SW co-verification. Using the Xtensa Processor Generator, cycle-accurate co-Verification models of Xtensa configurations for use with Seamless can be developed and validated in less than one hour. Based on the successful deployment of the Tensilica-Seamless CVE product, Tensilica have acquired an optimal front-end debugging solution with the XRAY Debugger.

``This agreement clearly underlies Mentor's commitment to provide embedded software technology that can be readily available and integrated into companies' architectures and environments,'' said Robert Day, director of marketing of Mentor's Embedded Software Division. ``By configuring the XRAY Debugger to work closely with the Xtensa processor architecture, Tensilica can offer one of the most robust embedded debug solutions for today's SoC designs.''

About the Embedded Technology Adoption Program (ETAP)

ETAP was launched in June 2001. Through ETAP, Mentor Graphics provides semiconductor and intellectual property (IP) vendors with access to its market-leading embedded software technology, including its XRAY Debugger, VRTX® RTOS and Microtec® Compilers. Companies can license the technologies and build customized development environments tailored for their applications, without incurring the resource expense of tackling the development task with an internal tools team. For more information on the Mentor Graphics Embedded Technology Adoption Program, please visit www.mentor.com/etap.

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 more than $600 million and employs approximately 2,975 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.

Mentor Graphics, Microtec, Seamless, VRTX and XRAY are registered trademarks of Mentor Graphics Corporation. Tensilica and Xtensa are registered trademarks of Tensilica, Inc. All other company or product names are the registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective owners.

     Mentor Graphics Corporation
     Stephanie van Blommestein, 408/487-7392
     stephanie_vanblommestein@mentor.com
        or
     Benjamin Group/BSMG Worldwide
     Jason Khoury, 415/352-2628 x172
     jkhoury@bsmg.com