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| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FREMONT, Calif, August 23, 1999¾Exemplar Logic, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mentor Graphics Corp., (Nasdaq: MENT), and Xilinx Inc. (NASDAQ:XLNX) today announced the electronic design automation (EDA) industry's first modular design process for programmable logic. Based on the newest version of Exemplar’s LeonardoSpectrumä synthesis tool, the modular process will reduce the time required to design million gate field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), such as the Xilinx Virtexä series, by as much as 30 percent By breaking designs down to the block level, FPGAs can be designed faster with a higher number of iterations per day. Designers can work individually or in teams to create, synthesize and perform place and route. This process allows small functional changes to be quickly incorporated into the final place and route while preserving overall timing performance. "The ability to efficiently incorporate a functional change into a design that’s been placed and routed is a major step forward in complex FPGA design," says Rich Sevcik, senior vice president of software, cores, and support for Xilinx Inc. "Initial place and route can be done earlier in the design cycle giving the engineer actual chip delay and utilization information. Overall design cycle times can be dramatically reduced by providing this efficient method to accommodate functional changes." "This unique incremental programmable logic design process will have a tremendous impact on the way million-gate FPGAs are designed, and on how quickly new systems are brought to market," said Anne Wagner, vice president and general manager of the Mentor Graphics HDL Design Division. "Exemplar's new guided flow command set works with the Xilinx Alliance Series software to preserve timing and area information from previous place and route runs, substantially reducing design iteration time." Modular Design Recent enhancements to both LeonardoSpectrum 99.1 and the Xilinx Alliance Series software provide the necessary elements required for modular design. An incremental synthesis mode instructs LeonardoSpectrum to preserve all user-defined hierarchy and module names during the optimization process and create FPGA implementations that adhere to certain modular design specific rules. LeonardoSpectrum also has the ability to localize functional updates to a particular module of the design while preserving the netlist integrity of all remaining modules which is critical for supporting modular design. Alliance Series software version 2.1i includes algorithm improvements to its "guided" place and route functionality, which takes results from previous place and route sessions and use those results to preserve timing and improve runtime performance in subsequent runs. About Exemplar Exemplar Logic, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mentor Graphics Corporation, a world leader in electronic hardware and software design solutions. Exemplar pioneered applying logic synthesis techniques to the design of FPGAs, CPLDs and ASICs. The company is the world's number one PLD synthesis tool supplier, as reported by Dataquest. Exemplar's products are sold and supported worldwide by Exemplar Logic, its OEMs and VARs, Mentor Graphics and through the FPGA and CPLD component distribution channel. Exemplar's design environments implement a complete high-level design solution for FPGA, CPLD and ASIC design, offering synthesis, simulation and timing analysis for Windows 95/98, Windows-NT and UNIX (HP, Sun) platforms in server and non-server environments. Exemplar Logic is located at 6503 Dumbarton Circle, Fremont, CA. 94555. It has 28 sales and distribution offices in the United States, Europe, Japan and the Pacific Rim. For information on Exemplar representatives or products, please call (510) 789-3333, e-mail: sales@exemplar.com., or visit www.exemplar.com About Xilinx Xilinx is the leading innovator of complete programmable logic solutions,
including advanced integrated circuits, software design tools, predefined
system functions delivered as cores, and unparalleled field engineering
support. Founded in 1984 and headquartered in San Jose, Calif., Xilinx
invented the field programmable gate array (FPGA) and commands more than
half of the world market for these devices today. Xilinx solutions enable
customers to significantly reduce the time required to develop products
for the computer, peripheral, telecommunications, networking, industrial
control, instrumentation, high-reliability/military, and consumer markets.
For more information, visit the Xilinx web site at www.xilinx.com.
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