Mentor Graphics Announces Customizable, Secure End-to-End IoT Solution with Integrated Gateway, Cloud and Edge Devices

WILSONVILLE, Ore. -- November 5, 2015 -- Mentor Graphics Corporation (NASDAQ: MENT) today announced the availability of the embedded industry’s first customizable edge-to-cloud IoT solution that enables companies to get to market quickly while reducing risk, cost, and development cycles. The Mentor® IoT solution comprises a unique customizable IoT gateway System Design Kit (SysDK), a cloud backend, and runtime solutions on which to build a wide array of IoT edge devices. It enables the most demanding IoT requirements with support from 8-bit microcontrollers to the latest 64-bit microprocessors, and deployments of 100,000+ gateways each supporting dozens of edge devices.

Customizable Gateway Reference Design

Mentor Graphics provides a feature-rich hardware and software gateway platform that can be used as-is or customized in both hardware and software to meet specific gateway requirements, including compatibility with legacy and new IoT deployments. The Gateway SysDK reference hardware utilizes the ARM Cortex®-A9 based i.MX 6 series applications processor from Freescale Semiconductor. The base reference software includes a rich Linux BSP with full support for the reference board. To support secure convergence, the Mentor Gateway SysDK can be customized to include secure gateway partitions using ARM TrustZone, which enables secure applications such as certificate management and secure remote firmware upgrades. The integration of cloud middleware supports the functionality provided from the cloud backend. By leveraging the Gateway SysDK, customers can move from concept to production in as little as eight weeks.

Connected and Secure from Edge to Enterprise

The Mentor Graphics end-to-end IoT solution includes support for a comprehensive set of physical connections complemented by a breadth of IoT and cloud protocols for wired and wireless edge device aggregation, and secure communication between the cloud backend, gateway, and edge devices. End-to-end security is provided for data communications, access control, software execution, and intrusion detection. Security integration with enterprise IT infrastructure is provided by Icon Labs’ Floodgate for McAfee ePO.

Customizable Cloud Support

The Mentor cloud solution enables companies to remotely provision, monitor, collect data for analysis, and manage gateway and device deployment securely through a web interface or a mobile application. Mentor provides a cloud backend that can be licensed or provided as a service. Designed for performance and scalability for massive worldwide deployments, the cloud backend can integrate multiple cloud service providers, and enables management of server life-cycles using automation templates including easy-to-use and customizable dashboards.

IoT Edge Device Support

With the industry’s broadest portfolio of commercial runtime, tools, services, and support, Mentor Graphics enables the development of IoT edge devices that span application segments. Found in more than 3 billion devices today, the highly scalable Mentor® Embedded Nucleus® real-time operating system (RTOS) enables a range of IoT edge devices down to extremely resource-constrained and battery-powered devices. The Linux Foundation’s Yocto™ Project-based Mentor Embedded Linux® technology enables IoT edge devices which require a rich application environment and access to open source IP and developers. Runtime solutions also include industry leading graphics support, an industry-first multicore framework, and support for Android and bare metal environments.

Consulting Services

To help customers achieve their business goals quickly, Mentor Graphics has a team of experts available to consult with customers in the design of customized cloud and IoT gateway hardware and software architectures spanning prototype, evaluation, and production phases. Expertise includes hardware design, optimized software architectures, multi-media applications, security, and safety certified systems.

Availability

To provide customers maximum flexibility in meeting urgent business needs, the technology can be licensed commercially as an entire end-to-end solution or in parts to address and complete a customer’s existing solution. Additionally, Mentor Graphics can deploy and manage the solution as a service to customers. These options are available today from Mentor Graphics. For additional information, visit: www.mentor.com/embedded-software/iot. For a demonstration, visit Mentor Graphics at ARM TechCon (Nov. 11-12, 2015), booth #313.

Commentary

“By announcing this solution, Mentor Graphics has demonstrated their leadership in the next generation of advanced and customized IoT and cloud solutions,” said Ian Ferguson, vice president, worldwide marketing and strategic alliances, ARM. “Mentor’s support in the gateway of ARM TrustZone-based hardware partitioning will help customers address critical security requirements as the number of IoT connected devices continues to grow.”

“Our collaboration with the Mentor team has resulted in a dynamic end-to-end solution that is used to provide consumer-facing services in public places,” stated Brent Richtsmeier, vice president, advanced printing solutions lab, Samsung Research America. “Together with Mentor, we developed a cloud-managed gateway that aggregates a cluster of Samsung devices including printers and displays. From the Mentor cloud an array of location-aware services are provided to consumers via mobile applications on the device clusters.”

“As a company that understands end-to-end systems, Mentor Graphics is excited to deliver a powerful and customizable gateway development platform to our customers,” stated Glenn Perry, vice president and general manager of runtime solutions, Mentor Graphics Embedded Systems Division. “Mentor’s solution allows our customers to deploy complete systems that extend from the IoT edge devices, through the gateway, and into the cloud for maximum business impact.”

About Mentor Graphics

Mentor Graphics Corporation 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 electronic, semiconductor and systems companies. Established in 1981, the company reported revenues in the last fiscal year in excess of $1.24 billion. Corporate headquarters are located at 8005 S.W. Boeckman Road, Wilsonville, Oregon 97070-7777.