Mentor Graphics Optimizes Renoir Capture and Management Tool to Provide Increased Design Productivity and Reusability

IP News

Mentor Graphics Optimizes Renoir Capture and Management Tool to Provide Increased Design Productivity and Reusability

WILSONVILLE, Ore.----Dec. 6, 1999--Mentor Graphics® Corp. (Nasdaq:MENT) today announced the immediate availability of Renoir(TM) 99.5, an enhanced version of its powerful hardware description language (HDL) design, capture and management environment for ASIC and FPGA design.

Renoir 99.5 features improved automatic layout functionality, advanced design documentation capabilities and several design management enhancements. These updates enable greater design consistency and reusability as well as improved ease-of-use and productivity for time-critical system-on-chip applications.

``Since 1997 we have been using the Renoir tool to design sophisticated FPGAs and ASICs,'' said Gene R. Stuckey of Tellabs, a maker of voice and data transport and access systems. ``Renoir's latest enhancements will assist Tellabs as design reuse and time to market pressures continue to grow.''

``The growing complexity of leading-edge FPGA and ASIC technology, combined with the ever-increasing importance of legacy IP reuse, have made graphical HDL tools critical components for the first stages of design,'' said Peter Davy, Mentor's Renoir tool product manager.

``Many of our customers work in mixed-HDL language environments. Renoir makes it easier and faster to share designs, control revisions and integrate intellectual property into future design generations.''

Optimized For Block-based Design Reuse

Expanding Renoir's power to clarify and verify designs, version 99.5 includes major enhancements to the HDL2Graphics(TM) feature. These enhancements are designed to enable automatic documentation and to promote widespread design reuse. Renoir 99.5 features a new diagram layout and auto-routing algorithm that automatically creates compact easy-to-read block diagrams from complex HDL code.

Renoir 99.5 also includes an enhanced Block Diagram editor and Design Browser to provide a graphical notation, called Frames, for ``conditional and repetitive instancing'' (in VHDL terms, usage of the GENERATE). HDL2Graphics ensures that imported legacy designs use this new notation to simplify design at the block level while ensuring an intuitive diagram notation to convey design intent.

New Design Documentation Capabilities

Renoir 99.5 has enhanced design documentation capabilities that make displaying and sharing information generated in Renoir easier. Diagram title blocks can be inserted, allowing users to customize Renoir diagrams to their company's design documentation standards.

Renoir 99.5 also includes a new document export function to complement the existing Print capabilities and to support Object Linking and Embedding (OLE). Document Export allows Renoir diagrams to be exported to a wider variety of documentation formats, including PDF, MIF (Framemaker's Maker Interchange Format), without losing any detail.

Renoir 99.5 provides greater control for including design comments in the generated HDL, just as if the HDL had been handwritten. Diagram comments appear within the generated HDL allowing designers to succinctly document their designs in the graphical environment.

This new feature is now used within HDL2Graphics to faithfully recover comments from legacy designs to guarantee accurate design recovery.

Additional Enhancements Add Versatility and Enhance Productivity

Version Control. In addition to RCS and Rationale's(TM) ClearCase support, Renoir 99.5 offers support for CVS (Concurrent Versions System). CVS version management gives designers the power to manage an entire design hierarchy and to perform complex version control commands on hundreds of files involved in a complicated design.
Automatic Queries. As large FPGA and ASIC designs increase in complexity, design diagrams are growing more complicated. Designers are forced to constantly zoom-in and out to read text, such as net or block names to see the context of the design. Renoir now allows users to simply place the cursor over an object for which the text is too small to read. Then a small window opens up with an appropriate description of the object, such as the net name or block name.
New Command Features. The Don't Touch command in Renoir 99.5 gives designers the control to specify that certain blocks should be ignored for simulation or synthesis or another downstream process. The Send to Editor option for multi-line diagram text allows users to edit text in their favorite text editor.

Pricing Availability and Evaluation

Pricing for Renoir 99.5 starts at $6,000. Renoir 99.5 is available immediately on Solaris, HP-UX and WINDOWS® 95/98/NT. It supports additional plug-in interfaces to all popular industry-standard simulation and synthesis tools.

All interfaces are included at no extra charge. A free evaluation version can be downloaded from www.mentor.com/renoir, or contact your local Mentor Graphics representative.

About Mentor Graphics Corp.

Mentor Graphics (Nasdaq:MENT) is a world leader in electronic hardware and software design solutions, providing products and consulting services for the world's largest electronic and semiconductor companies.

Established in 1981, the company reported revenues over the last 12 months of $500 million and employs about 2,600 people worldwide. Company headquarters are located at 8005 S.W. Boeckman Road, Wilsonville, OR 97070-7777. World Wide Web site: http://www.mentor.com.

Note to Editors: Mentor Graphics, Renoir and HDL2Graphics are registered trademarks or trademarks of Mentor Graphics Corporation. All other registered trademarks and/or trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Contact:
     Mentor Graphics
     Sven Haarhoff, 503/526-1689
     sven_haarhoff@mentor.com
     or
     Benjamin Group/BSMG Worldwide
     Jeremiah Glodoveza, 408/559-6090
     jeremiah@benjamingroup.com