Mentor Graphics and Artisan Components Enter into Strategic Relationship to Deliver Total System-on-Chip IP Solution

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Mentor Graphics and Artisan Components Enter into Strategic Relationship to Deliver Total System-on-Chip IP Solution

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Aug 2, 1999 - Mentor Graphics Corporation (Nasdaq: MENT) and Artisan Components (Nasdaq: ARTI) today announced they have entered into a strategic relationship to deliver an integrated and proven system-on-chip (SoC) solution. The solution combines the Mentor Graphics Inventra^TM family of intellectual property (IP) cores with Artisan Components' physical IP libraries, providing customers with the industry's broadest and most complete IP solution.

The companies are in the process of finalizing an agreement to transfer the Mentor Graphics physical library business to Artisan Components. Artisan and Mentor Graphics will work together to promote the combination of the Mentor Graphics Inventra IP product line and Artisan's physical libraries as the total IP solution to their combined customer base. In addition, Mentor Graphics will use Artisan's physical libraries to verify its Inventra products for the leading manufacturing processes. "This relationship provides a tremendous benefit to IC designers. Our common customers will be able to combine the industry's leading soft IP from Mentor with the industry's leading physical IP from Artisan Components," said Mick O'Brien, general manager of Mentor Graphics IP Division. "This establishes the Mentor Inventra IP as the preferred IP solution to Artisan's 400+ customer base."

"IC designers want improved time-to-market. In the IP business that means providing a total solution that integrates soft IP with a proven physical implementation," said Mark Templeton, president and chief executive officer of Artisan Components. "Mentor's Inventra catalog represents the industry's largest and most complete soft IP offering and we have hundreds of customers that will benefit immediately from this relationship."

"From UMC Group's perspective, this proposed strategic relationship would be a strong win for the industry," noted James D. Kupec, president of UMC Group (USA). "In particular, the total IP solution resulting from the Artisan and Mentor relationship will put UMC Group in a leading position in terms of offering a broad portfolio of interoperable IP components that targets SoC designs that utilize the Artisan foundation IP and Mentor Inventra cores in the UMC Group environment."

About Mentor Graphics
Mentor Graphics Corporation (NASDAQ: MENT) 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 over $500 million and employs approximately 2,600 people worldwide. Company headquarters are located at 8005 S.W. Boeckman Road, Wilsonville, Oregon 97070-7777. World Wide Web site: http://www.mentor.com.

About Artisan Components
Founded in 1991, Artisan Components, Inc., (Nasdaq: ARTI) provides high-quality silicon intellectual property (IP) to the world's largest semiconductor manufacturers. The company's Process-Perfect^TM products, including embedded memories, SAGE^TM and SAGE-X^TM standard cells and Integral^TM I/Os, are tuned to each manufacturer's process. Semiconductor manufacturers, in turn, provide these products to their design customers so that they may achieve the full speed, density and low power potential of the semiconductor process. Artisan IP is designed to work with the most popular EDA tools in the industry including: Avant!, Cadence Design Systems, Synopsys and Mentor Graphics. Company headquarters are located at 1195 Bordeaux Drive, Sunnyvale, CA 94089-1210. World Wide Web: http://www.artisan.com.

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This press release contains projections and other forward-looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of the Company. Such statements are just predictions and actual events or results may differ materially. Many important factors could cause the actual results to differ materially from those contained in such projections or forward-looking statements, including but not limited to the risks that the Company's products will fail to achieve market acceptance, the timing of customer orders, delays in the design process due to changes in customer orders after they are placed, the Company's ability to achieve progress on percentage of completion contracts, the length of the Company's sales cycle, the Company's ability to develop, introduce and market new products and product enhancements, the timing of new product announcements and introductions by the Company and its competitors, the demand for semiconductors and end-user products that incorporate semiconductors, general economic conditions particularly in the markets of Asia and Japan where a large portion of the Company's revenues are derived, and other risks. We refer you to the documents that the Company files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, in particular the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the Company's annual report on Form 10-K and its quarterly reports on Forms 10-Q. Artisan Components, Process-Perfect, SAGE, SAGE-X and Integral are trademarks of Artisan Components, Inc. Mentor Graphics is a registered trademark and Inventra is a trademark of Mentor Graphics Corporation. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

For more information, please contact:
Mentor Graphics Contact Lorie Bowlby Public Relations 408.487.7263 lorie_bowlby@mentor.com Artisan Components Contact Claudia Natalia Public Relations 408.548.3172 claudia@artisan.com	Public Relations Contact Janet Martin The Benjamin Group 408.559.6090 janet_martin@benjamingroup.com Public Relations Contact Mary Jane Reiter Tsantes & Associates 408.369.1500 x24 maryjane@tsantes.com