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Mentor Graphics Corporation was a US-based
electronic design automation Electronic design automation (EDA), also referred to as electronic computer-aided design (ECAD), is a category of software tools for designing Electronics, electronic systems such as integrated circuits and printed circuit boards. The tools wo ...
(EDA)
multinational corporation A multinational corporation (MNC; also called a multinational enterprise (MNE), transnational enterprise (TNE), transnational corporation (TNC), international corporation, or stateless corporation, is a corporate organization that owns and cont ...
for
electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
and
electronics Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other Electric charge, electrically charged particles. It is a subfield ...
, headquartered in Wilsonville, Oregon. Founded in 1981, the company distributed products that assist in
electronic design automation Electronic design automation (EDA), also referred to as electronic computer-aided design (ECAD), is a category of software tools for designing Electronics, electronic systems such as integrated circuits and printed circuit boards. The tools wo ...
, simulation tools for analog mixed-signal design, VPN solutions, and
fluid dynamics In physics, physical chemistry and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids – liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines, including (the study of air and other gases in motion ...
and heat transfer tools. The company leveraged Apollo Computer workstations to differentiate itself within the computer-aided engineering (CAE) market with its
software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...
and hardware. Mentor Graphics was acquired by Siemens in 2017. The name was retired in 2021 and renamed Siemens EDA, a segment of Siemens Digital Industries Software.


History

Mentor Graphics was founded in 1981 by Tom Bruggere, Gerry Langeler, and Dave Moffenbeier, all formerly of Tektronix. The company raised $55 million in funding through an
initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...
in 1984. Mentor initially wrote software that ran only in
Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...
workstations. When Mentor entered the CAE market the company had two technical differentiators: the first was the software Mentor, Valid, and Daisy each had software with different strengths and weaknesses. The second, was the hardware Mentor ran all programs on the Apollo workstation, while Daisy and Valid each built their own hardware. By the late 1980s, all EDA companies abandoned proprietary hardware in favor of workstations manufactured by companies such as Apollo and
Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc., often known as Sun for short, was an American technology company that existed from 1982 to 2010 which developed and sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services. Sun contributed sig ...
. After a frenzied development, the IDEA 1000 product was introduced at the 1982 Design Automation Conference, though in a suite and not on the floor. Mentor Graphics was purchased by Siemens in 2017. The name was retired in 2021 and renamed Siemens EDA, a segment of Siemens Digital Industries Software.


Acquisitions


Timeline


Related

* In June 2008, Cadence Design Systems offered to acquire Mentor Graphics in a leveraged buyout. On 15 August 2008, Cadence withdrew this offer quoting an inability to raise the necessary capital and the unwillingness of Mentor Graphics' Board and management to discuss the offer. *In February 2011, activist investor Carl Icahn offered to buy the company for about $1.86 billion in cash. *In November 2016, Mentor Graphics announced that it was to be acquired by Siemens for $4.5 billion, at $37.25 per share, a 21% premium on Mentor's closing price on the previous Friday. The acquisition was completed in March 2017. At the time, this represented Siemens' biggest deal in the industrial software sector. Mentor Graphics started to operate as "Mentor, a Siemens Business". Under the terms of the acquisition, Mentor Graphics kept its headquarters in Wilsonville with workforce intact, and operated as an independent subsidiary. *In January 2021, Mentor became a division of Siemens and was renamed as Siemens EDA.


Locations

Mentor product development was located in the US, Taiwan, Egypt, Poland, Hungary, Japan, France, Canada, Pakistan, UK, Armenia, India and Russia.


Products

Mentor offered the following tools:


Electronic design automation

* Integrated circuit layout full-custom and schematic-driven layout (SDL) tools such as ''IC Station'' or ''Memory Builder'', a first industry tool for rapid embedded memory design that helped to develop single- or dual-port RAM ( synchronous and asynchronous), as well as diffusion and metal read only memories (ROM) *IC place and route tool: ''Aprisa'' *IC Verification tools such as ''Calibre nmDRC'', ''Calibre nmLVS'', ''Calibre xRC, Calibre xACT 3D, Calibre xACT'' * IC Design for Manufacturing tools such as'' Calibre LFD, Calibre YieldEnhancer, Calibre,'' and ''YieldAnalyzer'' * Schematic capture editors for electronic schematics such as ''Xpedition Designer'' *
Layout In general terms, a layout is a structured arrangement of items within certain limits, or a plan for such arrangement. Specifically, layout may refer to: * Page layout, the arrangement of visual elements on a page ** Comprehensive layout (comp), ...
and design tools for printed circuit boards with programs such as ''PADS'', ''Xpedition Layout'', ''HyperLynx'' and ''Valor NPI'' * Falcon Framework, software application framework *Component library management tools * IP cores for ASIC and FPGA designs


Embedded systems

*Mentor Embedded Linux for ARM, MIPS, Power, and x86 architecture processors * Real-time operating systems: ** Nucleus OS (acquired in 2002 when Mentor acquired Accelerated Technology, Inc.) ** VRTX (acquired in 1995 when Mentor bought Microtec Research) * AUTOSAR implementation: **Embedded implementation VSTAR in part acquired from Mecel in 2013 **Configuration tooling Volcano Vehicle Systems Builder (VSB) *Development Tools: **Sourcery CodeBench and Sourcery GNU toolchains (acquired in 2010 when Mentor acquired CodeSourcery) *Inflexion UI (Next Device was acquired by Mentor in 2006) ** xtUML Design Tools: BridgePoint (acquired in 2004 when Mentor acquired Project Technology) *VPN Solutions: **Nucleus Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) software **Nucleus NET networking stack **Nucleus implementation of the Microsoft Point-to-Point Encryption (MPPE) protocol **Nucleus PPP software


FPGA synthesis

*Precision Synthesis Advanced RTL & physical synthesis for FPGAs


Electrical systems, cabling, and harness

*Capital a suite of integrated tools for the design, validation and manufacture of electrical systems and harnesses *VeSys a mid-market toolset for vehicle electrical system and harness design


Simulation

* ModelSim is a hardware simulation and debug environment primarily targeted at smaller ASIC and FPGA design *QuestaSim is a simulator with advanced debug capabilities targeted at complex FPGA's and SoC's. QuestaSim can be used by users who have experience with ModelSim as it shares most of the common debug features and capabilities. One of the main differences between QuestaSim and Modelsim (besides performance/capacity) is that QuestaSim is the simulation engine for the Questa Platform which includes integration of Verification Management, Formal based technologies, Questa Verification IP, Low Power Simulation and Accelerated Coverage Closure technologies. QuestaSim natively supports SystemVerilog for Testbench, UPF, UCIS, OVM/ UVM where ModelSim does not. * Eldo is a
SPICE In the culinary arts, a spice is any seed, fruit, root, Bark (botany), bark, or other plant substance in a form primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of pl ...
simulator *Xpedition AMS is a virtual lab for mechatronic system design and analysis *ADiT is a Fast-SPICE simulator *Questa ADMS is a mixed-signal verification tool


Emulation

* The Veloce product family enables SoC emulation and transaction-based acceleration to verify and rectify issues on HDL designs prefabrication.


Mechanical design

*Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer tools: **Simcenter Flotherm is a Computational Fluid Dynamics tool dedicated to electronics cooling using parameterized 'SmartParts' for common electronic components such as fans, heatsinks, and IC packages. **Simcenter Flotherm XT is an electronics cooling CFD tool incorporating a solid modeler for manipulating MCAD parts. **Simcenter FLOEFD is a 'design concurrent' CFD tool for use in early-stage product design and is embedded within MCAD systems such as Solidworks, Creo Elements/Pro, CATIA V5 and Siemens NX. *Thermal Characterization and Thermal Interface Material (TIM) Measurement equipment: **Simcenter T3STER is a hardware product that embodies an implementation of the JEDEC JESD51-1 standard for IC package thermal characterization and is compliant with JESD51-14 for Rth-JC measurement. **Simcenter TERALED provides automation of the CIE 127:2007 standard providing total flux, chromaticity and correlated color temperature (CCT) for power LEDs. With T3Ster it provides thermal resistance metrics for LEDs based on the real dissipated heating power. **Simcenter DYNTIM extends T3Ster, providing a dynamic thermal test station for
thermal conductivity The thermal conductivity of a material is a measure of its ability to heat conduction, conduct heat. It is commonly denoted by k, \lambda, or \kappa and is measured in W·m−1·K−1. Heat transfer occurs at a lower rate in materials of low ...
measurements of thermal interface materials (TIMs), thermal greases and gap pads. *Simcenter Flomaster is a 1D or system-level CFD solution for analyzing fluid mechanics in complex pipe flow systems (from the acquisition of Flowmaster Ltd in 2012). *CADRA Design Drafting is a 2-1/2D mechanical drafting and documentation package specifically designed for drafting professionals. It provides the tools needed to develop complex drawings quickly and easily (from the acquisition of the CADRA product in 2013).


See also

* List of EDA companies * Comparison of EDA software


References

{{Authority control Companies based in Wilsonville, Oregon 1981 establishments in Oregon 2017 mergers and acquisitions Electronic design automation companies Electronics companies established in 1981 Defunct electronics companies of the United States Siemens American subsidiaries of foreign companies Defunct software companies of the United States