IBM's Peter Dill receives Mentor Graphics Award

San Jose, Calif., Zurich, Switzerland, 29 March 2007—Continuing its tradition of promoting and recognizing printed circuit board (PCB) designer excellence, Mentor Graphics Corporation (NASDAQ: MENT) yesterday announced the winners of its 19th Annual PCB Technology Leadership Awards at the PCB Design Conference West in San Jose, USA. Among the winners for the longest running international competition of its kind for PCB designers in the IT industry was Peter Dill from IBM's (NYSE: IBM) Zurich Research Laboratory.

Industry experts judged entries in six categories representing a wide variety of fields: Personal Computers & Peripherals; Consumer Electronics & Handhelds; Industrial Control, Instrumentation, Security & Medical; Military & Aerospace; Telecommunication Switches, Network Servers, Base Stations & Computer Mainframes; Transportation & Automotive; and Best Overall Design.

IBM designer Peter Dill won the prestigious industry prize in the category Telecommunications Switches, Network Servers, Base Stations & Computer Mainframes. His winning entry is a controller board for a 64×64 port, high-performance optical switch using Mentor Graphics' leading design tools. The controller board was one of the most complex designs ever developed and was a core component in the OSMOSIS research project on next-generation optical switch technology in high-performance computing systems. In cooperation with US-based Corning Inc., the leading manufacturer of specialty glass and ceramics, IBM's computer scientists developed a novel, highly distributed and highly scalable scheduler architecture that allows a bufferless switch to operate with extremely high throughput rates. With Peter Dill as head PCB designer for the controller board, IBM researchers implemented this complex architecture for a 64-port optical switch technology demonstrator, achieving line rates of 40 Gb/s.

The winner of the Best Overall Design was a PCB design team at Siemens, Germany. "Mentor Graphics is committed to the PCB designer community. Our PCB Technology Leadership Awards program provides the opportunity to showcase the most innovative and talented designers worldwide," said Henry Potts, vice president and general manager, systems design division, Mentor Graphics. "This year we saw a significant increase in the complexity of the submissions, with designs including high-speed, pin densities and layers, as well as the use of advanced PCB fabrication Such as microvias. This further validates our investment in innovative design technologies, thus enabling designers to overcome technical challenges and deliver competitive electronic products faster."

More on the 2007 Technology Leadership Award winners.

More on IBM's OSMOSIS project.

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 electronics and semiconductor companies. Established in 1981, the company reported revenues of about $800 million over the past 12 months and employs approximately 4,250 people worldwide. Corporate headquarters are located at 8005 S.W. Boeckman Road, Wilsonville, Oregon 97070-7777.

Mentor Graphics, Board Station, HyperLynx and AutoTherm are registered trademarks of Mentor Graphics Corporation. All other company or product names are the registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective owners.

About IBM Research - Zurich

IBM Research - Zurich (ZRL) is the European branch of IBM Research. This worldwide network of some 3500 employees in eight laboratories around the globe is the largest industrial IT research organization in the world. ZRL's spectrum of research activities ranges from basic science and fundamental research in physics and mathematics, to the development of computer systems and software, to the design of novel business models and services.