Mentor Graphics Unveils Latest Version of Industry-Leading Wire Harness Engineering Software

    LONGMONT, Colo.--Feb. 26, 2001--Mentor Graphics today announced the latest version of the CAPITAL H(TM) V3.0 wire harness engineering software.
    Used primarily by the automotive and aerospace industries, CAPITAL H allows manufacturers to streamline the design, engineering and manufacture of electrical wire harnesses. CAPITAL H V3.0 offers users greater efficiency gains in their design-to-manufacture processes through enhanced flexibility and additional features. CAPITAL H V3.0 includes modular design capability, dual mode labor and material cost calculation tools and the ability to generate full scale manufacture drawings for an entire family of harnesses on a single form board.
    "Today the average automobile wire harness contains more than 1,000 wires, making it one of the most expensive parts of a car. Our customers designing these complex systems require design tools with the same level of sophistication traditionally seen in chip and board design," said Henry Potts, general manager and vice president, Systems Design Division, Mentor Graphics. "With more than 500 installations in over 15 countries worldwide, CAPITAL H has already been proven to enable labor savings of up to 60%. The latest version of CAPITAL H will allow our customers to realize even greater cost reductions."

    New Features in CAPITAL H V3.0

    In addition to its existing capabilities for creating single harness and composite harness designs, CAPITAL H V.3.0 offers modular design capability or customer specific harness design, enabling the production of a limitless number of harnesses to the end consumers' specific requirements. CAPITAL H also features two modes of labor cost and material price calculation, allowing an engineer to cost a design from the ground up, or simply to produce a difference in cost introduced by a design modification, for quicker delivery of change quotations back to the customer.
    To further enhance manufacturing efficiencies, CAPITAL H now automatically produces the full scale drawing needed to manufacture a family of harnesses on a single form board, combining the designs of individual harnesses, including all possible functionality. CAPITAL H V3.0 also facilitates Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) allowing global manufacturers to transfer designs directly to production sites around the world.
    The extensive reporting features of CAPITAL H have been expanded in V3.0 with the addition of integration with Actuate e.Report Designer. The best-in-class report and query tool, Actuate e.Report Designer enables the easy creation of professional custom outputs to the individuals' corporate requirements for harness design, manufacturing and commercial information.

    Pricing and Availability

    CAPITAL H V3.0 will be available immediately and pricing is available upon request. The first 200 customers to buy CAPITAL H V3.0 will also receive a complimentary copy of Actuate e.Report Designer.
    Mentor Graphics gained CAPITAL H through the acquisition of Harness Software Group in October 2000. With the addition of CAPITAL H, Mentor Graphics is now able to offer a complete solution for the design and manufacture of complex electrical wiring systems.

    About Mentor Graphics

    Mentor Graphics Corporation is a world leader in electronic hardware and software design solutions, providing products and consulting services for the world's most successful electronics and semiconductor companies. Established in 1981, the company reported revenues over the last 12 months of nearly $600 million and employs approximately 2,750 people worldwide. Corporate headquarters are located at 8005 S.W. Boeckman Road, Wilsonville, Oregon 97070-7777; Silicon Valley headquarters are located at 1001 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose, California 95131-2314. World Wide Web site: www.mentor.com.

    Mentor Graphics is a registered trademark of Mentor Graphics Corporation, and Capital H is a trademark of Mentor Graphics Corporation. All other company or product names are the registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective owners.