Date: 18/06/2012

IBM accredits Mentor Graphics Capital Suite in its Rational program

Mentor Graphics Corp. has announced that its Capital tool suite has been accredited to IBM’s “Ready for IBM Rational” program. This program validates integrations between the Rational Software Delivery Platform and adjacent applications such as the Capital tool suite, ensuring mutual customers benefit from seamless interoperability. Mentor Graphics was also showcased as a Rational 4.0 launch partner at IBM’s recent Innovate 2012 event.

The integration delivered is between Capital, the Mentor solution for electrical systems design, and Rational Team Concert (RTC), IBM’s project management environment. The integration focuses on the management of design change. Data links are created between the Work Items in RTC that manage project tasks, and the implementation of design changes in the electrical domain via the Capital Engineering Change Order functionality. Automatic, bi-directional data propagation is supported ensuring data is properly synchronized.

Martin O’Brien, general manager of the Integrated Electrical Systems Division at Mentor Graphics, said, “Design change is a daily event in the electrical domain. Capital has very powerful design change management capabilities, and this integration allows direct linkage with the Rational project management environment. Digital continuity is created between the project manager and the engineers implementing their assigned tasks, maximizing visibility and minimizing the potential for errors.”

Complex design projects such as automobiles and aircraft require collaboration across multiple disciplines. Numerous approaches to tool integration are available: the Capital – RTC integration is achieved using Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration (OSLC) technology, specifically the Jazz application collaboration platform. O’Brien added, “We recognize the power of collaboration platforms as best-in-class technology to achieve tool and data integration. This development will surely benefit many customers in the transportation industry.”

The Capital product line is a software suite that provides a complete electrical engineering environment from early stage electrical architecture definition, through detailed electrical system and wire harness design, to harness manufacture and service documentation. The Capital suite is built to integrate multiple adjacent domains and is targeted at aerospace, automotive and military equipment applications. The Capital – RTC integration is fully released, available from Capital version 2011.1 onwards.