Diversifying for the first time from its 100% dependence on Hewlett-Packard Co’s Apollo arm for its turnkey workstations, Mentor Graphics Corp has complemented its new$400m three-year Hewlett deal (CI No 1,441) with a $300m order to Sun Microsystems Inc for Sparc-based computers over the same period. It is also headging its bets on user interfaces by supporting Sun’s Open Look on the Sparc machines. Mentor has been saying for some time that it would spread its favours in future, and earlier this year indicated it had opted for Sun. Sun will buy $2.2m of Mentor Graphics software for the Sparc for development of complex integrated circuits for use in future workstations.
