High-end PCB design made affordable

Electronic design automation company Mentor Graphics Corp. offers a deal PCB developers cannot refuse: a new family of PCB design tools based on its well-known PADS platform. At the low end, it is priced at half that of competing midrange suites but has the capability previously available in high-end versions such as the company's own Xpedition Enterprise.

The midrange of the PCB design tool market has been in stasis for many years, with little or no significant change in pricing or design capability, said David Wiens, business development manager for Mentor Graphics' system design division, in an interview with EETimes. Most of the action has been at the very low-cost, bare-bones functionality segment, or in the expensive "all the bells and whistles" tools for large company design teams.

Wiens said that Mentor Graphics wants to change that by going after an underserved market hiding in plain sight: independent engineers who need tools that allow them to work alone early in a product's development, but can be used to eventually take a design to production if need be.

Mentor Graphics targets developers working alone at a small or midsized company, or in an isolated team within a large enterprise, not those who want low cost above all. For these engineers, cost and functionality are important criteria in the choice of tools.

"These engineers are usually involved in doing PCB-related activities outside a company's mainstream production efforts: building prototypes, validating reference designs, and performing manufacturability studies," said Wiens. "What they need are many of the capabilities of a full high-end tool for performing the complete design, analysis, and manufacturing data delivery of PCB electronic products. Not needed is the costly and complex usage arrangements associated with the high end."

To read the rest of the article, please go to EETimes.

See a comparison table of selected PCB assembly suppliers on GlobalSources.com