Expecting more from your PCB design tool supplier

Expecting more from your PCB design tool supplier

Since I got into the PCB design tool writing business back in 1967 (hard to believe I’m still alive) with IBM, there has been a focus on creating better schematic, place, route and manufacturing data generation capabilities.  And we as EDA vendors still have to continue to improve what we supply to our users for the design of the PCB:  Keep up with the latest PCB fabrication technologies.  Handle increasing FPGA and IC complexities (speeds, pin counts and densities, interconnect methods).  Improve productivity for the layout and schematic entry processes.  Provide easy to use and accurate analysis tools such as power and signal integrity, thermal, and EMI.  Provide infrastructure for library and data management.  ……….

But is this enough?  I claim the answer is no.   There is much more to the development of an electronic product than just the PCB.  There is the enclosure that will contain the PCB(s) that we design.  There are government regulations that the product must meet.   There are decisions we make that can effect (positive or negative) the cost of the product, the ability to quickly reach volume production (yields), the ability for manufacturing to produce enough of the product (component availability) to meet your companies market goals, will the pcb fit in the enclosure and will we be able to manage the heat dissipation,…

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So EDA vendors need to “extend out of the box” of just supplying good PCB design solutions.  We need to provide capabilities that enable the PCB designer to interact with all of the other disciplines in the product development process and bi-directionally negotiate on decisions that can effect the other domains.  For example, if the mechanical desinger decides that the shape of the enclosure must change and it now interferes with the PCB or the PCB’s components.  This change proposal should not be the sole decision of the mechanical designer but electronically negotiated with the designers of the effected PCBs.

Or if the PCB designer decides to change a component, that change proposal should be communicated to procurement, manufacuring, test,…. to insure that we have not adversely effected the ability to deliver the product in the right volumes at the right cost.

At Mentor I believe we understand the need to deliver these capabilites that fall outside the of the core PCB design process.  Thus our strategy of delivering some of the new Collaboration functionality we have seen over the past year and will contiue to see.

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