Board Station XE

Board Station XE (BSXE) gives Board Station customers quick and easy access to the most advanced PCB layout technology available.

Tightly integrated in the overall design flow, Board Station XE combines the power of leading-edge autorouting technology with interactive editing capabilities in a single, powerful and easy-to-use design environment.

By leveraging the ‘AutoActive’ platform, the leading technology in PCB physical design, Board Station XE customers benefit from shorter design times, increased productivity, and unmatched design quality for even the most complex PCB designs.

There is no better way to add productivity and new technology to your Board Station Flow than by deploying Board Station XE. And you don’t have to give up your current flow to do it! That’s because the flows co-exist. Here’s how the new flow relates to the Board Station Classic and RE flows.

Board Station Classic and RE Flows

In the lower part of the illustration you see a high-level depiction of the classic Board Station (and Board Station RE) flow.

  • A single library and front-end toolset supports these flows.
  • Librarian (not shown) & Design Architect are used to create and edit libraries.
  • LMS (not shown) is used to manage these libraries.
  • In 2001, we added ‘Board Station RE’ which gave customers access to some of Mentor’s industry-leading AutoActive™ layout technologies.

The drawback of the RE option is that you have to pass designs back to Board Station Layout to do some of the layout before heading to FabLink for manufacturing prep. To eliminate this extra step, we chose to move forward with the Board Station XE Flow.

Enter Board Station XE

Board Station XE Flow

By pumping new technology into the Board Station XE (BSXE) Flow, we can simplify the Board Station flow and cut your design time while retaining your company’s legacy design data and investments in Board Station libraries and tools.

  • The BSXE Flow uses the same libraries and library development tools as the Classic/RE Board Station flow.
  • The BSXE design flow consists of Design Architect or Board Architect for schematic capture – exactly the same as in the Classic/RE design flows.
  • To increase design-flow productivity and eliminate the data incompatibility, translation issues, and confusion that can occur with BSRE, we created the AutoActive-based Board Station XE layout environment.
  • AutoActive combines ease-of-use with advanced functionality in a single, integrated, place-and-route editing environment, with correct-by construction methodology, and integrated, industry-leading, high-speed design capabilities.

Co-existence of Board Station Flow

Board Station XE customers get access to both the Classic design flow and the new Board Station XE-based design flow.

  • The same library and front-end tools support both flows.
  • We added dramatic productivity-enhancing tools and technologies in the back end to get your products to market faster.
  • BSXE can import older Board Station designs so you can use legacy designs as a starting point for your new designs.

The Board Station XE flow supports three modes of operation:

  1. Maintenance of the classic BS or RE flow
  2. Creation of new designs in the BSXE flow
  3. The importing of legacy designs from BS Layout into BSXE for modification and the addition of new technology.

By deploying the new BSXE flow, you can adopt new technology while continuing to use the traditional BS flow for legacy designs – all at your own pace and at minimum risk and cost.

Features and Benefits

  • Reduce design cycle times, improve designer productivity, and support emerging PCB fabrication technologies
  • Access to the world’s most advanced layout tools, such as Xtreme Design, Topology Planner / Router, flexible circuit design, RF design tools, and embedded passives
  • Combines ease-of-use with advanced functionality
  • Integrate with existing Board Station libraries, library infrastructure, and front-end tools
  • Upgrade to advanced PCB design technology without the typical transition cost or time
  • Scripting capabilities available

Datasheet

Board Station Training

We have training courses available for the Board Station PCB flow in our training centers around the world, online, or at your site.

Contact Mentor Graphics

What people have been saying....

“We’ve been evaluating Board Station XE for a few months now and really like what we see. We are particularly looking forward to getting access to the new functionality so as to shorten design cycle times, improve productivity, reduce production costs, and develop PCBs with new functionality, such as embedded passives.”

- Mick Harvey, principal hardware engineer, SELEX Sensors and Airborne Systems

visECAD Viewer

The visECAD Viewer gives read only access to complete schematic and layout design data in an easy to use Windows application.

Download Today!