-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- smt007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueBox Build
One trend is to add box build and final assembly to your product offering. In this issue, we explore the opportunities and risks of adding system assembly to your service portfolio.
IPC APEX EXPO 2024 Pre-show
This month’s issue devotes its pages to a comprehensive preview of the IPC APEX EXPO 2024 event. Whether your role is technical or business, if you're new-to-the-industry or seasoned veteran, you'll find value throughout this program.
Boost Your Sales
Every part of your business can be evaluated as a process, including your sales funnel. Optimizing your selling process requires a coordinated effort between marketing and sales. In this issue, industry experts in marketing and sales offer their best advice on how to boost your sales efforts.
- Articles
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Events
||| MENU - smt007 Magazine
OrCADX: High Performance That's Easy to Use
March 14, 2024 | Andy Shaughnessy, I-Connect007Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
During DesignCon, I spoke with Chris Banton of EMA about the newest developments around OrCADX, which provides PCB designers with more design automation capability across the whole design process in an easy-to-use GUI. As Chris says, this tool is designed for agile design teams, and features an updated PCB UX, an enhanced 3D engine, SolidWorks integration, and AI for a superior user experience.
Andy Shaughnessy: How are you, Chris? It’s been about a year since we last spoke, and I see you have the new OrCAD X tool on display.
Chris Banton: Good to see you, Andy. OrCAD has a great history, and we're really excited about this release. It is a reimagining of what design needs to look like in the next five to 10 years. The team did a great job of taking a step back and saying, “What do we need to offer the designer now and in the future?” It’s the next generation of a design tool geared toward how we solve more than just the layout problem. That is where OrCAD X is coming from.
We see engineers increasingly responsible for more parts of the design process. They're the electrical engineer, PCB designer, test engineer, librarian, etc. They are doing everything. The goal of OrCAD X is to accelerate the whole process, such as bringing in supply chain information upfront so that designers can make good part decisions. Better collaboration is enabled with a new feature called Review and Markup, which operates like a Google doc. It is a way to collaborate on your design directly within the tool cockpit. Another area of the flow being automated is the documentation step with LiveDoc—documentation is something that no one wants to do, but it's critical, this makes that process much easier to manage. It even automates how you package that design for manufacturing, so it's repeatable and accurate. There is a lot in it, but it's all very needed going forward.
Cadence continues to be a leader in AI technology as well to help engineers deal with resource bottlenecks. So, these platforms are AI-ready and can be leveraged with AI capability as they roll out.
Shaughnessy: OrCAD is famous for being easy to use. But OrCAD needed to grow and make improvements, while still being easy to use.
Banton: Yes, and that’s a fine line to tow, but I think they did a really good job. The initial feedback has been very positive. Designers are seeing significantly enhanced productivity with OrCADX.
Shaughnessy: For the first time in about 20 years, we’re seeing many young new designers coming into the fold. This seems like it would be ideal for a young designer.
Banton: I agree, and we are seeing that as well. One of the great things about OrCADX is that it’s fully file-compatible with Allegro and the Cadence suite. So, if you have a mix of young and experienced designers at your organization, they can use the workflow that works best for them, but they can still share IPs, libraries, and all the key things you want to be able to do to make your team efficient.
Shaughnessy: That’s great, Chris. Is there anything you’d like to add?
Banton: We are really excited for this year. Every year it seems like technology just can't go any faster and solutions can’t keep up but they always find a way, there are a lot of great things coming, and we are looking forward to sharing them.
Shaughnessy: Chris, thank you for speaking with us.
Banton: Thank you, Andy. Great talking with you.
Suggested Items
iNEMI Packaging Tech Topic Series: Role of EDA in Advanced Semiconductor Packaging
04/26/2024 | iNEMIAdvanced semiconductor packaging with heterogenous integration has made on-package integration of multiple chips a crucial part of finding alternatives to transistor scaling. Historically, EDA tools for front-end and back-end design have evolved separately; however, design complexity and the increased number of die-to-die or die-to-substrate interconnections has led to the need for EDA tools that can support integration of overall design planning, implementation, and system analysis in a single cockpit.
Cadence, TSMC Collaborate on Wide-Ranging Innovations to Transform System and Semiconductor Design
04/25/2024 | Cadence Design SystemsCadence Design Systems, Inc. and TSMC have extended their longstanding collaboration by announcing a broad range of innovative technology advancements to accelerate design, including developments ranging from 3D-IC and advanced process nodes to design IP and photonics.
Ansys, TSMC Enable a Multiphysics Platform for Optics and Photonics, Addressing Needs of AI, HPC Silicon Systems
04/25/2024 | PRNewswireAnsys announced a collaboration with TSMC on multiphysics software for TSMC's Compact Universal Photonic Engines (COUPE). COUPE is a cutting-edge Silicon Photonics (SiPh) integration system and Co-Packaged Optics platform that mitigates coupling loss while significantly accelerating chip-to-chip and machine-to-machine communication.
Siemens’ Breakthrough Veloce CS Transforms Emulation and Prototyping with Three Novel Products
04/24/2024 | Siemens Digital Industries SoftwareSiemens Digital Industries Software launched the Veloce™ CS hardware-assisted verification and validation system. In a first for the EDA (Electronic Design Automation) industry, Veloce CS incorporates hardware emulation, enterprise prototyping and software prototyping and is built on two highly advanced integrated circuits (ICs) – Siemens’ new, purpose-built Crystal accelerator chip for emulation and the AMD Versal™ Premium VP1902 FPGA adaptive SoC (System-on-a-chip) for enterprise and software prototyping.
Listen Up! The Intricacies of PCB Drilling Detailed in New Podcast Episode
04/25/2024 | I-Connect007In episode 5 of the podcast series, On the Line With: Designing for Reality, Nolan Johnson and Matt Stevenson continue down the manufacturing process, this time focusing on the post-lamination drilling process for PCBs. Matt and Nolan delve into the intricacies of the PCB drilling process, highlighting the importance of hole quality, drill parameters, and design optimization to ensure smooth manufacturing. The conversation covers topics such as drill bit sizes, aspect ratios, vias, challenges in drilling, and ways to enhance efficiency in the drilling department.