Printed Circuit Design & Fab - May 2008 - (Page 27)

you saying that PCB systems design solution suppliers like Mentor must The goal is to create a cohesive provide capabilities outside of pure design-to-manufacture environment PCB design? Potts: Yes. Focusing solely where REAL-TIME COMMUNICATION, on just improving productivity or BI-DIRECTIONAL DESIGN CHANGE design cycle time in the PCB proNEGOTIATIONS AND MANAGEMENT, cess is necessary, but can only go so far to meet a company’s aggresAND TOTAL SUPPLY CHAIN sive business needs. Collaboration INVOLVEMENT will be the norm. and efficiencies across all of the disciplines involved in the supply chain are required. Mentor is providing capabilities that span disciplines such as FPGA/PCB co-design, need more or less support, and is that support more or less ECAD/MCAD viewing and collaboration, change managedifficult or expensive to provide to them? ment that couples design with procurement and manufacPotts: Actually, we don’t see a big difference since Menturing, manufacturability functions that bring products to tor is large enough that we can support both domestic and higher yields quicker, and multiple collaboration tools that overseas customers with local support teams. It eliminates enable globally dispersed or mixed technology specialists to any language barriers and time differences. participate in the design process. PCD&F: There has been some talk about electronics PCD&F: We conduct a salary survey for the PCB systems co-design. Please explain the Mentor approach to system co-design. Any success stories that you would like to designers each year, and one thing we have been tracking share? over the past few years is the “aging” of the design comPotts: Co-design, collaboration, concurrent design are munity in the U.S. Do you see this condition as a problem, absolutely needed and being adopted by best-in-class elecand if so, what would be some potential solutions you would propose? Potts: It is true that compared to a country like China, we see an age difference in the average designer. And with ® the rapid increase of high-speed and advanced technologies we see the continuing need for the skills of these designers, young or older, to grow. Also, one of our areas of focus is Easy-to-use, efficient and cost-effective to make our tools as easy to learn and use as possible and 3-D full-wave electromagnetic software supply them in a seamlessly integrated flow. This makes for design of communication links the learning process much quicker so the that designers can keep up with rapidly changing technologies and busiat 10 Gb/s and beyond! ness pressures. Simbeor 2007 PCD&F: Tell me a bit about the Mentor shrink-wrapped vs. the more extensive design tool platforms. What do you see for the future of these products, particularly for the overseas markets? Potts: We see the continuing need for design flows targeted at both the small to mid-sized company or organization, as well as the larger enterprise. Neither of these tool sets can lack in the ability to design complex boards. The basic difference is the support of the larger companies, where management of their intellectual property, such as libraries, design data and design constraints across global organizations is necessary. Also, capabilities that enable multiple designers of the same or different disciplines to concurrently collaborate on a product design are more important for the larger company than the smaller. In overseas markets such as Asia, we see a very evident shift from just lower-end flows to a mix of both lower and high end. PCD&F: As compared to the U.S., do overseas customers MAY 2008 Visit www.simberian.com for more information and to download free fully functional software. © 2008 Simberian Inc. PRINTED CIRCUIT DESIGN & FAB 27 http://www.simberian.com http://www.simberian.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Printed Circuit Design & Fab - May 2008

Printed Circuit Design & Fab - May 2008 Contents Our Line Market Watch Around the World Happenings ROI EMC For the Real World PCB East Conference Brochure Positive Plating Don't Let your Signals Stub Their Toes Improve PCB Layout With Skill Utility Programs The Next Generation Design Tool Challenge Thermally Conductive Microwave Materials PCB Dielectric Degradation in Lead-Free Assembly Applications A Tale of Two Trade Shows Eliminating Board Defects Off the Shelf Marketplace Ad Index BGA Bulletin

Printed Circuit Design & Fab - May 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.