-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- design007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueLevel Up Your Design Skills
This month, our contributors discuss the PCB design classes available at IPC APEX EXPO 2024. As they explain, these courses cover everything from the basics of design through avoiding over-constraining high-speed boards, and so much more!
Opportunities and Challenges
In this issue, our expert contributors discuss the many opportunities and challenges in the PCB design community, and what can be done to grow the numbers of PCB designers—and design instructors.
Embedded Design Techniques
Our expert contributors provide the knowledge this month that designers need to be aware of to make intelligent, educated decisions about embedded design. Many design and manufacturing hurdles can trip up designers who are new to this technology.
- Articles
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Events
||| MENU - design007 Magazine
Cadence Helping Users to Save Time, Money With Automation
April 10, 2020 | Andy Shaughnessy, Design007 MagazineEstimated reading time: 2 minutes
During DesignCon, I spoke with Brad Griffin, the group director for product management for the system analysis group at Cadence Design Systems. We discussed some of the areas where PCB designers can cut costs and how EDA companies can help these designers by automating certain time-consuming tasks. As Brad says, “The ‘A’ in EDA is for automation, right?”
Andy Shaughnessy: Good to see you again, Brad. We were talking a few minutes ago about ways that designers can design for profitability by adding profit and cutting waste during the design cycle. Tell us your thoughts on designing for profitability.
Brad Griffin: When you think about what Cadence can bring to the table for designing for profitability, it’s about being efficient. We are one of the few companies that you can come to and get design tools and analysis tools. Historically, the idea is that you have designed something, throw it over the wall to somebody else, who analyzes it and says you made a bunch of mistakes; then, they throw it back. There’s this iteration back and forth. Maybe you build a prototype and find out it doesn’t work. All of that makes the design cycle get very long, and that’s certainly not the way to profitability. The more you can make that efficient, the more profitable that you’re going to be able to make your product and product line, and, ultimately, the more you’re going to be able to build new products because you’re going to get products out the door.
Our thinking is that we can guide a user toward in-design analysis; while they’re designing a product, they’re thinking about SI and PI. They’re bringing up engines that are the same engines that their expert is going to use to sign off on later, but they’re presented in a way where they don’t have to be an expert. You can do a quick review of your power plane and make sure that you haven’t created too many places where you’re going to lose voltage and not going to be able to deliver power to certain components of the board. If you can quickly review that without having to bring a PI expert in, it’s going to make you a better designer, and it’s going to shrink that design cycle. Anything we can do to help the designer produce a better board before it goes to an SI or a PI expert will reduce that design cycle and improve the overall profitability of the design.
Shaughnessy: We keep hearing that 80% of the cost of manufacturing the board is determined in the design cycle.
To read this entire interview, which appeared in the March 2020 issue of Design007 Magazine, click here.
Suggested Items
Signal Integrity Expert Donald Telian to Teach 'Signal Integrity, In Practice' Masterclass Globally
04/17/2024 | PRLOGDonald Telian and The EEcosystem announce the global tour of "Signal Integrity, In Practice," a groundbreaking LIVE masterclass designed to equip hardware engineers with essential skills for solving Signal Integrity (SI) challenges in today's fast-paced technological landscape.
Designing Electronics for High Thermal Loads
04/16/2024 | Akber Roy, Rush PCB Inc.Developing proactive thermal management strategies is important in the early stages of the PCB design cycle to minimize costly redesign iterations. Here, I delve into key aspects of electronic design that hold particular relevance for managing heat in electronic systems. Each of these considerations plays a pivotal role in enhancing the reliability and performance of the overall system.
I-Connect007 Editor’s Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week
04/12/2024 | Nolan Johnson, I-Connect007As we publish this week’s most-read news, the I-Connect007 team is wending its way home from an eventful and productive week at IPC APEX EXPO in Anaheim, California. We’ve posted a variety of dispatches from the show this week, released 73 realtimewith.com video interviews (and counting), and also gathered the content and updates you’ll be looking for in the upcoming issue of Show & Tell… IPC APEX EXPO 2024.
Material Insight: The Importance of Standards for the Chip Packaging Industry
04/12/2024 | Dr. Preeya Kuray -- Column: Material InsightI had the great pleasure of recently attending the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) CHIPS R&D Chiplets Interfaces Technical Standards Workshop. The purpose was to bring together technical experts across industry and academia to deliberate one of the most pressing technological matters of 2024: chip packaging standards.
What’s New in Design Education at IPC APEX EXPO?
04/11/2024 | Kelly Allen, IPC Training ManagerKelly (Kel) Allen shares her thoughts on the educational offerings at IPC APEX EXPO and beyond. In this interview, she discusses some of the newest classes taking place during the conference in Anaheim, covering everything from design, fab, and assembly through mil/aero, test, and supply chain issues.