ELECTRONIC DESIGN AUTOMATION: Reducing risk and delay in EDA

Traditionally, stand-alone EDA tools have been used to verify high speed layouts and critical nets after they have been routed, but increasing pressure on project timescales and the technical requirements of today's high performance devices (FPGAs, DSPs and Micro-Processors) require a more sophisticated approach. It's a fact of life that PCB Layout lies on the critical path to new product introduction, so adopting an integrated design suite to create, implement, analyse, verify and document all design constraints in one seamless environment that improves workgroup communication, reduces risk and enables on-time product delivery by reducing the need for unnecessary prototypes can deliver real benefits. CADSTAR's HPE (High Performance Engineering) Design Suite delivers an integrated range of tools for the design engineer, layout specialist and high-speed analyst that provide each discipline with powerful applications designed to maximise productivity yet still express their individual creativity. At the heart of the HPE Suite is the Constraints Manager, a spreadsheet style App that provides the design engineer with an alternative logical view of even the most complex design and a fast, efficient means to enter multi-level constraints early in the design process. Design automation and Wizards speed up data entry to ensure complete design definition early in the design process and simplify the definition of complex groups and topologies such as DDR3 and PCIexpress. PCB layout engineers and high-speed analysts benefit by sharing the same constraints data, allowing them to implement and verify the design in the knowledge that all constraints will automatically be accommodated, ensuring that the completed design will conform to the IC vendor's constraint and simulation guidelines. Comprehensive signal integrity, power integrity and EMC analysis utilities allow verification of the 'virtual prototype' long before the design is committed to manufacture, let alone fabrication, assembly and test of a physical sample. The ability to run parametric sweeps on a range of design parameters enables the optimum signal integrity termination strategies to be determined, while power integrity analysis and visualisation enables optimised current flow and decoupling in the power distribution network and identification of potential EMC issues, resulting in improved product reliability and lower product cost. Enhanced design integration extends beyond the conventional bounds of PCB Layout to include ODBC compliant interfaces to MRP, visualisation and verification in the 3D mechanical domain, and even to supporting apps (CADSTAR Touch) on your mobile device. Company and services info Quadra Solutions specialise in CAD software solutions for PCB design, mechanical & construction industries. We provide consultancy, training & technical support and house one of the largest PCB design bureaus in the UK. We pride ourselves on our consultative approach to working with customers as their technology partner. Quadra Solutions Ltd have worked alongside Zuken, a leading company in the EDA and ECAD/CAE industries with their PCB design software, CADSTAR which provides a complete design environment for electronic PCB design from initial concept through to product realisation. Services As the authorised distributor of CADSTAR for the UK, Benelux & Scandinavia our team is highly experienced in providing: • Consultancy • Training • Technical support • In-house PCB design services Standards and certifications • Authorised Zuken Distributor • IPC CID certified designers with SC level security clearance • Autodesk Gold Partner • Authorised training centre for Zuken & Autodesk • ISO9001 Specialist sectors/industries served We support all industries that have electronic design requirements. Quadra Solutions Ltd Ewbank House, Cannon Street Accrington Lancashire BB5 1NJ Telephone – 01254 301 888 Email (UK sales) – sales@quadrasol.co.uk Email (UK support) – info@quadrasol.co.uk