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The Shaughnessy Report: The Year in Design

This column originally appeared in the December 2012 issue of The PCB Design Magazine.

As we enter 2013, it's a great time to look back over the PCB design news of 2012. What trends were big, and why? Who bought whom?  

The American electronics industry seemed to find more solid ground in 2012, but we’re not out of the woods yet. What’s ahead for 2013? Since our leaders in Washington averted a fiscal cliff crisis, we just might see real growth this year. There’s plenty of pent-up enthusiasm ready to be unleashed.

With that said, we present the PCB design news highlights for 2012.

January

Mentor Graphics began the year by acquiring another CFD software company, the Dutch-owned Flowmaster Group. Mentor Graphics also released HyperLynx Version 8.2. This rev added 3D full-wave field solving, and integrated HyperLynx’s thermal analysis and power integrity tools.

Was this a good omen? The EDA Consortium reported that EDA industry revenue rose 18% YOY in October 2011, with PCB design tools lagging at 11.6%.

Zuken promoted Steve Chidester to head of international marketing. Patrick Hackney was named senior technical marketing manager for electrical design solutions in Europe and North America, and Aurang Rona was appointed to an international corporate development management role at Zuken. The company also launched a new version of Board Modeler Lite as part of CADSTAR 13.0.

IPC updated the flex standard IPC-2223C. The new “Sectional Design Standard for Flexible Printed Boards” includes a tutorial and data to help designers of flex circuits.

Bay Area Circuits released a free PCB array calculator and a free desktop Gerber viewerwith DFM and quoting capabilities, along with a DXF/DFG-to-Gerber conversion guide.

Joe Fjelstad’s newest book, Flexible Circuit Technology, 4th Edition, included a chapter on flex design techniques and guidelines, with plenty of design information contained throughout the book. 

February

Intercept Technology launched Pantheon 7, which featured a completely redesigned interface. Pantheon’s GUI had not changed since its introduction in the early 1990s.

Zuken released a new version of its E³.WireWorks software, E³.WireWorks Unified.

National Instruments released Multisim 12.0, which included analysis functionality developed for NI’s LabVIEW system design software.

Mentor Graphics and Altium were among the DesignVision Award winners at DesignCon 2012. Other winners included Molex, Memoir Systems, Akros Silicon, Apache Design and Oscium.

Mikel Williams, president and CEO of DDi and Chairman of the IPC Government Relations Committee, testified before the Committee on Foreign Affairs about the importance of clear and appropriate U.S. export controls on PCB designs for military technologies.

March

Mentor Graphics released PADS 9.4, which featured the ability to associate nets required for DDR interconnect design.

DownStream Technologies released new versions of their PCB post-processing tools, CAM350 and BluePrint-PCB.

AWR Corporation inked a global reseller agreement for AWR to sell and support Modelithics’ model libraries.

We provided complete Real Time video coverage of the Designers Forum and IPC APEX EXPO in San Diego.

Altium launched Altium Designer 12, delivered as part of Altium’s continuous update model instead of a large software upgrade.

April

I attended the Designers Roundtable at SMTA Atlanta, and I found a dozen PCB designers who were happy to discuss their jobs and answer questions from pesky editors. The biggest takeaway: Despite all the talk about new data formats, every designer used Gerber, though some used Gerber and ODB++, depending on where the design was headed.

The EDA Consortium reported that EDA industry revenue rose 12.8% YOY in Q4, but PCB software revenue fell 15.6% compared to the year-earlier period.

Cadence Design Systems posted first quarter 2012 revenue of $316 million, compared to revenue of $266 million reported for the same period in 2011.

Zuken joined the ODB++ Solutions Alliance. The company is also a member of the IPC-2581 Consortium.

May

PADS Software founder Gene Marsh died on May 4 after a short illness. He was 84.

Cadence expanded its OrCAD Capture Marketplace, allowing OrCAD and Allegro users to view and download content through any Web-enabled device.

Mentor Graphics posted Q1 revenues of $247.9 million, and forecast annual revenues of $1.1 billion.

Australia-based In-Circuit Design Pty Ltd released the FX version of its Stackup Planner, which integrates boundary element method 2D field solver technology into ICD’s impedance planning software.

Intercept Technology joined the social media movement, launching sites on YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Does your company use social media?

June

Mentor Graphics released the FloEFD v11.3 computational fluid dynamics software for PTC’s Creo platform.

My coverage of the Designers Roundtable at SMTA Atlanta led to a spirited debate by supporters of Gerber and ODB++. This column by Karel Tavernier of Ucamco, the company that now owns the Gerber format, contains links to previous columns and replies by Julian Coates, Andy Kowalewski, and Jack Olson.

Agilent’s collaboration with Thales helped expand X-parameter technology to wideband super-heterodyne receiver applications. Agilent invented X-parameters, a new category of nonlinear network parameters for high-frequency design.

Zuken inked a reseller agreement with TechBridge Solutions. TechBridge will sell Zuken’s CADSTAR tools in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and parts of Canada. Zuken also named Quadra Solutions European CADSTAR Distributor of the Year for the fourth time.

July

M&A activities continued, with Cadence Design Systems acquiring Sigrity, a provider of signal and power integrity tools. Cadence posted a year-on-year revenue increase for Q2 2012. The company reported Q2 revenue of $326 million, compared to revenue of $283 million reported for the same period in 2011.

Zuken released the E3.Series Industry Editions. The E3.series can be configured specifically for the transportation, machinery, mil/aero, power, railway and systems segments.

Mentor Graphics launched a general purpose software solution that combines 1D and 3D computational fluid dynamics.

The EDA Consortium reported that EDA industry revenue increased 6.3% for Q1 2012 to $1.53 billion. PCB design software earnings rose 5.1% year-on-year, to $147.5 million.

August

In August, I-Connect007 introduced The PCB List, a global directory of fabricators that is searchable by technology, geography, volume, and a variety of other criteria. If you want to have your design built by a fabricator in North America (or anywhere, for that matter), and you’d like to screen companies by materials, surface finishes, average layer count, and delivery time, check out The PCB List. It’s free for users.

The ODB++ Solutions Alliance exceeded 2,000 users and 26 partner members, and developed Japanese and Chinese versions of its website.

Signal Consulting Group launched a software tool to validate IC vendors' IBIS models. SharkSim allows users to validate IBIS models and build standard CAD model libraries.

Mentor Graphics posted all-time record revenuesfor Q2 2012, with revenue of $240.8 million. During the second quarter, Mentor repurchased 1.4 million shares of its stock for $20 million.

September

Members of the IPC-2581 Consortium fabricated their first-ever PCB by transferring design data in the IPC-2581 format. The 12-layer bare board was designed by Fujitsu Network Communications, and included BGAs, QFPs and SFPs, with components rotated at odd angles.

Cadence released Allegro 16.6, with improved features for CAD team collaboration and increased productivity.

Zuken added support for Xilinx’s Zynq-7000 All Programmable SOCs within its CR-8000 and CR-5000 tool suites. 

DownStream Technologies launched new versions of DFMStream, CAM350, and BluePrint-PCB.

CadSoft EAGLE PCB design software added Sunstone Circuits as its preferred prototype fabricator.

October

Intercept Technology took home the 2012 New Product Introduction Award at PCB West for its Pantheon design suite. Pantheon received its first GUI overhaul since its introduction in the early 1990s.

SiSoft released three Quantum Channel Designer design implementation kits for the Intel 89xx Series.

Mentor Graphics held the 24th annual Technology Leadership Awards program. The award for Best Overall Design went to Simon Hawkes, Mark Butt, and Kelly Perryman of Selex Galileo in the UK.

In-Circuit Design Pty Ltd (ICD) released a Japanese version of its ICD Stackup Planner. Dynatron Co. Ltd of Tokyo will distribute the Japanese version.

Sunstone Circuits launched its “Share Your Story” contest for PCB designers. Click here to check out some of the stories that designers have posted.

November

Mentor Graphics reported revenue of $268.8 million for the third quarter, a Q3 record.

We launched The PCB Design Magazine. The response from readers has been overwhelming. Isn’t it time designers had their own magazine?

ICD released the ICD Stackup Planner and PDN Planner with floating network licenses, available in English, European and Japanese versions.

Agilent Technologies released EMPro 2012, its 3-D electromagnetic simulation software.

NBS expanded its design engineering services. The company began as a PCB design company, and is now an EMS provider.

December

Agilent Technologies shipped Advanced Design System 2012, its RF and microwave EDA software platform. ADS 2012 features improved integration with Agilent’s EMPro, which enables 3D electromagnetic component designs to be saved for use in ADS.

In December, we lost one of the biggest innovators in EDA. Alan Finch, the “Father of the Gridless Router,” passed away in England. Alan C. Finch was one of the few people in the electronics industry who can honestly claim responsibility for a quantum leap in technology. I was fortunate enough to talk with him by phone years ago, and found him very unimpressed with his "rock star" status in the EDA world. I loved his attitude about future advances in EDA tools: What else could you possibly want your tools to do?

Zuken enhanced its support for Scandinavian CADSTAR users with the expansion of the UK-based distributor Quadra Solutions. Scandinavia is an increasingly important region for Zuken, with Scandinavian sales of CADSTAR seeing consistent growth.

Mentor Graphics introduced its new T3Ster DynTIM tester, a cutting-edge method of measuring thermal characteristics of thermal interface materials.

Have a happy new year!