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Each December, we like to look back at the year in PCB design news. January seems like yesterday, doesn't it? Since then, we've seen plenty of innovative new tools and a variety of partnerships, and we've said goodbye to a couple of longtime friends. As we approach 2016, enjoy this list of the 10 most-read news items on PCBDesign007 in 2015. 

Engineer Steve Weir Has Passed Away

Steve was a power and signal integrity guru with a variety of patents to his name. A fixture of DesignCon and a constant presence on the SI-List signal integrity forum, Steve wrote over a dozen papers on power integrity. He also had a crazy, irreverent sense of humor that you don’t find among most engineers. He will be missed. 

Mentor Graphics Launches New HyperLynx SI/PI Product

Mentor Graphics Corporation has announced its newest version of the HyperLynx Signal Integrity/Power Integrity (SI/PI) tool for high-speed printed circuit board (PCB) designs. HyperLynx addresses high-speed systems design problems throughout the design flow—starting at the earliest architectural stages through post-layout verification.

EMA and Arena Solutions Form Strategic Alliance

The OrCAD and Arena integration provides a number of benefits for organizations using both systems.  Components from the enterprise PLM system are available directly within the OrCAD Capture CIS design environment making search, selection, and placement very simple.  Parts listed as obsolete in the PLM system can be easily identified and swapped out in an OrCAD design. 

Sunstone Circuits Chooses InSight PCB Software for Pre-CAM and Sales

Sunstone Circuits has purchased Orbotech’s InSight PCB pre-sales and pre-engineering software. InSight PCB is a web-based tool for managing and assessing incoming customer PCB data for salespeople and engineers who are not CAM experts. From automatically retrieving comprehensive product information to generating precise summary reports, InSight PCB empowers sales and engineering people to work more independently, efficiently and profitably. 

Improving PCB Design with Advanced Circuits' PCB Artist

Advanced Circuits' free PCB layout software PCB Artist has become a favorite not only with engineering students but also advanced engineers due to its easy schematic-to-PCB layout, Gerber format, autorouter, and extensive library of over 500,000 parts.

Pulsonix 8.5 Build 5902 is Released

WestDev Ltd. has released the latest version of Pulsonix 8.5, Build 5902. This maintenance update is issued as part of our on-going process of product improvement and response to customer feedback. In addition to bug fixes, the latest release contains several additions to the Report Maker function.

Exception PCB Solutions Design Service Boosts CID+ Qualifications

Heading up the design service is Neil Day, who has completed the IPC PCB Designer Certification Program and became qualified as an Advanced Certified Interconnect Designer (CID+). In addition, Technical Support Manager Paul Beech has completed the IPC CID training course and attained CID certification. 

Polar Instruments Launches New Language Versions of The Speedstack PCB Layer Stackup Design System

Polar Instruments has launched new language versions of Speedstack, the industry’s best-selling PCB layer stackup design system. In addition to English, Speedstack is now available in German, Japanese, simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese versions. Speedstack allows PCB fabricators to fine-tune the stackup design by assessing the impact of different PCB materials on cost, performance and manufacturing yield.

EDA Analyst Gary Smith Dead at 74

Longtime EDA analyst Gary Smith died July 3 in Flagstaff, Arizona at the age of 74. Gary worked at Dataquest from 1994 to 2006, and later founded Gary Smith EDA. He knew more about the EDA market than anyone I’ve ever known. I once asked Gary, “How many PCB design seats do you think are in China?” He sent me numbers for all of Asia and broke them down by country. He loved EDA.

ICD Releases 2015 Version of the ICD Stackup and PDN Planner

In-Circuit Design Pty Ltd (ICD) has released the 2015 version of its popular software. Impedance plots have been incorporated into this new release. “The impedance plots are simulated by multiple passes of the field solver (in the background) to create heads-up graphs of how to adjust the particular variables to achieve the target impedance,” said Barry Olney, CEO.