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Why is it so difficult to create the ideal data package? Many of these simple errors can be alleviated by paying attention to detail—and knowing what issues to look out for. So, this month, our experts weigh in on the best practices for creating the ideal design data package for your design.
Designing Through the Noise
Our experts discuss the constantly evolving world of RF design, including the many tradeoffs, material considerations, and design tips and techniques that designers and design engineers need to know to succeed in this high-frequency realm.
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Our expert contributors clear up many of the miscommunication problems between PCB designers and their fab and assembly stakeholders. As you will see, a little extra planning early in the design cycle can go a long way toward maintaining open lines of communication with the fab and assembly folks.
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Beyond Design: The Need for Speed—Strategies for Design Efficiency
May 2, 2016 | Barry Olney, In-Circuit DesignEstimated reading time: 2 minutes

Years of experience with one EDA tool obviously develops efficiency, whether the tool be high-end feature-packed or basic entry-level. And one becomes accustomed to the intricacies of all the good and bad features of their PCB design tool. However, there comes a time, with the fast development pace of technology, that one should really consider a change for the better to incorporate the latest methodologies. This month, I will look at productivity issues that impede the PCB design process.
The choice of PCB design tools, until now, has been limited to either high-end, enterprise-level solutions that are expensive and have the added cost of an extended learning curve and setup time, or entry-level desktop solutions that are fast to pick up but limited in capability and error-prone. Mentor Graphics’ new PADS Professional has addressed this by providing the best of both solutions. Based on proven Xpedition technology, PADS Professional focuses on ease of adoption, ease of use and affordability but is still packed with all the features today’s designers need for the most complex designs.
Typically, a high-speed computer-based design takes two or three iterations to develop a working product. However, these days the product life cycle is very short and therefore time-to-market is of the essence. One board iteration can be expensive, depending on your overheads. We should not only consider the engineering time but also the cost of delaying the products market launch. This missed opportunity could cost your company hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not the total loss of market share.
In a previous column, Introduction to Board-Level Simulation and the PCB Design Process, I mentioned that the cost of development is dramatically reduced if simulation is employed during the design cycle. The design changes that occur early in the design process are less expensive compared to those that take place after it is introduced into full-scale production. The cost of the change increases with development time.
Fundamentally, the design changes can be classified into pre-production and post-production modifications. The pre-production changes can happen in the conceptual, design, prototype, or the testing stage. The post-production stage change will happen almost immediately when the product is introduced into production or worse still, be recognized only when the product reaches the market. The later the stage, the more expensive the issue is to fix. The advantage of virtual prototyping is that it identifies issues early in the design process so they can be rectified before they become a major problem.
To read this entire article, which appeared in the March issue of The PCB Design Magazine, click here.
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I-Connect007 Editor’s Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week
05/09/2025 | Andy Shaughnessy, Design007 MagazineTrade show season is wrapping up as we head into summer. Where has the time gone? I hope you all get the chance to take a vacation this year, because I know you’ve earned one. Speaking of which, when was my last vacay? If I can’t remember, it’s probably time for one. It’s been a busy week in electronics, with fallout from the back-and-forth on tariffs taking up most of the oxygen in the room. We have quite an assortment of articles and columns for you in this installment of Must-Reads. See you next time.
Imec Coordinates EU Chips Design Platform
05/09/2025 | ImecA consortium of 12 European partners, coordinated by imec, has been selected in the framework of the European Chips Act to develop the EU Chips Design Platform.
New Issue of Design007 Magazine: Are Your Data Packages Less Than Ideal?
05/09/2025 | I-Connect007 Editorial TeamWhy is it so difficult to create the ideal data package? Many of these simple errors can be alleviated by paying attention to detail—and knowing what issues to look out for. So, this month, our experts weigh in on the best practices for creating the ideal data package for your design.
RF PCB Design Tips and Tricks
05/08/2025 | Cherie Litson, EPTAC MIT CID/CID+There are many great books, videos, and information online about designing PCBs for RF circuits. A few of my favorite RF sources are Hans Rosenberg, Stephen Chavez, and Rick Hartley, but there are many more. These PCB design engineers have a very good perspective on what it takes to take an RF design from schematic concept to PCB layout.
Cadence Unveils Millennium M2000 Supercomputer with NVIDIA Blackwell Systems
05/08/2025 | Cadence Design SystemsAt its annual flagship user event, CadenceLIVE Silicon Valley 2025, Cadence announced a major expansion of its Cadence® Millennium™ Enterprise Platform with the introduction of the new Millennium M2000 Supercomputer featuring NVIDIA Blackwell systems, which delivers AI-accelerated simulation at unprecedented speed and scale across engineering and drug design workloads.