Altium Designer is an EDA

Electronic design automation

Electronic design automation is a category of software tools for designing electronic systems such as printed circuit boards and integrated circuits...

 software package for printed circuit board

Printed circuit board

A printed circuit board, or PCB, is used to mechanically support and electrically connect electronic components using conductive pathways, tracks or signal traces etched from copper sheets laminated onto a non-conductive substrate. It is also referred to as printed wiring board or etched wiring...

, FPGA and embedded software

Embedded software

Embedded software is computer software that plays an integral role in the electronics it is supplied with.Embedded software's principal role is not Information technology , but rather the interaction with the physical world. It's written for machines that are not, first and foremost, computers...

 design, and associated library and release management automation. It is developed and marketed by Altium Limited

Altium Limited

Altium Limited is an Australian based software company that provides PC-based electronics design software for engineers. Founded in 1985, Altium has headquarters in Sydney and sales offices in the United States, Europe, Japan, China, and resellers in all other major markets...

 of Australia.

Schematic capture

Schematic capture module provides electronics circuit editing functionality, including:

• Component library management
• Schematic document editing (component placement, connectivity editing and design rules definition)
• Integration with several component distributors allows search for components and access to manufacturer's data

• SPICE mixed-signal circuit simulation
• Pre-layout signal integrity analysis
• Netlist export.
• Reporting and BoM facilities.
• Multi-channel, hierarchical schematics and design re-use

PCB design

Printed circuit board design module of Altium designer allows:

• Component footprint library management
• Component placement
• Manual trace routing, with support for differential pairs, multi-trace routing, pin-swapping and gate-swapping
• Automatic trace routing
• Automated multi-channel layout and routing
• Interactive 3D
  3D computer graphics
  3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
  
   editing of the board and MCAD export to STEP
  ISO 10303
  ISO 10303 is an ISO standard for the computer-interpretable representation and exchange of product manufacturing information. Its official title is: Automation systems and integration — Product data representation and exchange...
  
  
• Signal integrity analysis
• Manufacturing files generation with support for Gerber
  Gerber File
  The Gerber format is a file format used by printed circuit board industry software to describe the images of a printed circuit board . The Gerber format is the de-facto industry standard for printed circuit board image transfer.There are two versions. RS-274X is the most commonly used today...
  
   and ODB++
  ODB++
  ODB++ is a proprietary CAD-to-CAM data exchange format used in the design and manufacture of electronic devices. Its purpose is to exchange printed circuit board design information between design and manufacturing and between design tools from different EDA/ECAD vendors. It was originally developed...
  
   formats

FPGA and embedded software tools

FPGA development tools integrated into Altium designer provide the following capabilities:

• FPGA, PCB and Signal Integrity design synchronization
• VHDL simulation and debugging
• FPGA soft processor
  Soft microprocessor
  A soft microprocessor is a microprocessor core that can be wholly implemented using logic synthesis...
  
   software development tools (compiler, debugger, profiler) for several embedded processors

Release/data management

Release and data management tools within Altium designer allow users to:

• Version control each design, and compare differences textually and visually
• Batch-process output generation and output formatting (i.e. Gerber files, Pick and Place, PDF schematic and PCB documentation etc.)
• Create templates for documents and design rules
• Use configuration management and track all design changes through ECO
  Engineering Change Order
  Engineering Change Orders are used for changes in components, assemblies, or documents such as processes and work instructions. They may also be used for changes in specifications....
  
  
• Create and release design and assembly variants
• Cloud publishing of design and manufacturing data

External Links

• New Features in Altium Designer 10

See also

• ABC news, "Aust company lands NASA software deal", accessed 2010-09-06
• EEtimes, "Altium claims 500 new US customers", accessed 2010-09-06
• Comparison of EDA software
  Comparison of EDA software
  Comparison of Electronic Design Automation software-Free and Open Source Software :-Proprietary software:-Comparison of EDA packages:Note: ODB++ support is drawn partly from lists by Artwork Conversion Software and Mentor Graphics...