Free PC-Board Design Software Includes Link To Fabrication
Offering everything needed to design two- and four-layer printed-circuit boards, PCB123’s
board-design software is freely downloadable from the company’s Web site. The
software contains schematic capture, layout, and routing capabilities; over
20,000 layout symbols and 126,000 schematic symbols; a full tutorial; FAQ; help
forums; and unlimited e-mail support. It also provides seamless integration
with the company’s board-fabrication service, telling users exactly what boards
will cost throughout the design process. Users can order prototype quantities
of boards directly from the tool.
Multiple-CPU SoC Design Gets A Lift From Development Environment
Software development,
processor optimization, and multiple-processor system-on-a-chip (SoC)
architecture tools are integrated into one environment in the Xtensa Xplorer
suite. Intended for use with the Xtensa configurable processors, the Xplorer
environment is particularly useful for developing Tensilica Instruction
Extension (TIE) instructions, which are designer-specific instruction
extensions to the Xtensa processor. While useful for single-processor designs,
the environment targets multiprocessor SoC design work. A Developer’s Edition
costs $5000 for a one-year subscription. A Standard edition is free to Xtensa-V
licensees.
Interconnect Design Tool Eyes Up Signal Integrity
The latest release of
IConnect TDR software introduces the IConnect Interconnect Link Simulator,
which uses complete time-domain reflectometer T- and S-parameter network
descriptions as part of the interconnect link simulation. As a result, IConnect
3.0 allows designers to predict and display eye-diagram degradation and
signal-integrity-related bit errors with extreme accuracy. Also available is
the ability to convert measured time-domain-reflectometer data into highly
accurate Spice or IBIS models. Pricing is $20,000 for ICConnect. The optional
MeasureXtractor modeling tool adds $8900.