To cut printed circuit board (PCB) design cycle time by half as well as improve the quality of mixed-signal design, software tools suppliers Mentor Graphics Corp. and Agilent Technologies’ EEsof EDA division have been quietly working for last two years to develop an integrated platform. The result of this collaborative effort is an integrated solution that dynamically links their respective tools, enabling PCB mixed-signal designers (RF, analog and digital) to concurrently design a PCB using Mentor’s Expedition Enterprise or Board Station XE flows and seamlessly integrate it with Agilent’s Advanced Design System (ADS) EDA software for RF design and simulation.

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Unlike old ways, the designers will not work in isolation any more, said John Isaac, director of market development for Mentor’s Systems Design Division. He added, designing today’s mixed-signal PCB board requires tight integration of the physical layout environments and their respective simulation tools to insure optimized performance and short design cycle times. “Integrating Agilent’s RF specialized tools with the Mentor PCB systems design flows provides our users with capabilities needed to solve complex multi-mode system issues, stated Isaac.

The new integration virtually eliminates the manual file manipulation that has been the foundation of the conventional approach to tool integration, noted How-Siang Yap, product manager for Agilent’s ADS EDA platform. In addition to simplifying the natural flow of RF design in ADS to Mentor’s PCB design and integration environment, this new integration technology gives almost instant access to the ADS simulators, added Yap. By making access to simulation easy, users will be able to do RF design and verification throughout the PCB design cycle. This leads to fewer turns, shorter design cycles, and better more robust RF PCB designs, asserted Yap.

“Customers tell us they face delays in product development due to a disconnect between RF design and simulation and PCB implementation,” said Jim McGillivary, vice president and general manager with Agilent’s EEsof EDA division. “My team’s commitment to problem solving and working with Mentor has resulted in this efficiency breakthrough, eliminating the delays that come from switching between software tools. We fully expect this new integration to cut our customers’ typical product development cycle in half.”

“We spend three months or more in an eight-month development cycle writing custom code to move RF layouts from ADS to Mentor,” said Tom Gray, spectrum analyzer project engineer with Agilent who is also a customer. “We also have a dedicated person whose sole role is to accurately move designs from ADS to Mentor. Dynamically linking ADS with Expedition could cut development time by as much as half and provide significant cost savings.”

The RF design solution is now available as an option to both Mentor’s Expedition Enterprise and Board Station XE flows, with prices starting at $9000. While Agilent’s ADS is also available now with prices starting at approximately $9,000.

www.agilent.com
www.mentor.com