Managing design data - consider the whole product

Rob Evans, Altium
EETimes (10/7/2010 10:50 AM EDT)

The idea that electronic product development is becoming more complex each year, or possibly each day, is patently clear to anyone involved in the electronics industry. Electronic products are becoming smaller, cheaper, smarter and more connected, with sophisticated electronic systems making their way into an increasing range of products.

From nuclear power stations to neurological implants, electronics is rapidly becoming a core design element in the quest for greater product functionality and differentiation in an increasingly global electronics market. In the process of making this possible, the number of complex elements that contribute to and influence product designs has also dramatically grown.

Within the electronics design sphere, traditional design capture and board layout has been joined by the development of programmable hardware and embedded application software. The complexity these domains add to the design process is magnified by their interdependence. Even a minor design change in one domain, such as tweaking the pin configuration in the FPGA space, will trigger a rippling series of ECO revisions through the others.

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