Altium Brings Full nVisage Capabilities to Protel DXP with Service Pack 2

Business Wire, Dec 17, 2002

Business Editors/High Tech Writers

SYDNEY, Australia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 17, 2002

Protel DXP feature set strengthened with interactive

impedance-controlled routing, VHDL simulation and synthesis, and

database linking

Altium Limited (ASX: ALU), a leading developer of Windows-based electronic design and development software, announced today the availability of an expanded feature set for its Protel DXP(TM) board-level design system. The release of Service Pack 2 adds the full host of nVisage(TM) multi-dimensional design capture capabilities to Protel DXP as well as significant improvements to the corresponding PCB design capabilities. This constitutes a major update to the entire end-to-end product with more than 70 enhancements.

"This service pack significantly upgrades the capabilities of Protel DXP, making it the most comprehensive and versatile board-level design system available," says Nick Martin, Joint CEO and founder of Altium. "By bringing the capture capabilities of Protel DXP up to the level of the newly-released nVisage DXP, Protel designers can work seamlessly with nVisage engineers and gain the benefits of full project-level synchronization throughout all stages of design. Protel DXP is now easier to use, more productive and able to handle a wider scope of design possibilities."

Improved signal integrity management and impedance control

One of the major enhancements Service Pack 2 brings to Protel DXP is interactive impedance-controlled routing and more efficient pre and post layout signal integrity analysis - making it easier for designers to avoid signal integrity problems.

The process of running signal integrity analysis prior to board layout has been streamlined to require only the input of the required characteristic trace impedance, and the PCB editor now includes a rule type that takes the desired impedance as input and automatically calculates appropriate track widths as the designer routes. Impedance-controlled routing makes it easy for a designer to maintain optimum signal integrity conditions during board design and minimizes time-consuming post-layout changes.

VHDL simulation and synthesis

Service Pack 2 upgrades Protel's VHDL design capabilities to fully support mixed schematic and VHDL design entry with the addition of VHDL simulation and synthesis. The new VHDL simulator includes an easy-to-interpret multi-waveform viewer, and supports the back-annotations of timing data from FPGA place-and-route tools.

The inclusion of RTL-level VHDL synthesis for multiple FPGA architectures allows Protel DXP to offer complete support for PCB and FPGA design within a single application. The synthesis engine includes advanced features such as module generation, hierarchical synthesis, automatic I/O insertion and macrocell inference - features traditionally only found in expensive FPGA synthesis tools.

Enhanced project and enterprise-level features

Service Pack 2 makes it easier for designers to synchronize their design projects with their company's component inventories with the inclusion of significantly enhanced database linking capabilities and improved Bill of Materials (BoM) generation. Designers can link user-definable component parameters with any database that supports Open Database Connectivity (ODBC), making it possible to automatically update information from company stock records. This information can then be included in Protel DXP's new and highly-configurable BoM generator to produce accurate parts tables for ordering and assembly.

Document cross-probing has been enhanced with Service Pack 2 to make project navigation easier. Designers can now cross-probe from navigational panels to corresponding objects in both the PCB and schematic simultaneously.

Service Pack 2 also delivers full bi-directional Orcad(R) file translation features to Protel DXP. Both Orcad schematic and library file formats can be imported and exported with a high degree of accuracy, making translation of legacy files easy. Orcad(R) Layout PCB files can also now be imported directly into Protel DXP.

Pricing and availability

Although Service Pack 2 significantly updates the capabilities of Protel DXP, and brings a host of new and enhanced features, the current pricing level has been maintained. New licenses are US$7,995 and upgrades start from US$1,995.

In keeping with Altium policy, Service Pack 2 for Protel DXP is available free of charge to all Protel DXP users, and is available for download from the Protel website at www.protel.com/resources/downloads/. Details of the new features and enhancements included in the service pack are also available on the Protel website at www.protel.com.

For more product information or to download a 30-day, fully-functional trial version and multimedia demonstration, visit the Protel website or contact your local Altium Sales and Support Center.

About Altium Limited

Altium Limited (ASX: ALU), trading as Protel International Limited (ASX: PRI) prior to August 6, 2001, is a leading global developer and supplier of desktop Electronic Design Automation (EDA) and embedded software design tools for the Microsoft Windows environment.