Get documents about "Real Estate Website Design Doc - PowerPoint
Description
Real Estate Website Design Doc document sample
Document Sample
Altium Designer 6
The complete electronic product
development
1
2
Electronic Product Development
Board Level Design
Manage Libraries
Design to Manufacturing
Programmable Devices
FPGA/PCB Integration
Design Management
3
Board level design
4
Managing libraries
5
Design to manufacture
6
Programmable devices
7
FPGA/PCB integration
8
Design management
9
Board level design
10
What happened to Protel?
Altium, with its Protel product, pioneered Personal
Computer-based board design technology.
Protel was the first PCB design tool to make use of
the Windows operating system.
Over the years, Protel products have been used to
design hundreds of thousands of printed circuit
boards throughout the world, and have helped
many companies and engineers reach their
electronic product development goals.
11
The design landscape
is changing
Electronic product development increasingly requires
the integration of design technologies and capabilities.
Developing the electronics product now involves two
levels of design.
Creating the physical platform on a PCB.
Developing the “embedded intelligence” using programmable
elements and soft-wired components.
As more design intelligence is migrated to the „soft‟ realm,
the design of the physical and programmable elements of an
electronic product are converging.
Board design can no longer proceed in isolation from the
development of the embedded intelligence.
12
Altium Designer
A new brand for a new era
Altium Designer has been created to unify the entire
electronic product development process.
Bring together the traditionally separate disciplines of
board design, programmable hardware design and
software development.
Altium Designer incorporates all of the board technology
inherent in Protel‟s long heritage, and combines it with
capabilities targeted at creating and implementing the
embedded intelligence.
13
Board level design
The printed circuit board connects together the
discrete components, connectors and other hardware
that form the physical platform of the design.
Support increasing component densities, faster signal
speeds and transitions, and tighter manufacturing
tolerances.
Altium Designer has the proven strength in board-
level system design.
Integrated at the platform level with support for
programmable design within an FPGA environment.
This provides a complete and unified system.
14
Integrated design environment
Unifies the process of board design by providing a single,
integrated environment for capturing design data, verifying the
performance of the circuit, and designing the PCB.
All design data is managed under a single PCB project.
Ensuring data integrity and eliminating the need to manually
recreate or propagate design data between different applications.
Natively supports the integration of programmable devices into
the physical platform by unifying the board and FPGA design
processes.
Optimum board routing solutions with FPGA devices while
automatically maintaining I/O synchronization.
Saves design time, minimizes errors and potentially lowers
manufacturing costs.
15
Develop boards correct by design
Full constraint driven design
Effectively define and apply physical constraints to the
board layout is crucial to achieving high production
yields.
Provides a comprehensive set of design rules cover all
aspects of the board design. From electrical and routing
constraints through to signal integrity.
Altium Designer‟s hierarchical rules system provides the
power and flexibility to completely control all crucial
parameters in the design.
16
Precise design rules scope
17
Develop boards correct by design
Precise design rules scope
A flexible query system to define the rule objects.
More precise control over rule targeting.
Multiple rules of the same type targeted to
different sets of objects, providing hierarchical
constraint definition.
Navigate through the defined rules and have
Altium Designer highlight the objects targeted.
Simply right-click on an object to find out exactly
which rules are applicable to it.
18
Develop boards correct by design
Maintaining the accuracy of source schematics
PCB re-design cost time and money, so finding design
errors early is essential.
Project compilation to the capture process to ensure the
integrity and consistency of the source files within a
project.
The system ensures that you are alerted to errors and
potential design problems as you design.
With Altium Designer you can capture your application
with the confidence and that the integrity is maintained
throughout the design process.
19
Maintaining the accuracy of source schematics
20
Develop boards correct by design
Complete design synchronization
Altium Designer‟s unified environment supports full and
automatic synchronization of your entire board project.
Allows to manage the flow of changes between the PCB
design and the source schematics.
Synchronization is bi-directional. From schematic and
PCB level.
Fully document any changes by generating engineering
change order reports during synchronization.
21
Develop boards correct by design
Navigating design data
Brings clarity to design navigation with a variety of
ways to filter, display and edit your design data.
Interactively browse through components, nets or
violations within schematic or PCB documents
Further drill down through the hierarchy to
highlight the individual primitives associated with
objects.
As you hover the cursor within the PCB design,
essential information is displayed about the
underlying objects.
22
23
Bring structure to design process
Supporting a hierarchical approach to complex design. Both
top-down and bottom-up.
No limit to the number of sheets and the depth of hierarchy.
Easy navigate connectivity up and down the hierarchy and
trace a single connection through the entire design.
Handling repeated circuit blocks
Reference a single sub-sheet multiple times by including a
repeat parameter in the referencing sheet symbol.
Single edit source schematic and recompile to propagate the
edits to all repeated blocks.
Altium Designer will automatically propagate channel
instantiation through to the PCB layout.
24
Layout and route the PCB
Altium Designer supports the propagation of the hierarchical
structure from capture through to board layout and routing.
The system preserves the functional partitioning into the
physical realm, and scope physical constraints to drive the
layout and routing process.
Automatically generate component and net classes based on
the schematic sheet hierarchy, then use within the PCB editor
to create targeted design rules.
Schematic structure can be used to drive the creation of
component placement rooms.
Altium Designer‟s high level of integration between schematic
capture and PCB design allows design intent to be preserved
and propagated as you move from the conceptual to the
physical phase of the board design.
25
Layout and route the PCB
Complete interactive routing system
A large portion of the board design is routing the
connections.
As board real estate shrinks and component and pin
densities increase, the routing challenge becomes
tougher. You need to be able to squeeze the most from
every square millimeter of routing space.
Altium Designer provides a complete interactive routing
solution that combines rules-driven, versatile interactive
routing modes, predictive track placement and
dynamically optimized connectivity to allow you to
efficiently tackle any routing challenge.
26
Layout and route the PCB
Versatile routing modes
Altium Designer will push existing tracks out of the way,
under full design rule compliance, to make room.
To re-route a track simply route the new path and Altium
Designer will automatically remove redundant copper,
making design rework fast and efficient.
Altium Designer will enforce the defined clearance
constraints, preventing you from creating rule violations
Automatic BGA escape routing function, fan-out and
place stub tracks on all used pins of the device to make
connection paths accessible around the periphery of the
component.
27
Layout and route the PCB
Autorouting
Altium‟s Situs Topological Autorouter engine.
The Situs engine, topological mapping provides greater
flexibility in route path determination and allows non-
orthogonal routing corridors to be more efficiently
exploited.
Includes full bi-directional support for the SPECCTRA
autorouter.
Control the mapping of Altium Designer via rules to
SPECCTRA pad stacks, and propagate net classes to
SPECCTRA to allow efficient generation of class-based
routing constraints.
28
High speed design
Increasing clock speeds and fast serial interconnections are
bringing high-speed design considerations into mainstream
board development.
High-speed signal propagation places particular demands on
the physical design.
Altium Designer supports high-speed design with targeted
design rules, complete system-level support for managing
differential signals, and integrated signal integrity analysis.
29
Differential Signals
Differential signaling is being increasingly used i.e. FPGA
extensive LVDS capabilities. This is to improves reflection
noise, electromagnetic interference (EMI) and power
consumption.
Define differential signal pairs at the schematic or PCB
level. Altium Designer will propagate and synchronize the
definitions throughout the project.
With linked FPGA and PCB projects, Altium Designer
automatically maps a differential signal defined as within the
FPGA project to appropriate signal pairs in the physical
design.
PCB editor includes interactive routing support for
differential signals, under full design rule compliance.
30
Differential Signals Routing
31
Managing Signal integrity
The fast edge transitions logics are making signal integrity analysis a part
of the physical design.
FPGAs can present problems. The wide range of programmable I/O
characteristics available on these devices complicates the process of
correctly terminating signal lines to prevent excessive reflections.
Perform signal integrity analysis at the capture stage and during board
layout.
Identify potential problem areas, determine the correct termination
strategy and add the necessary components to the design before moving
to PCB layout.
Full impedance, signal reflection and crosstalk analysis can be run on final
board to check the real-world performance after layout is complete.
Signal integrity screening is built into the Altium Designer design rules
system, allowing to check for potential signal integrity violations as part of
the normal board DRC process.
32
Signal Integrity Analysis
33
Mixed-signal circuit simulation
Mixed-signal circuit simulation is a unified part of the capture
process, and is fully integrated with the schematic editing
environment.
Supports both standard SPICE 3f5/XSpice and PSpice
models.
Full array of simulation analyses, advanced temperature and
parameter sweeping, Monte Carlo component tolerance
sweeps, pole-zero analysis and noise analysis.
Simulation results display in the integrated waveform viewer.
Perform mathematical post-processing of simulation results,
overlay waveforms, display different simulation types on a
single graph and export the waveform data.
34
Managing component and library
35
Manage component
information
Choosing an obsolete or out-of-stock component can lead to lengthy
production delays and cost overruns.
Problems are not identify during design and may not be picked up until
the project is in the manufacturing stage.
Altium Designer provides comprehensive component data management
and information resources. Allow to maintain control part usage,
regardless of the size or demands of your organization.
Option to implement a full database-driven component information
system, with company MRP or ERP.
Option to deploy stand-alone integrated libraries. This is the flexibility to
deploy Altium Designer to suits the needs of design processes and
company structure
36
Implement database driven
The capability to dynamically place components directly from a database
library.
Accessed from any ODBC-compliant data source such as a Microsoft
Access database, Excel spreadsheet. Also support connection directly to
OrCAD® CIS databases.
Bring all relevant component parameters into the board design as you
place components. Such as availability, cost and suppliers.
Librarians can ensure that only verified component models are used by
the design team, effectively enforcing design data integrity throughout the
project.
Provides full synchronization of database library data with parts, include
up-to-date, used in your schematic design. Such as BOM, part list etc.
37
38
Integrated library
Altium Designer supports design with stand-alone integrated libraries that
consolidate all relevant models, such as footprints and simulation sub-
circuits. Also contain simulation and signal integrity models and 3D CAD
When you compile an integrated library, all models are extracted from the
sources and merged into a single, portable format. You can then deploy
the integrated library for use in the end design. Maintain the integrity of
your source libraries.
Components in integrated libraries can also include database-linked
parameters. Dynamically link your integrated libraries to component
management systems.
Allows to store complete component data with your project for archiving.
Automatically extract all component information from your project to
create a project specific integrated library
The integrated library format allows you to control the deployment of
stand-alone component sources, and lets you manage component data
without the need for a full database component information system.
39
Find components easily
Quickly find a specific component. A versatile search options pinpoint the
component in stand-alone libraries or within a database-driven component
information system.
Instantly selected and browsed from within the Altium Designer library
panel with display the schematic symbol and any available footprint or 3D
model information.
Altium Designer supports the use of complex queries across all
component parameters
Query results can be browsed as individual libraries, with symbols and
footprints dynamically displayed as you move through the component list.
40
Generate full library
documentation
Altium Designer can generate a comprehensive report
detailing all the components in a specified library.
Reports can be generated as a Microsoft® Word document or
in HTML format, and can contain comprehensive component
parameter, pin and model information and preview images of
schematic symbols, PCB footprints and 3D models.
HTML reports provide a hyperlinked list of all components in
a library, and can be easily deployed on an intranet or via the
web.
Altium Designer library reporting features combined with
support for database-driven and integrated stand-alone library
formats allows complete and versatile management of all vital
component data, and facilitates the effective and efficient
control and propagation of library information throughout
your entire organization.
41
Design to manufacture
42
Design to manufacture
Delays in component procurement and miscommunication
with manufacturers can lead to delays and cost overruns.
The smooth transition from design to manufacture.
Altium Designer helps bridge the gap between design and
manufacture, and allows you to actively manage the generation
and verification of all manufacturing data.
Work efficiently with your manufacturing partners to ensure
your manufacturing files are fault-free and completely ready
for efficient fabrication and assembly.
43
Design to manufacture
Link design to manufacture
Altium Designer link the design and manufacturing processes, edit
and verify manufacturing files.
Altium Designer integrates complete manufacturing file verification
and editing into the design environment
Altium Designer allowing to load and inspect all manufacturing data
generated by the system. For check, fix a number of common
fabrication problems i.e. starved thermals and solder bridging,
Fully-configurable the panelization and rout paths for the board.
44
Output generation panel
45
Design to manufacture
Centralize output file generation
Multitude of output files generate. i.e. schematic prints, assembly drawings,
fabrication files, drill files, pick-and-place files, test point reports and the
Bill of Materials (BOM).
Altium Designer configure output job document (OutJob). Any number of
outputs can be configured within an output job document, and multiple
output jobs can be added to a single project.
Generate all outputs in a single batch process.
Output jobs are stored within the project, you can regenerate output files
any time.
Maintaining independent output configurations and file sets for each
project.
Output configurations can be saved and reused in subsequent projects.
Allowing to set up multiple configurations for different manufacturers.
46
Design to manufacture
Full range of fabrication and assembly files
Altium designer offers a broad range of output formats for the
manufacturing.
Traditional Gerber format. With manual and fully automatic
generations support.
Altium Designer supports the ODB++ file format.
ODB++ is the most intelligent CAD/CAM format, which is available
today, and seizes the entire CAD/EDA data base, assembly in a only
one, uniform database.
Numerical controls boring and milling files, AUTOMATIC Pick
and Place files.
47
Design Verification
48
Design to manufacture
Generate accurate Bills of Materials
Altium Designer allows you to configure the information and
format of Bills of Materials (BOM), and generate BOM listings
in a variety of formats.
BOM generation dynamically extracts parts data from your
design, including information from database parts libraries.
This ensures that the BOM is always accurate.
BOMs can be produced in a variety of formats for import into
virtually any manufacturing system.
Generate your BOM as a formatted XML, Excel worksheet,
basic CSV file and HTML format for web distribution.
BOM generation supports assembly variants for any defined
board variant without having to manually edit BOM values.
49
Design to manufacture
Document your design
Generate good documentation in the form of print outputs of your
schematics and PCB layout is essential for smooth progress through the
manufacture and test process.
Altium Designer precisely define the mix of PCB layers to print, set the
scaling and orientation, and preview before print it. This allows you to
easily create custom printouts for fabrication proofs, mechanical output,
documentation, assembly, etc.
Each printed PCB layer can selectively turn off and set the print mode
(draft or final) for each object type. You can even save a print in the
Windows Enhanced MetaFile (EMF) for inclusion in external reports and
documentation.
Include prints of simulation and signal integrity waveforms as well as a
range of configurable project reports that include information such as
component cross referencing and project hierarchy.
50
Design to manufacture
Interface to mechanical CAD
The ability to transfer data to and from mechanical CAD tools.
Altium Designer can import or export both DXF and native
AutoCAD® DWG files from the schematic or PCB editor.
Altium Designer includes bidirectional for reading and writing in
IDF.
Altium Designer allows you to include 3D information for
components, such as component body shapes for automatic
extrusion. A full VRML or IGES models.
Altium Designer's PCB 3D viewer to render an accurate 3D model
of your board, and export the complete assembly as an IGES file.
51
Design to manufacture
Collaborate by sharing your design data
When design move through manufacture. Design information need to
share between stakeholders i.e. test engineers, engineering management,
documentation specialists, manufacturers and clients.
Altium Designer supports secure collaboration within stakeholders by
providing a powerful Smart PDF wizard for schematic and PCB data.
The Smart PDF can package entire project or selected design files as a
PDF document that can be viewed on any system with Adobe® Reader®
installed.
The Smart PDF is bookmarked to provide complete navigation of the
design, browse and highlight components and nets in schematic sheets and
the PCB layout.
For higher level, Altium Designer can be licensed as a free Viewer Edition
for deployment in situations that need the ability to open. A Viewer
Edition license allows read-only access.
52
Programmable Devices
53
Programmable Devices
A typical electronic product today, much of the „intelligence‟ is
embodied in the embedded software running on a microprocessor.
Impact of the low-cost, high-capacity programmable devices such as
FPGAs.
Allow the intelligent of the design to become the soft-wired blocks
of hardware implemented inside an FPGA.
Altium Designer unified FPGA design and software development
using the programmable fabric of an FPGA as a system platform.
Work within an easily updateable soft realm where you can change
software and hardware with equal ease.
54
The rise of Embedded
Intelligence
FPGAs rapidly increase in power and capacity as costs for the devices
plummet.
Put true „embedded intelligence‟ spanning both software and
programmable hardware.
Shorten design cycles while adding functionality with no increase in
manufacturing costs by moving functionality from the board into
programmable hardware.
The software, processor and peripheral hardware can all be moved inside
the FPGA. All are easily changeable because the entire system exists within
a „soft‟ realm.
The bottom line is the move to a „soft‟ design paradigm gives you the
freedom to approach electronics design in a new way.
55
Design using soft-wired
components
The logic inside the FPGA can be changed and reconfigured, freeing from
the hard-wiring components at the board level.
Conventional FPGA tools typically rely on extensive HDL design
experience and a working knowledge of the architecture of the target
programmable device.
Sourcing and instantiating large functional IP blocks can be a challenge.
Altium Designer has been created to allow you to easily work with
programmable devices using the same skills as the board level design.
Altium Designer support ready-to-use FPGA-based components at the
block level within Altium Designer‟s schematic editor.
56
Extensive FPGA component
libraries
Altium Designer includes extensive libraries of ready-to-use FPGA
components.
Components i.e. generic logic functions, counters, multiplexers, various
logic gates, complete 32-bit processors and high-level peripheral devices.
FPGA components are supplied as schematic symbols with pre-
synthesized, pre-verified models for implement on any supported FPGAs.
The components are supplied on a royalty-free basis.
Work at the high level of abstraction with programmable devices. Simply
drag components from a library and wire them together to create the
FPGA design.
Convenience of working as with off-the-shelf, ready-to-use components.
57
Target any FPGA
FPGA vendor-neutral design environment.
Use the supplied components to construct system functionality and target
the design to a wide variety of FPGAs from multiple FPGA vendors.
No need to settle on particular target device before start a design. The
system allows retarget design during development to any suitable FPGA
supported by the system.
You are not locked in to any particular FPGA vendor or device family. As
new devices are released, or as device availability and cost fluctuate, you
have the freedom to migrate your design across devices to capitalize on
opportunities and avoid potential risks.
58
Mix HDL and schematic capture
When you need to create custom IP blocks yourself, Altium
Designer supports the use of both VHDL and Verilog to
capture design logic.
Freedom to mix VHDL and Verilog sources with
schematic-based FPGA components to create overall
system definition.
Altium Designer‟s fully-featured code editor supports syntax
highlighting for both VHDL and Verilog code.
Allows you to choose the most appropriate capture method
for each step of the design process.
59
Test using FPGA-based
virtual instruments
FPGA-based virtual instruments, analogous to bench test instruments at
the board level.
Probe and stimulate interconnections within the system running on the
programmable device.
The virtual instruments are incorporated in your design at the schematic
level and connected to the appropriate nets within the design.
If design is downloaded to FPGA, Altium Designer system communicates
with the instruments via a secondary JTAG chain established within the
FPGA. Stimulate and interrogate circuit interactively with Soft front
panels.
Convenience of board-level debug to the FPGA design process and work
interactively with FPGA components.
60
Work with processors and
embedded software
The microprocessor revolutionized electronics design by moving from the
hard-wired constraints to the easily changeable realm of software.
Put „intelligence‟ of the product separate from the underlying hardware.
Allow more features and functionality the product without increasing the
hardware cost, component count or board real estate.
FPGAs allow you to create both the software and the execution platform
that it runs on.
Simplify and shrink the board design by moving system processing
functionality inside an FPGA.
Reduce overall system design time.
Change both the software and the hardware execution platform at any
time in the design process.
Update the entire system in the field without altering the physical
hardware.
61
Choose processor platform
Altium Designer offers a wide choice of processor platforms,
soft processors or hybrid hard-processor /FPGA devices.
TSK3000 -- 32-bit RISC soft processor, general purpose 8-bit
soft processors. Pre-synthesized, can be used on suitably-sized
FPGA supported.
Altium Designer‟s TSK3000, Harvard architecture, simplified
memory structure and sophisticated interrupt handling to
minimize code size.
Specifically designed to simplify the migration of existing 8-bit
systems to the 32-bit domain systems targeted for FPGA.
Connection of peripherals with Wishbone microprocessor
bus.
62
TSK-3000 32 bit RISC processor
63
Third-party processor support
The Altium Designer system includes special schematic-based
components provide direct access soft processors supplied by
major FPGA device vendors.
These processors are targeted and optimized for specific
FPGA device families and offer a higher level of performance,
but lock to specific target FPGAs.
„Wrapper‟. Target hard processors within hybrid
processor/FPGA devices, or discrete processors coupled to an
external FPGA through „wrapper‟ core components.
Gives full access to the power and performance of these
devices from within the Altium Designer environment.
64
Easily modify or change
the execution platform
Freedom to change both the software and the execution
platform that it runs on throughout the development process.
FPGA provide a soft-wired execution platform in which the
processor, peripheral devices and glue logic can all be changed
and reconfigured „on-the-fly‟ to accommodate design
modifications.
Free to choose the processing platform for specific
application. Hardware- and software-level compatibility
between processors and work consistent regardless of the
target.
Can change processors during development with minimal
system re-engineering.
Shorten design process, save cost, save re-engineering. Meet
release schedule.
65
Connect processor peripherals
Peripherals/memory through the Wishbone bus. An open source standard
that has been specifically designed for interconnect within a chip.
The Altium Designer FPGA component libraries include configurable
Wishbone interconnect components that can be used to connect both
peripheral devices and memory to the processor core at the schematic
level.
Once placed, you can configure these devices directly on the schematic
sheet. You can then simply add Wishbone-compatible peripheral and
memory controller devices from the supplied FPGA component libraries
to complete the processor system.
The ease and simplicity that the Wishbone bus brings to system
configuration allows you to rapidly define system functionality, and lets
you reconfigure or add hardware functionality to the execution platform at
any stage of the development process.
66
Develop and debug
embedded software
From within the Altium Designer environment. Create and edit code,
compile and simulate program and undertake complete source-level
debugging on the target system.
Altium Designer includes full compiler tool chains for all supported
processors. Altium‟s advanced Viper compiler framework.
The Viper technology provides C-level code compatibility across all
processor platforms, allowing you to easily migrate your application code
between processors.
All Altium Designer processors feature on-chip debug capabilities.
Communicates with the processors via a secondary JTAG established
within the FPGA.
Debug software from the source code, disassembly view with full control
processor execution.
Altium Designer natively supports the simultaneous debugging of multiple
processors, independent debug sessions for each processor running.
67
„Live' with your design
While you can monitor the pins of the programmable devices, you have no
physical access to the signals with the operating circuit, effectively disconnected
from the design.
With the addition of a NanoBoard, you can process and download the design to
the FPGA and dynamically interact in real-time with active devices such as the
processors and Altium Designer‟s virtual instruments.
Iterative approach to the design of systems within FPGAs, minimizing the
traditional reliance on simulation.
Altium Designer transparently invoke the FPGA vendor tools for device-specific
mapping and routing, and download both the hardware and software program
files to the target devices.
Monitor and set signals within the FPGA-based system using virtual instrument
„soft‟ control panels, and initiate software debug sessions for all processors
running in the system.
Monitor the I/O pin status of the target programmable device and dynamically
reflect this status to the source FPGA project schematics.
A live display of the pin status of FPGAs from within the PCB editor. Even
connect prototype board to the system via the NanoBoard and continue the
LiveDesign process on target hardware.
68
What is LiveDesign?
LiveDesign is an integrated electronics system design methodology that is
based on 'live' engineering inside a programmable physical hardware
design space.
Altium Designer and LiveDesign provide real-time communication and
„hands-on‟ interaction between you and your design during the
development process, allowing you to run real software on real hardware
in real time, right from the start of the design cycle!
LiveDesign replaces the need to work in simulated environments and
build multiple prototypes.
Develop your system by implementing it on a reconfigurable hardware
platform. Once implemented, your circuit can be probed, analyzed and
debugged interactively..
Furthermore, working with real hardware and software running in real
time on a virtually-instrumented nano-level development board opens up
opportunities to exploit the re-programmability of the platform to
interactively work through design problems.
69
What are the benefits
of LiveDesign?
LiveDesign is the embodiment of what Altium believes mainstream engineers will
need in next-generation electronic design tools in order to be able to develop their
future products.
Reduce development costs and time-to-market by working in a fully-integrated
design/implementation/test environment
Interact in „real-time‟ with your design throughout the development process
Design hardware and software concurrently and in parallel
Probe, analyze and debug your design as you would a physical prototype using
FPGA-based virtual instruments
Delay commitment to final hardware until late in the design cycle
Update your design hardware at any time without time or cost penalties
Integrate complex digital circuits, including processor-based designs, into an
FPGA without the need for HDL coding or RTL-level simulation experience
Develop and verify complex embedded system-on-FPGA applications and
integrate them onto the target PCB – all within a single application LiveDesign
offers compelling benefits for all engineers – benefits that are truly unique within
the electronics design industry.
70
71
What makes LiveDesign
possible?
LiveDesign takes advantage of the re-programmability of
FPGA devices and the ready-availability of low-cost, high-
capacity, high-performance FPGA‟s.
Altium provides this reconfigurable platform „NanoBoard‟ – a
versatile development platform that supports multiple target
devices in the form of swappable device daughter boards.
LiveDesign is supported in Altium Designer with the
inclusion of ready-to-use FPGA-based components, such as
processor cores and peripherals, generic logic blocks and
FPGA-based virtual instruments, which are used to construct
the digital system.
The design is downloaded to the NanoBoard, where the
system communicates with the active devices in the design,
such as the processor cores and instruments, via a serial JTAG
link.
72
How can I evaluate Altium
Designer and LiveDesign?
The Altium Designer LiveDesign Evaluation Kit
LiveDesign-enabled features of Altium Designer software (a 30-day
unlimited Altium Designer software license).
LiveDesign Evaluation Board that can be specified with either a high-
capacity Altera® Cyclone™ (EP1C12F324C8) or Xilinx® Spartan®-3
(XC3S1000-4FG456C) FPGA device.
The Altium Designer LiveDesign Evaluation Kit with evaluation board is
priced from US $99 (plus shipping).
Altium Designer LiveDesign Evaluation Kit Third-Party Development
Board Edition.
LiveDesign-enabled features of Altium Designer software (a 30-day
unlimited Altium Designer software license).
Universal JTAG Interface to their existing FPGA development board
The Altium Designer LiveDesign Evaluation Kit - Third-Party
Development Board Edition is priced from US $49 (plus shipping)
73
Programmable Devices
74
NanoBoard-NB1 features
Fully compatible with Altium's LiveDesign-enabled development tools
Plug-in daughter board system supports a wide range of target FPGAs
Altera Cyclone (EP1C12-Q240C7) daughter board currently supplied
Xilinx Spartan IIE (XC2S300E-PQ208) daughter board currently supplied
Includes power pack with multiple plugs for various electrical outlet
configurations
Includes ribbon cable for PC connection plus other cables and connectors
Extensive NanoBoard-NB1 technical hardware reference manual
Peripherals include: LCD, LED array, switch array, keypad, buzzer, ADC/DAC,
256Kx8 RAM, 8M serial flash RAM, on-board serial flash RAM for FPGA config,
programmable clock
Ports include: PS2 mouse & keyboard, RS232, CAN, VGA, I2C, general purpose
IO headers
Upgradeable NanoBoard controller firmware
Integrated heavy-duty NanoBoard stand
75
FPGA/PCB integration
76
FPGA/PCB integration
Large scale programmable devices are increasingly finding
their way into mainstream electronic development.
They bring significant benefits to the design process, allowing
functional complexity to be moved from hardwired devices
into the programmable realm.
Today it is crucial for design productivity that these devices be
seamlessly integrated into the physical design process.
In Altium Designer our proven strength in board-level system
design has been integrated at the platform level with support
for programmable design within an FPGA environment.
77
Linking FPGAs with
board-level design
The extensive use of FPGAs within a system design has some
compelling benefits. But time saved in the development of the
FPGA circuitry does not automatically translate to faster time
to market for the end product.
FPGAs have the pin configurable. As well as defining the
function of each pin, you can select from a wide range of
electrical I/O characteristics.
While this provides immense design freedom, it also leads to
significant problems with incorporating these devices onto a
PCB.
Altium Designer solves the problems of working with large-
scale programmable devices by providing seamless linking of
FPGA design projects with the board design that incorporates
them.
78
FPGA/PCB integration
79
Concurrent FPGA and
PCB design
Facilitate complete FPGA-PCB co-design and enables rapid
development of FPGA-based applications.
As FPGA development progresses, updated pin and I/O
assignments can be transferred to the board design project.
The physical schematic representation of the FPGA device is
automatically updated to reflect the updated I/O definitions.
These changes can then be flowed on to the PCB.
Altium Designer abstracts FPGA design from the physical
constraints used to drive the FPGA place and route process.
This allows you to maintain multiple FPGA configurations
within a single FPGA project.
For example, one configuration targeting your FPGA
development environment and another for your production
board design.
80
Managing I/O synchronization
FPGA devices have a large number of pins whose I/O characteristics and
functions are not fixed, but determined by the application programmed
into them.
Traditionally crucial I/O pins will be fixed by the FPGA designer, with the
FPGA place and route tools free to assign the remaining pins as necessary.
The result at the board level is a pin configuration that is generally far
from optimal for PCB routing, and the task of propagating I/O
characteristics for processes such as signal integrity analysis becomes time
consuming and error prone.
Altium Designer unifies the process of FPGA and PCB design, it fully
supports I/O synchronization between the PCB and FPGA projects.
This allows you to forward and back annotate pin assignment changes and
automatically propagate I/O characteristics for signal integrity simulation
and differential pair management.
81
FPGA/PCB integration
82
Achieve optimal routing
solutions with FPGAs
As you deploy FPGAs within the PCB layout, you can define sets of pins
that can be interchanged at the board level.
From within the PCB design you can manually swap pins to improve
routing,
Or Altium Designer automatically optimize the connection lines for easier
board routing.
Propagate pin changes back to the FPGA project, and rerun the FPGA
place and route process with the new constraints.
This allows you to rapidly iterate through PCB and FPGA routing options
to arrive at an optimal system-level design solution.
Altium Designer allows you to take full advantage of large capacity
FPGAs offer.
Altium Designer allows you to effectively manage the complexity FPGAs
introduce at the board level, and removes the barriers to their widespread
adoption with mainstream design.
83
Debug JTAG devices
at the physical level
Difficult to probe signal pin of high-density FPGA devices, BGA package.
Altium Designer leverages the JTAG capabilities of FPGAs to allow you to
dynamically investigate the status of any pins on the device without the need for
physical access to the pins.
JTAG boundary scan allows for transparent monitoring of the signal status on the
device, the in-built, real-time JTAG Viewer allows you to easily view the state of all
the pins on any JTAG supported component.
Support Altium‟s device-independent NanoBoard, or JTAG-equipped prototype
or production board.
The JTAG Viewer presents a footprint and symbol view of the target device.
You can manually capture a snapshot of the pin status of the device, or have the
display update dynamically as the circuit operates.
Pin status can also be dynamically reflected and displayed on the source
schematics for your project, and the PCB layout.
With Altium Designer, you can monitor the status of critical lines in real-time as
you exercise the circuit to determine correct state changes and easily see problems
such as stuck signal lines.
84
Design management
85
Managing the entire
development process
Efficiently managed as a single design flow
The design of the physical platform.
The implementation of functionality in programmable
devices.
The development of the software elements.
Altium Designer unifies the entire design process.
Allows you to manage all aspects of development
within a single, integrated design environment
Altium Designer gives you a unified project and
document management infrastructure that supports
the convergence of traditionally separate design
disciplines.
86
Bringing unity to
the design process
The development of electronic products is a juggling act that balances the
drive to embed more and more intelligence into a design with the time needed
to create, implement and test the application.
In order to compete in this convergent design landscape you need to be able
to efficiently manage projects and data that transcend traditional tool
boundaries.
Navigating product development through a landscape of loosely-connected
point tools creates barriers to design efficiency, forcing you to work around
data translation and project synchronization issues. Even with superficial
integration between tools, you still need to deal with multiple design and
project management environments in order to develop a single product.
Altium Designer brings efficiency and enhanced productivity to electronic
product development by providing platform-level integration of all design
processes, and giving you a unified project and document management
infrastructure that supports the convergence of traditionally separate design
disciplines. Altium Designer allows you to bring together the discrete
hardware, programmable hardware and software that make up a system, and
take a design from concept to completion in less time than has previously
been possible.
87
88
Manage all projects within
a unified environment
Altium Designer provides a single, unified environment for the creation and
management of all of the different project types that go to make up your
complete electronic product.
The different project types exist in their own right and can be worked on
independently, but are linked in a logical way. Because Altium Designer
understands the structural links between projects, it can intelligently and
automatically manage the flow of essential data between them.
Change the pin assignment of an FPGA at the board level, for instance, and
Altium Designer understands that this data must be synchronized with the
PCB source schematics and with the FPGA project constraints that drive
FPGA place and route. You don‟t need to manually propagate this data
between different design environments.
Similarly, when you add memory or peripheral hardware to a processor within
an FPGA project, Altium Designer can automatically generate the C header
files necessary to address this hardware within the software project.
With Altium Designer, the ability to create and link within a single
environment all of the different projects that go to make up your final
product design brings design efficiencies.
89
Managing all your
design documents
A single electronic product development project can generate literally hundreds of
design-related documents. And each document can go through many revisions
during the course of the development process.
As designs grow in complexity, so does the need to systematically track and
control the storage and revision of design documents. Increasingly organizations
are implementing document version control systems to manage this process.
Altium Designer can interface to any third-party version control system that
supports the Source Code Control Interface (SCCI), Concurrent Versions System
(CVS) or Subversion (SVN) standards. This includes commercial systems such as
Microsoft Visual SourceSafe and most popular open source version control
applications.
From within Altium Designer you can add design documents to any specified
repository within the version control system and perform all common version
control tasks such as document check-in and version labeling.
Even if you don‟t have a full version control system operating within your
organization, Altium Designer allows you to easily track the history of documents
within a project at a local level. Each time you save a file, Altium Designer will
automatically store a copy of the original file to create a full history of the
document changes. You can label milestone versions and add comments to the
history files to document changes.
90
Graphically compare PCB &
Schematic documents
Maintaining a document‟s history is one challenge. But being able to
efficiently determine what has changed between versions of a document is
crucial to efficient management of documents during development.
While most version control systems allow you to easily see the differences
between versions of text-based files, graphical documents such as schematic
diagrams and PCB layout files present a whole new set of challenges.
For example, in a PCB layout you may reroute a particular connection in
order to improve signal integrity. On a complex board, spotting this change is
almost impossible by visually comparing the two documents.
Altium Designer includes a powerful graphical differencing engine that allows
you to compare file versions on a spatial basis, as well as on the connectivity
level.
The comparison features are fully-integrated with Altium Designer‟s storage
management and versioning facilities, allowing you to easily compare your
current document with versions in the local history or version control
repository.
The graphical comparison features combine with Altium Designer‟s
comprehensive version control support to provide the capabilities you need
to effectively manage all your design documents.
91
Graphically compare PCB
92
Deploying Altium Designer
At Altium we have taken a unified approach to electronic
product development to provide a system that allows you to
meet the future head on. Altium Designer incorporates all of
the capabilities needed for both today‟s and tomorrow‟s
electronic product development challenges.
Altium Designer is a complete and unified solution for
electronic product development. It allows you to take a design
from concept to completion within a single integrated design
environment. When you deploy Altium Designer across your
organization, you not only get the most productive design
system available, you also get the security of knowing that
Altium is committed, at every level, to ensuring your complete
success.
93
More than what's in the box
Altium belief that every engineer, designer and developer should
have access to the best possible design tools.
When you purchase an Altium Designer license we maximize
your return on investment by giving you free access to regularly-
released service packs.
These service packs bring new technologies, additional device
support and enhanced features to your Altium Designer system.
The Altium Library Development Center continuously develops
new and updated libraries under its ISO 9000-certified quality
assurance program.
These libraries are freely available to all Altium Designer
customers, and ensure you have unrestricted access to the latest
electronic components, packaging technologies and device
models.
94
Altium Library Development Center
Provide a value-added and "free" service that is available to
all customers.
Continuously improve the quality of all published
component model data to a level that will ultimately change
the customer's attitude towards using supplied component
models.
Increase the output of the Center without sacrificing quality.
Develop an independent and scalable team oriented Center.
Continue compliance and accreditation with ISO 9001
standard.
95
Support
When you invest in a design system from Altium, you get
the support you need to use that design system successfully.
We believe free support should be available to all Altium
customers as part of each license and not tied to some
mandatory high-cost maintenance contract.
Altium's professional and skilled engineers are ready to
support your queries. Licensed users are entitled to high
quality free support via email. Optionally phone support
can be purchased.
96
Online resources
The Knowledge Base gives you instant access to an ever
expanding database of articles about current technical
issues, tips and other up to date information.
Learning guides will give you step-by-step explanations on
how to get the most out of your design environment.
Tutorials are available for both basic operations for those
who want to quickly get started and advanced tutorials and
whitepapers for the experienced user.
97
Flexible training resources
We help your engineers, designers and developers get the most from their
Altium Designer system by offering a complete range of structured training
resources.
The training starts as soon as you install the software. Invoke the online
Knowledge Center built into the software, and a dynamically-updated panel
provides interactive and context-sensitive guidance on the operation of the
system.
The online Knowledge Center tracks what you are doing and provides
specific help with your current task. You can also access the extensive Altium
Designer documentation library for more in-depth information on the
features and concepts within the system.
Altium Designer also comes with a vast array of examples that demonstrate
the capabilities of the system. Examples range from simple circuits designed
to highlight specific features, through to complete reference designs that
cover the entire development process.
To complement the learning resources within the software, the Altium
website hosts extensive, free, downloadable training materials to allow your
engineers to train themselves at minimum cost, and then extend this training
to others in the organization.
98
Altium Designer System Requirements
Minimum system requirements for acceptable performance
Windows 2000 Professional SP2
1.8GHz processor
1 GByte RAM
2 GByte hard disk space (Install + User Files)
Main monitor 1280x1024 screen resolution
Strongly recommended: second monitor with minimum 1024x768
screen resolution
32-bit color, 32 MB graphics card
Parallel port (if connecting to a NanoBoard-NB1)
99
Altium Designer System Requirements
Recommended system for optimal performance
Windows XP (Professional or Home)
3 GHz Pentium 4 processor or equivalent
1 GByte RAM
2 GByte hard disk space (Install + User Files)
Dual monitors with 1280x1024 screen resolution
32-bit color, 64 MB graphics card
Parallel port (if connecting to a NanoBoard-NB1)
100
The END
101
