Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1004549
30 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I JULY 2018 Musto: When we look at roadmaps, the func- tionality we have today is incredibly power- ful and capable of addressing the most com- plex design challenges. As I just outlined, we want to bring this powerful functionality to the design engineer in a way that delivers the full power of capability but in an environment that is easy to use, well integrated with other design disciplines, and offers scalability as their needs increase. Understanding that the design engi- neer doesn't work in the tools every day, they have to be well integrated, consistent use- model and intuitive. I think, however, trading off core capability for usability is detrimental in the long run. Those are the things that we're looking at. How do we provide a more streamlined use model flow for our customers? If they're going to be "casually" using the tool, they need to be able to get in and quickly get back to a high degree of productivity. Another initiative and focus area is to move, or shift-left, verification processes directly into the design tool itself, enabling the designer or engineer to catch potential issues much earlier in the design flow. As an example, we acquired a company, Valydate, about a year and a half ago. They provide the ability for full schematic verification using electrical model-based ele- ments. It's completely different than what's been done in the past with schematic verifi- cation. Xpedition Valydate schematic integrity analysis is performed in parallel with design capture, with errors highlighted directly in the schematic, eliminating the need to do tedious manual checking that is often done today. We are also doing the same for our entire suite of verification products, such as DFT, DFR, sig- nal/power integrity, and DFM. DFM is a prime example of an area that is unfamiliar to the engineer, since an engineer using a PCB design tool a few times a year is just not going to have the knowledge to understand the full set of manufacturing requirements. Shaughnessy: You said that EEs might not understand manufacturing. I'm hearing sto- ries about some companies that will hire EE grads, maybe top of their class, and find that they don't know much, if anything, about PCB design. Is it just a different skill set? Musto: Definitely. PCB design is a skill set that requires knowledge of many areas in order to do well. As a result, I think we're going to have to maintain a PCB design specialist function in the broader community. I believe they're going to be driven more toward consultant roles to deal specifically with these kinds of issues, because a design engineer, even if you train them, doesn't really have a focus in these areas. Engineers care about getting a functional prod- uct at the end of their flow, so the intricacies of PCB fabrication is not on their "care-about" Image provided coutesy of Mentor