Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1417991
OCTOBER 2021 I DESIGN007 MAGAZINE 31 ey appreciate that speed in getting solutions that the industry needs. Clark: Another reason why ODB++ is widely adopted, from a developer's viewpoint, is in the way the ODB++ format is managed. Anytime there is a minor or update release of ODB++, it has to remain backward compatible to the originating major release. A soware prod- uct, if the developer developed their soware wisely—we can't guarantee that, but wisely— and we add new functionality, new structure to the format, if they simply ignore that new con- tent and structure, their products will continue to function. at's very important, otherwise, every time there is a format update you have to be concerned and wait for full adoption. e ODB++ version 8 now has been out for about four or five years, and I can take an ODB++ file that's generated on our current version of application or out of another ODB++ sup- ported application and read it back into older versions of our Valor NPI and it would just work because we guarantee that backward compatibility at the format level. Once I go to, say, ODB++ version 9, then all gloves are off. at's when we make our most drastic changes, and then my life of having to live with that format and maintain its backward compatibility continues. We try to keep that kind of a change limited because we know that it's time-consuming and costly for the indus- try to turn on a dime just because there is a new revision of a format. Feinberg: at's so true, and I wish a lot of peo- ple in the computer industry and the soware industry would take that to heart. Clark: Right. It always surprises people when I take a file that I just generated in today's application, I start up a version of our prod- uct that might be five years old, and it just goes in. at's what we strive for. If we find something that's broken, then we have to try to figure out what went wrong. We consider that a failure. It's something that we view as very impor- tant and when we define the format, we must take that into very careful consideration. As Pat said, when we look at something for a customer, whether it's something that we could do, it's not always just that we can't do it. It's just that we can't do it without break- ing the format, so we have to wait. I could give you an example: components with leads on both sides. e ODB++ format doesn't sup- port that today. As soon as we put component leads at the top, all the generations of so- ware out there will break. All soware pro- viders will need to address having leads on both sides of the board or at least support that when ODB++ is encountered. at type of introduction needs to be carefully considered with the industry at large. In Valor products, we will always be able to support current and one-down revision of ODB++ that we can continue to work with what we currently have as the format and don't break the downward exchange of ODB++ because that would be devastating. That's why we always support at least one version of ODB++ downward because we know that people are going to run into this. McGoff: Current version minus one. Clark: Right, that's our standard. Shaughnessy: is has been very insightful. McGoff: ank you, Andy. DESIGN007 Patrick McGoff is market development manager, and Max Clark is business unit manager, at Siemens Digital Industries Software.