Content area
Full Text
Beefed-up Cadence Specctra, new PADS BlazeRouter vie for attention of PADS Software user base
MARLBORO, MASS. -A battle of autorouters for the large PADS Software user base is shaping up at this week's PCB East show here, as both PADS and Cadence Design Systems roll out routing technology and pricing incentives. Other notable introductions include Intercept Technology's Linux support, HP EEsof's online parts library and Viewlogic's modeling support for Xilinx FPGAs.
PADS Software this week will launch BlazeRouter, a shape-- based, "angle-free" autorouter that appears destined to compete with Cadence's Specctra autorouter. At present, PADS Software layout systems ship with various versions of Specctra. As a defensive move, Cadence is offering PADS users a free upgrade to a six-layer Specctra router, and adding performance features as well.
Both companies are making broader technology announcements. BlazeRouter is the first product built on top of Latium, a new database architecture that promises tight integration among PADS Software products. Cadence is touting tight integration between the OrCAD and Cadence product lines, productivity enhancements to Allegro and support for "source-- synchronous" topologies with SpecctraQuest.
Rick Almeida, vice president of marketing at PADS Software, described Latium as "a set of tools on top of a database" that tightly links schematic entry, simulation and pc-board layout-even if those products have their own databases. That allows the tools to share the same design constraints and ensures that changes made in layout, for instance, are immediately reflected in the schematic.
Latium will support all PADS tools within the next two years, Almeida said. Its features include a context-sensitive help system, a "scanner technology" that trims the size of databases for display or analysis, animation refresh rates of 24 frames per second and a "command window" that uses Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Meanwhile, PADS is...