Altium
Next generation electronics design solutions
Altium has thrown out a lifeline
Electronics design technologies and the electronics industry are rapidly changing, and those that don't tap into these changes run the risk of being left behind. The rise of globalized electronics manufacture and design, increasingly ‘connected' product designs and new technologies mean that more complex designs need to be brought to market more easily.
The electronics design process itself has also fundamentally changed. More developers are involved in the process, design disciplines have merged, cross-team collaboration has become essential, and software-centric design now defines the functional value of electronic products. It all points to a fundamental shift in the approach to design, where the final product and end user experience are now the first and primary concern.
The next generation of electronic products will not be isolated, stand-alone devices. They will be smart devices connected to wider product ecosystems that provide a user experience that goes way beyond the manufactured hardware.
To create these products, designers need a solution that allows them to focus on the whole of the design task, not just fragmented bits of it. OrCAD® Capture and other traditional point-tool solutions, no matter how ‘integrated' to other point tools they purport to be, have long ago reached the limits of their ability to cope with this new generation of electronics design.
Design creativity and the innovation it delivers are constrained by the old ‘divide and conquer' paradigm of point tool solutions, which attempt to divide the complexity of today's designs into manageable chunks. The end result is a range of loosely connected, specialized tools that force designers to cope with a myriad of different interfaces, incompatible data structures and conflicting design methodologies.
It's a design environment and approach that does not, and cannot, support successful electronic product design into the future. But with Altium, you now have the opportunity to start designing next generation electronic products using a holistic approach to the development task.
An affordable new path
Altium is now providing a powerful alternative for front-end electronics designers that lets you reach into new areas of design and stay relevant in this fast changing industry. It's a custom board front-end option that makes your future secure with a low risk path into Altium's unified design solution.
Altium's solution elevates product development beyond the confines of the product electronics itself. It lets you create functionality in both the soft and hard features of a product design, and easily link that product to wider, connected ecosystems. Using this single application design environment, you have the freedom to explore ideas and to focus on functionality right from the start of the design process, independent of the ultimate hardware chosen to deploy the product.
The ability to do this is critical to answer the challenges posed by today's tech-savvy, internet generation. It is also the path to future-proofing your design skills and the competitive prospects of your company.
Pioneer the new wave of electronics
To compete into the future it's crucial that designers have access to the tools and technologies they need. To make this possible Altium has priced Altium Designer's custom board front-end design license to eliminate any barrier to deploying the solution throughout organizations, large or small.
It's also in Altium's interests for all designers to have access to this technology. We want designers to be free to innovate and create products that are going to lead the market. And we know you will, if you're not forced to remain stuck in the past without access to the latest resources and technologies (whether that is hardware, programmable hardware or software).
Altium Designer provides the latest technology, and allows ‘soft' design to become the center of electronic product development where all members of the design team can plug into a single design environment. It also allows you to easily explore concepts, new devices and technologies without committing to hardware, then when ready, rapidly take them into custom board design and out to manufacture.
The high-level, unified design approach also provides the opportunity for you to expand your existing set of skills by reaching into the other domains. Backed by Altium's renowned technical support, its online help and training resources, and Altium Designer's unified OrCAD design importers, you'll soon be developing the competitive, connected products of the future.
Altium Designer's custom board front-end design solution for both board-level and programmable logic design is available for the subscription price of US$49 per month, purchased in 12-month blocks. As with the full implementation option of Altium Designer, this subscription model plugs designers into Altium's twice-yearly release stream, so you can remain up to date with technology and trends. A perpetual license option is also available at $995.
Project shown in OrCAD® Capture (left) and project shown in Altium Designer (right)
Pricing and availability
Altium Designer is unique because it unifies the usually separate processes of electronics design. It supports a holistic design approach that lets electronics designers consider the user experience ahead of any design decision. You can then harness the latest devices and technologies, manage projects across broad design ‘ecosystems', and create connected, intelligent designs - all within a single application.
Altium Designer is available via the newly-announced purchasing options:
Custom Board Front-End Engineering License:
- US$49 per month purchased as a 12 month contract, totaling US$588 per year per user license
- US$995 per perpetual user license
Full Custom Board Design License:
- US$195 per month purchased as a 12 month contract, totaling US$2,340 per year per user license
- US$3,995 per perpetual user license
A complimentary viewer license is also available that provides for quick, easy and secure read-only exploration of design projects and documents that have been created using Altium Designer
Altium has also reduced the price of its desktop NanoBoard NB2, its reconfigurable development platform, which can be used with the front-end engineering option by designers who don't require custom-board design and layout capabilities. It now costs US$1,995.
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Find out more at www.altium.com
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