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Envision – what's new, changing and over the horizon     Welcome to the September 2009 issue of Envision, our regularly updated collection of insights, news and views from Altium. In this installment read how to turbocharge embedded designs, and find out why the 'real thing' is a better path than simulation. We also raise the curtain on the radical new NanoBoard 3000 system, and tell how a custom design house dug deep to meet a seemingly impossible deadline – plus more.       Don’t simulate – make it real     Design simulation has its benefits, but it’s not necessarily the best approach when designing complex, interconnected electronic products. By using the reconfigurable nature of FPGAs, complete systems can be developed and finalized in a live ‘breadboarding’ environment, without the need for extensive simulation. Read the full story       Introducing the radical, new NanoBoard 3000     The latest addition to Altium’s growing family of NanoBoards, the NB3000, is the ideal way to dive into the new world of FPGA-based soft design. It's very affordable and has everything you need for advanced FPGA-based design 'out of the box', including a license for Altium Designer. Read the full story       When a tight design meets a tight deadline     In the unpredictable world of contract engineering, each new design project throws up a completely different set of challenges. When landed with very complex, high-performance design to complete in just four weeks, design house Knowledge Resources needed to pull something out of the hat. Read the full story       Virtual conference tackles SoC design options   Altium’s US president Gerry Gaffney delivered a keynote address on the virtues of FPGA-based SoC design at a recent EE Times virtual conference. The conference pitched FPGAs against traditional ASICs as the best path forward, but what came out on top? Read about the outcome     What are we doing, right now?   See what’s happening at Altium, in real-time. Follow us on twitter to find out about the latest news, events, videos and design tutorials. There’s so much going on, can we actually condense it to 140 characters or less?

SEPTEMBER TECH TIP Turbocharge embedded designs Did you know you can easily generate embedded hardware from C source code to gain the performance advantage of dedicated FPGA logic? Here’s a look at how software functions can be pushed into the fabric of FPGA logic – it’s yet another advantage of ‘soft’ design.   The summer 09 release of Altium Designer This new release delivers more mechanical board layers, even more refined embedded software development, streamlined licence management, extended live links to parts suppliers, plus a whole lot more. It continues the processes of keeping you plugged into the a continuous stream of new features and technology.   Taking the plunge The new wave of electronics design opens up enormous possibilities to all engineers: soft design, interactive LiveDesign, high-level design capture, plus much more. But where to begin? Find out in the Getting Started Wiki, or let our Quick Start videos put you the picture.   Meet the Envision team There are real people behind the creation of Envision, and we've stopped hiding.

	KEEP IN TOUCH No matter where you are in the development process, we're here to help. Contact Altium in your region at www.altium.com/buy/contactus	COMMENTS Questions or comments regarding Envision? Email us at envision@altium.com WANT MORE? Previous issues of Envision are available at www.altium.com/community/newsletters	SUBSCRIBEReceived this link from a friend or colleague? Subscribe to Envision at any time at www.altium.com/envision