CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive

14 July 2003

Product News

Mentor Graphics Offers PADS Suites for Front-to-Back PCB Design for Ready-to-Use Market

Mentor Graphics Corporation announced the availability of the PADS® suites, which provide complete, front-to-back, Windows-based PCB system design flows.

The PADS suites include new features designed to help users gain immediate productivity benefits, such as a new OrCADT translator for an easy migration to the PADS environment, an improved component library that eliminates the need for time-consuming library creation and the availability of online training that allows designers to learn how to use the tools from their own desktop. With pricing for the new PADS suites starting under $4,000, Mentor Graphics is making these integrated flows of newly enhanced products accessible to the fast growing "ready-to-use" market segment.

Mentor also announced it has expanded its sales channel for the PADS suites to enhance the company's reach to the ready-to-use market segment with the addition of three new resellers in the United States, Canada and Russia.

"We're the number one provider of PCB solutions worldwide. Our technology leadership means our tools meet the design challenges of every PCB designer," said Joe Dalton, director of marketing, Systems Design Division, Mentor Graphics. "While it appears other companies are divesting their technology, products and channels in the fast growing ready-to-use market, we are increasing our investment in this area. Our new OrCAD translator was designed to make sure no designers in this market segment are left behind."

The PADS suites are available in three configurations, the PADS PET, PADS XET and PADS SET, with increasing functionality to support a variety of design needs from individuals to small teams. The PADS PE includes design definition, layout and autorouting capabilities. The PADS XE Suite adds analog simulation and signal integrity analysis functionality. For users who require advanced high-speed capabilities, PADS SE also includes the ability to enter advanced constraints and interactive routing of high-speed signals (e.g. differential pairs, min/max length and matched lengths).

"I believe the PADS suites represent a tremendous value for PCB design. The tight integration of proven products like the PADS DesignerT tool and the PADS PowerPCB® tool along with signal integrity and analog simulation, provide me with a competitive advantage by getting it right the first time with ease of use and depth of functionality-all at such attractive prices. This will put Mentor head and shoulders over the competition," said Michael R. Creeden, CID+ Advanced Certified IPC Designer, San Diego PCB, Inc.

In addition to the new competitive packages and pricing, the PADS PCB design solutions include enhanced versions of the PADS tools, which offer greater ease-of-use, enhanced design performance and reliability and improved integration. The new OrCAD translator allows users to translate OrCAD schematic and library data into the PADS Designer environment, allowing new customers to reuse their design data. The PADS suites also include a core component library of symbols, footprints and parametric data that allows customers to install the product and start designing without first investing resources in library development. Mentor Graphics is working with partners to ensure that the library is high quality, has a large volume of supported components, and is updated regularly. As part of Mentor's ongoing commitment to delivering scalable design solutions to serve the needs of small design shops to global enterprises, the PADS suites include the PADS ExpeditionT design translator importing and exporting designs created with either flow.

In addition to the tool's enhanced features, the licensing and installation procedures have also been updated for the PADS suites to improve user's time to productivity. The PADS suites customers will also benefit from new online training that will allow them to become familiar with the tools without the added expense of travel. Customers can also leverage Mentor's global customer support organization. Mentor Graphics offers customer support solutions online, by phone and in-person.

The new PADS suites are available immediately and are priced starting at a U.S. list price of $3,495 for PADS PE. More information is available at http://www.mentor.com/pads/purchasing_info.html .

Mentor Graphics has established relationships with the following resellers to sell the PADS solutions:

•  Atlantic EDA Solutions, LLC covers Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., and Maryland. http://www.atlanticedasolutions.com/.

•  ECADware LLC covers all of Southern California and Nevada with sales offices in El Segundo, San Diego and Irvine. http://www.ecadware.com/.

•  J-Squared Technologies covers Canada with offices in Kanata, Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver. http://www.jsquared.com/.

•  Megratec Ltd. provides sales and support for all PADS products in Russia with a sales office in Moscow. http://www.megratec.ru/ .

For a complete listing of where to buy the PADS design solutions, visit: http://www.mentor.com/pads/purchasing_info.html

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