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toolsZONE Products for the week of July 14, 2008
EMA Design Automation Says…
Cadence Design Systems OrCAD Capture CIS users now have access to the engineering data offered in the Digi-Key part database
"Bringing Digi-Key data into the OrCAD environment means our customers have over one million orderable parts on the design desktop and available during part selection," said Manny Marcano, President and CEO of EMA Design Automation. "Not only does this give them accurate information at their fingertips, but it streamlines the purchasing process by providing correct part numbers as part of the design engineering process."
The Digi-Key part database provides a number of benefits to both design engineers and companies in general.
- Parts can be ordered online 24/7 and received the next day
- Digi-Key is a reliable source of parts that companies trust
- All parametric data, RoHS compliance status, and mechanical dimensions are available
- Pricing and in-stock quantity information helps control costs and ensures part availability
"Building on our success of having the number one website in our industry, we decided to make our web data available so that EMA could get our parts in front of engineers at the point of part selection," said Mark Larson, President and COO at Digi-Key. "We think that this is unique in the industry and a significant step towards changing the way companies select parts for their products."
EMA integrated the Digi-Key database into OrCAD Capture CIS by creating the EMA Component Information Portal (CIP). CIP is a web-based solution that can be deployed enterprise-wide, providing access to the Component Information System (CIS) behind OrCAD Capture CIS. CIP provides engineering and procurement with a more effective way to update the CIS database. CIP provides a user interface for users to provide new part requests and modifications for corporate approval.
With the addition of the Digi-Key interface, those new part requests can now come directly from Digi-Key along with all related part information. Furthermore, EMA also offers enterprise integration, allowing the CIS database to hold data from external systems such as ERP, MRP, PLM, and PDM. CIP becomes an easy to use, single source that combines engineering data with enterprise information.
EN-Genius Says…
I've been an OrCAD enthusiast since the days of the first Oregon-CAD product rollout running under MS-DOS on a 20-MHz 8086. Working in one- and two-man shops, I've also ordered many a component from Digi-Key, and have enjoyed reasonably fast service and delivery. For me, this marriage announcement of the Digi-Key catalog with Cadence OrCAD is evolutionary and exciting. Tempus fugit. Look how far we've come in the past two decades.
The latest spin of OrCAD PCB Designer Basics gives you a PC-hosted toolset for taking a complex design from concept right through to production. In addition to schematic capture and board place-and-route, it has hooks to mechanical CAD and manufacturing tools. In the tradition of the original OrCAD, it also includes translators from other PCB systems.
Base Products
As one of a number of Cadence OrCAD offerings at many levels, OrCAD PCB Designer (sans Basics) goes a step or two further than PCB Designer Basics. PCB Designer is a scalable tool that additionally gives you an auto-router and/or an interactive router.
Moving up the ladder, there's OrCAD PCB Designer with PSpice. It includes all the capabilities of OrCAD PCB Designer as well as circuit simulation. Another step up is OrCAD EE Designer, a front-end design tool for schematic entry and circuit simulation and analysis. It includes OrCAD Capture schematic entry and one-button Spice circuit simulation as well as cross-probing.
Ultimately, top-of-the-line OrCAD EE Designer Plus has all of the features and capabilities of OrCAD EE Designer, with an additional PSpice Advanced Analysis package. This lets you do advanced sensitivity analysis and circuit optimization. EE Designer Plus also supports Monte Carlo yield analysis and so-called smoke stress tests.
Enter CIS
The latest CIS (Component Information System) puts an appealing layer of useful content into these OrCAD tools. Having the ability to call up parts from a windowed selection of a million components from Digi-Key is really nifty. You can immediately check device availability, pricing, and look at electrical parameters and mechanical dimensions, and do that on an ongoing basis as your OrCAD-generated schematic and board evolves.
 Component images can be displayed, too, and downloaded into your CIS database. The package additionally generates a bill of materials. Having a BOM in hand can prove useful for documentation as well as for ordering parts. Best of all is that you'll know your information database is based on current availability and correct part numbers.
What's more, OrCAD Capture CIS gives you the option to create temporary parts that can be used as placeholders. Such parts often have to go through internal review processes, with inputs from folks in purchasing, manufacturing, and documentation, to name a few. With the Digi-Key integration into OrCAD, a lot of administrivia and overhead can be reduced. New parts that are added can be immediately listed, and you will know if they're purchasable and at what price point. You can also tell right away if a component is RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) compliant.
Key to all of this CIS capability is something EMA Design Automation calls CIP. The Component Information Portal is a Web-based interface that accesses the parts database in CIS. The CIS database can also hold data from external systems like ERP (enterprise resource planning), MRP (material requirements planning), PLM (product lifecycle management), and PDM (product data management).
All in all, it looks like OrCAD Capture CIS pulls it all together like never before. While Digi-Key may not be the be-all and end-all when it comes to distributors, its million-part inventory isn't too shabby. The OrCAD product enjoys a long successful track record. This spin promises to make it just that much better.
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