Altium looks to redefi ne
PCB design
CLOUD-BASED APP WILL REDEFINE PCB DEVELOPMENT. NEIL TYLER REPORTS
Altium has launched a new cloud-based application that looks to rede ne the way that printed
circuit board designs are shared between designers, part suppliers, and manufacturers.
The A365 Viewer, powered by the Altium 365 cloud platform, is a new way to view and share
electronic designs through a browser on any web-enabled desktop, phone or tablet. Schematics,
PCB layout, and 3D visualization provide an interactive eCAD experience with no downloads or
installations required. The A365 Viewer is part of Altium’s cloud strategy and newly launched
Altium 365 cloud platform.
Designers have usually been forced to share their PCB designs through PDFs or static
images. With the new A365 Viewer, an interactive experience is created that retains all of the
key relevant information that’s typically lost when sharing static les. For example, the A365
Viewer allows users to search for, select, cross-probe and inspect components and nets while
moving seamlessly between schematic, PCB and 3D views of their board.
Using the A365 Viewer requires no CAD tools or experience. It has been designed to work
with multiple eCAD formats, currently supporting Autodesk Eagle and Altium Designer. Other
popular PCB design software formats will be supported in the near future.
The A365 Viewer protects the IP rights of design owners while retaining the CAD design
details via a new process called Published
Design Impression (PDI). The Viewer processes
the design source les to create a Published
Design Impression, or PDI. The PDI is a CADaware,
perishable snapshot of the design
that captures limited information such as
components, net connectivity and basic
geometrics, excluding design primitive data
that would be required to fully comprehend
and author changes to the design.
The design sources are discarded
immediately after being used solely for
the purpose of creating a PDI. The design
is available for the duration of the user’s
browser session and is automatically
removed when the browser tab is closed.
UK government
‘neglecting
industrial strategy’
In a critical report, the Industrial Strategy
Council (ISC), the watchdog set up to monitor
progress with the government’s industrial
strategy, has said the government’s support
of key sectors of the economy had made
only limited progress since it was unveiled
three years ago.
The strategy comprises about £45bn of
government funds that has been committed
to plans to improve the quality and scale of
housing, transport, digital infrastructure and
research and development.
The ISC report warns that much of the
funding is too narrowly focused and that the
majority of the 142 policies in the strategy
have received very limited funding, or no
funds at all.
In a rebuke to ministers, the report said:
“As a result, they are very unlikely
to be operating at a scale
necessary to have a material
impact on the economy.”
The watchdog said it
remained unclear whether
the strategy had led to policy
being better coordinated
across government.
Andy Haldane, the ISC
chair, said: “An effective
industrial strategy is central
to tackling some of the deepseated
structural challenges
facing the UK economy. At
present, these policies are
not yet operating with the
consistency and coordination, nor with the
scale, necessary to meet these challenges.”
The strategy has faced criticism for a
lack of progress from employers groups,
while within the government itself there are
growing calls that the industrial strategy
should be dropped altogether.
Samsung wins 5nm modem chip contract with Qualcomm
Reports suggest that Samsung Electronics’
semiconductor manufacturing division has
won a contract to make Qualcomm’s latest
5G chips using its most advanced chip-making
technology.
According to sources, Samsung will
fabricate at least some of Qualcomm’s X60
modem chips, which will connect devices
such as smart phones to 5G wireless data
networks. The X60 will be made on Samsung’s
5-nanometer process, the sources said, which
makes the chips smaller and more poweref
cient than previous generations.
TSMC is also expected to fabricate
5-nanometer modems for Qualcomm.
Samsung is the world’s second-biggest
chip manufacturer through its foundry division,
self-supplying many of its own mobile phone
parts and also fabricating chips for customers
including IBM and Nvidia, and if this report is
accurate it suggests that it’s making progress
in winning new customers.
Qualcomm would represent a agship
customer for Samsung’s 5-nanometer
manufacturing technology, which it is looking
to ramp up in 2020. According to TrendForce,
Samsung currently has a 17.8% market share
of the fabrication market.
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