One tool to join them

It’s the first time a single tool has crossed all three domains, according to the company, and is intended to increase productivity in the development of bespoke BGA and LGA packaging.

The impact of package design on a PCB, or vice versa, means that today engineers rely on hand-crafted solutions such as moving design data around in spreadsheets. The fact that there isn’t a standard way to interface the individual tools means it’s an area of EDA that has, historically, benefited from little or no automation. This tool, Xpedition Package Integrator flow, allows design data to be passed between the tools, and enables engineers to optimise the design of any stage and have any changes made propagate throughout all the designs.

The flow tool plugs in to the existing point-tools using a vendor-neutral file format, which means it will work with Mentor’s tools but also its competitors. Early beta customers cited the tool’s ability to optimise paths and illustrate net lists as a good enough reason to invest in the tool. It effectively brings visualisation to a process that is today achieved using spreadsheets.