Two weeks from now, in the heart of the Silicon Valley, many of the top design firms and printed circuit board professionals will be attending DesignCon 2010.  Held at the Santa Clara Convention Center from February 1st-4th, this show promises to be a very valuable event for many.  Already the line-up of exhibitors is impressive, with exhibitors ranging from small consulting firms such as The Bogatin Group, to large, multi-national companies like Tyco Electronics.   See the full list here.
I have spoken with several individuals in the last few weeks …

The printed circuit board (PCB) industry is vital to manufacturers of computing components, automotive parts, cellular phones, flat-screen television displays and other devices considered essential to our modern lifestyles.
In addition to a large number of PCB enterprises in Taiwan, many PCB operations are located in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces.
Among them are leading PCB makers earning hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenues and employing thousands of workers.
They also spend huge sums on environmental protection, including the disposal of manufacturing wastes from production processes and everyday operations.
The major pollution …

Altium Goes for the Masses
Breaking the EDA Mold… Again

by Kevin Morris, FPGA and Structured ASIC Journal

This week, Altium is introducing a new model for the purchase of electronic design tools, in an attempt to create a grass-roots revolution that will change the nature of the electronic design automation (EDA) market.  For the past several years, Altium has been marching to a different drummer – focusing on an integrated desktop design tool suite that spans the gamut of electronic design from system-level specification to board and …