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Nothing hurts more than doing everything right in a hardware design, only for your board to fail because of a single footprint. I’ve been through this, so don’t repeat my mistakes. Learn how to manage ECAD libraries for consistent PCB layout design. Key Takeaways A single mismatched footprint can cost weeks of delay, $20,000 in lost production, and a client relationship. Even minor oversights can destroy trust and schedules. Disorganization...

Processors allowing implementation of custom logic have traditionally been physically very large and difficult to develop. This has normally been appropriate because they are used for chip prototyping or to build application processors for embedded systems requiring high I/O count and compute resources. To help engineers balance between system size, cost, and development effort, this article gives a comparison of the options for building digital...

Making an ASIC the traditional way is no easy task, but now designers can take control of their component designs with programmable logic. There are three options for designing ASICs: CPLDs, FPGAs, or mixed-signal processors. These three approaches allow a designer to essentially create a custom processor which can even be programmed on the fly. If none of the available off-the-shelf component options work for your system, which type of...

An increasing number of developers are starting to run Linux natively on their machines. This becomes a point of frustration when they discover tools, such as Altium Designer (included in Altium Develop and Altium Agile), are not available for Linux. Fortunately, you can run the full Windows version of Altium Designer inside Linux with a little bit of a compromise. In this article, we’re going to walk through getting Altium Designer running...

For PCB designs that require multiple microcontrollers, microprocessors, or FPGAs, power/boot sequencing can be a key factor in getting everyone to work in unison. In this article, we’re going to revisit the self-organizing MCUs example aspect of Shrinking Arduino Projects: Atmega328P and Nothing More. Rather than manually boot up each Atmega328P device with jumper wires, we will be using the Renesas GreenPAK kit to automatically perform the...

PCB design reviews encompass many parts of a design, ranging from basic circuits to manufacturability. For high-speed digital systems, a design review needs to be more specific and focus on areas that are not typically covered in standard manufacturability reviews. The tools and process required to fully review a high-speed PCB design for signal integrity depends on the exact interfaces present in the design, but comparing against some rules of...

Semiconductor resilience now hinges on data-driven intelligence. As the AI "supercycle" accelerates, procurement teams must leverage up-to-date insights to manage ongoing component scarcity.  The World Semiconductor Trade Statistics projects a 15.4% rise in global semiconductor revenue, reaching US$728 billion for the full year. Deloitte and ING estimate that more than US$150 billion of that growth is tied to AI-centric chips.  Octopart is...

Every procurement team knows that even the best sourcing plans can fall apart if components aren’t available at the right time and price. Delays, stock shortages, and inflated quotes can disrupt production schedules, and scattered sources of information only make it harder to respond quickly. Octopart makes that process easier. Octopart is a free, all-inclusive parts and solutions database that includes a robust BOM Tool. It provides you with the...

If you've worked on rigid-flex circuit design, you know it’s all about trade-offs. You're combining a number of rigid sections and flexible interconnects, dealing with tight spaces, bend areas, material transitions, and a whole host of mechanical considerations that simply don't arise in standard rigid board design. And then, somewhere in the midst of a dense component area or a real estate-constrained area, the question comes up: Can I just use...