About Author

Mark Forbes

Mark Forbes is Director of Product and Persona Marketing at Altium. He has been involved with marketing PCB design software for the last 11 years. He has also worked in the semiconductor space, networks, embedded software design, and was editor of an electronics trade magazine.

Mark earned a BS in Electrical Engineering from Bradley University and did MBA work at the University of Santa Clara. He has two patents and has written more than 130 technical and business articles as well as three books, including a digital electronics textbook. In his spare time, Mark enjoys photography, hiking, fishing and travelling.

Recent Articles

Risk Management for Embedded Software Development

Risk Management for Embedded Software Development Find out how embedded software development companies can take advantage of the exploding ADAS and autonomous driving market while reducing business risk by following these best practices. What do successful downhill skiers, Formula One racers, and mountain climbers have in common? They learn as much as they can about their sport and they use the very best equipment available. By taking this approach, they transform pure risk into calculated risk Read Article

Overcoming the Challenges with Rigid Flex Design

Overcoming the Challenges with Rigid Flex Design There is no question that wearable electronic devices qualify as “break-out products”. The market for wearables is forecasted to be $30 billion in 2016 and will grow to $150 billion by 2026[1]. Most of these devices are simply impossible without rigid-flex PCB design technology. This means that engineers and PCB designers need to become experts in designing, testing, and manufacturing in a wearable and “foldable” world. The most familiar products Read Article

Why Would Anyone Migrate from Xpedition Enterprise to Altium Designer?

Why Would Anyone Migrate from Mentor Xpedition Enterprise to Altium Designer? Many users of Xpedition Enterprise didn’t choose it: it was inherited in an acquisition or packaged in a bundle with other products. Now they find they have expensive support costs and many features that they never use. Plus, the tool UI are old and tired, making design more time consuming than it should be. Moving to Altium Designer^® gives you a modern, efficient and unified UI, fast and efficient routing, and superior data management. A few Read Article

Choosing a Compiler for Automotive Applications

Choosing a Compiler for Automotive Applications Figure 1: The “car of the future” isn’t that far in the future! Compiler Capabilities for Automotive Applications Compiler capabilities are not equal across offerings in the automotive industry. Some compilers are built on Open Source compilers. At first glance, these look capable and inexpensive. However, those two words seldom go together in the same sentence, and certainly not here. While they are inexpensive, they have some major Read Article

Structuring Your Design Data Management to Avoid Design Missteps

Structuring Your Design Data Management to Avoid Design Missteps When it comes to PCB design, one very important aspect of the overall process is proper data management and documentation. While the immediate consequences may not be as apparent, mismanagement of your data can have both a direct and indirect effect on your project and design. Proper implementation of data management and documentation ensures the organization, traceability, accountability and reproducibility of your design data. Read on to learn Read Article

Altium Designer 17 and the Ever-Changing World of PCB Design Software

Altium Designer 17 and the Ever-Changing World of PCB Design Software The big news from Altium’s point of view is Altium Designer^®, an exciting new release of our professional PCB design software. Coincidentally, the release of version 17 occurs at a very newsworthy time with the announcement of a major acquisition in the EDA industry. Altium as a company has always focused on the needs of the PCB design engineers, how to make their job of design easier, and providing a truly unified set of tools that are Read Article