High speed PCB design tools

[Theo Markettos]

Can anyone give recommendations for PCB programs for high speed digital
design? By high speed I mean up to 10Gbps, though relatively simple boards.
I've done 6Gbps in Eagle and it worked, but there was no way to verify the
performance without fabbing the board and measuring it.

It looks like we have some options of:
1. Cadence Allegro Design Authoring, Allegro PCB Designer, Allegro SI/PI, etc
2. Cadence Allegro Designer CIS (OrCAD Capture CIS), Allegro PCB Designer,
Allegro SI/PI, etc
3. Mentor (Expedition, HyperLynx)

(Hope those are the right tools, the vendors have rather too many that are
similarly-named)

Any suggestions for which to look at? This isn't a full time activity, so a
tool which is easy(ier) to pick up as you go along without years of training
would be handy. Cost is not an issue (academic licensing).

Thanks
Theo

 

[David Simpson]

Theo Markettos <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote in
news:Z8y*xl0uu@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk:

Can anyone give recommendations for PCB programs for high speed
digital design? By high speed I mean up to 10Gbps, though relatively
simple boards. I've done 6Gbps in Eagle and it worked, but there was
no way to verify the performance without fabbing the board and
measuring it.

It looks like we have some options of:
1. Cadence Allegro Design Authoring, Allegro PCB Designer, Allegro
SI/PI, etc 2. Cadence Allegro Designer CIS (OrCAD Capture CIS),
Allegro PCB Designer,
Allegro SI/PI, etc
3. Mentor (Expedition, HyperLynx)

(Hope those are the right tools, the vendors have rather too many that
are similarly-named)

Any suggestions for which to look at? This isn't a full time
activity, so a tool which is easy(ier) to pick up as you go along
without years of training would be handy. Cost is not an issue
(academic licensing).

Thanks
Theo

For those speeds, you'll want to use ADS (I forget the full namae) for
routing and simulations. I think Expedition and Allegro can handle those
speeds for 100% digital, but I know ADS can, and in analog, no one
touches them a high speed stuff (analog over ~3GHz).

BTW, ADS designs can be exported to either tool, and you might plan that,
because their drawing tools (fab and assembly) are trully basic, or they
were a few years ago.



--
_______________________________________________
/ David Simpson \
| dsimpson@NOnyxSPAM.net |
| http://www.nyx.net/~dsimpson |
|We got to go to the crappy town where I'm a hero.|
\_______________________________________________/

 

[Theo Markettos]

In sci.electronics.cad David Simpson <d-simpson@comcast.net> wrote:

For those speeds, you'll want to use ADS (I forget the full namae) for
routing and simulations. I think Expedition and Allegro can handle those
speeds for 100% digital, but I know ADS can, and in analog, no one
touches them a high speed stuff (analog over ~3GHz).

Thanks, I presume you mean Agilent Advanced Design System rather than
any part of the Allegro alphabet soup. Looks like they have a university
program, so I'll take a look.

BTW, ADS designs can be exported to either tool, and you might plan that,
because their drawing tools (fab and assembly) are trully basic, or they
were a few years ago.

Useful to know...

Theo

 

[David Simpson]

Theo Markettos <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote in
news:Z8y*bt8uu@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk:

In sci.electronics.cad David Simpson <d-simpson@comcast.net> wrote:
For those speeds, you'll want to use ADS (I forget the full namae)
for routing and simulations. I think Expedition and Allegro can
handle those speeds for 100% digital, but I know ADS can, and in
analog, no one touches them a high speed stuff (analog over ~3GHz).

Thanks, I presume you mean Agilent Advanced Design System rather than
any part of the Allegro alphabet soup. Looks like they have a
university program, so I'll take a look.

I think so, everyone I knew just called it ADS. I do know it's neither
Mentor or Cadence, or wasn't at that time.

BTW, this is VERY high end. As in, if you measure the curcuit after
layout, it will then tell you what/where to trim pads (traces are done
autmaticly) to get a perfect curciut.





--
_______________________________________________
/ David Simpson \
| dsimpson@NOnyxSPAM.net |
| http://www.nyx.net/~dsimpson |
|We got to go to the crappy town where I'm a hero.|
\_______________________________________________/

 

[Susan lama]

On Saturday, March 23, 2013 7:39:39 AM UTC+5:45, Theo Markettos wrote:

Can anyone give recommendations for PCB programs for high speed digital

design? By high speed I mean up to 10Gbps, though relatively simple boards.

I've done 6Gbps in Eagle and it worked, but there was no way to verify the

performance without fabbing the board and measuring it.



It looks like we have some options of:

1. Cadence Allegro Design Authoring, Allegro PCB Designer, Allegro SI/PI, etc

2. Cadence Allegro Designer CIS (OrCAD Capture CIS), Allegro PCB Designer,

Allegro SI/PI, etc

3. Mentor (Expedition, HyperLynx)



(Hope those are the right tools, the vendors have rather too many that are

similarly-named)



Any suggestions for which to look at? This isn't a full time activity, so a

tool which is easy(ier) to pick up as you go along without years of training

would be handy. Cost is not an issue (academic licensing).



Thanks

Theo

Hi Marketos,

you can look at this page for comparision of different EDAs
http://appliedelectronicsengineering.blogspot.com/2013/04/most-popular-pcb-layout.html