Exploring 7 Common EDA Tools for Hardware Design

1. EDA Tools
2. Electronics Design Automation
3. PCB Design Software
4. Protel
5. Altium Designer
6. Cadence
7. KiCad
8. OrCAD
9. MATLAB
10. Electronics Workbench (EWB)

Article:

Electronic Design Automation (EDA) has evolved from concepts like Computer-Aided Design (CAD), Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM), Computer-Aided Testing (CAT), and Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) since the mid-1960s. By the 1990s, countries with advanced electronics and computer technologies actively explored new electronic circuit design methods, leading to significant successes in design methodologies and tools. The widespread adoption of programmable logic devices like CPLDs and FPGAs has brought tremendous flexibility to digital system design.

Applications of EDA Tools: EDA software can generally be categorized into three types: chip design assistance software, programmable chip design assistance software, and system design assistance software. In China, the most influential EDA software falls into the system design assistance and programmable chip design assistance categories, including Protel, Altium Designer, OrCAD, PCAD, LSIIogic, MicroSim, ISE, modelsim, MATLAB, etc. These tools boast robust functionalities, typically facilitating circuit design, simulation, automatic PCB layout, wiring, and compatibility with various netlist formats and third-party software interfaces.

Protel: Protel, introduced by Altium in the late 1980s, ranks among the leading EDA software in the electronic CAD industry. Widely adopted in China, Protel enjoys high popularity among electronic designers and is extensively used in both academia and industry.

            

Altium Designer: Altium Designer, developed by Altium as an integrated electronic product development system, offers seamless integration of schematic design, circuit simulation, PCB drawing, automatic routing, signal integrity analysis, and design output technologies. It provides designers with a new solution, significantly enhancing the quality and efficiency of circuit design.

                    

Cadence: Cadence Design Systems, Inc. is a specialized EDA software company. Its Cadence Allegro Interconnect Platform enables high-performance interconnect co-design across integrated circuits, packaging, and PCBs.

                    

KiCad: KiCad, a GPL EDA software package, serves as a Linux-compatible alternative to Protel. It includes project management and four main programs: kicad for project management, eeschema for schematic editing, cvpcb for component footprint association selection, and pcbnew for PCB routing.

                

OrCAD: OrCAD is a suite of personal computer EDA software used for electronic engineers to design circuit diagrams and related charts, design printed circuit board layouts, and simulate circuits.

                    

MATLAB: MATLAB, produced by MathWorks, Inc., is a commercial mathematical software used for algorithm development, data visualization, data analysis, and advanced technical computing. It integrates numerous powerful features for numerical analysis, matrix computation, scientific data visualization, and modeling and simulation of nonlinear dynamic systems.

                

Electronics Workbench (EWB): EWB, short for Electronics Workbench EDA, is a simulation software launched by Interactive Graphics Technologies Ltd. in the early 1990s. It enables hybrid simulation of analog and digital circuits, allowing users to directly view various circuit output waveforms on the screen.

                    

By understanding and utilizing these EDA tools effectively, hardware designers can streamline their design processes and achieve higher-quality results.