Zuken has launched the CR-8000, a new PCB design product family that is specifically designed for system-level multi-board design. The CR-8000 suite is the only concept-to-manufacturing, multi-board design solution that has been developed from the start to address the unique requirements of today’s ever-increasing challenges in system-level design optimization.

The increasing complexity of systems, whether implemented in silicon or an a PCB, require engineers to use a tightly integrated design flow that spans architectural partitioning through fabrication, and includes bill of material (BOM) construction that is integrated with the design process. Although few EDA vendors offer a collection of tools to achieve most of these tasks, CR-8000 is the only completely integrated family of products to provide such solution.

The suite’s fully integrated design flow ranges from initial system planning, where critical design decisions are made about design partitioning, component selection, and form, fit, and function of the product or system; through detailed schematic and PCB design; and optimized manufacturing output.

Over the last decade, there have been numerous technology advances that enable a major step forward in PCB system design. CR-8000 has been designed from the start to take advantage of the latest advances in hardware and software technologies to offer unmatched user productivity and system performance.

CR-8000 includes the latest in:

• human interface techniques – a mouse and a touch pad combine for fewer mouse clicks and movements, minimal dialogs and panels
• hardware – using 64-bit, multi-thread and multi-CPU
• graphics – through OpenGL and DirectX
• network environments – with standalone client, data server, application server and cloud computing support.

All of this combines to form a solution that offers companies a competitive edge in their product design.

All of the products in this flow inherently support and facilitate multi-board design for system level design optimization:

• System Planner – a system-level design environment for up-front planning and partitioning of electronics systems. In System Planner you can carry out all product planning tasks – such as BOM creation, logical function block diagrams, 2D physical and 3D geometrical planning – in one environment. This means no more jumping from one separate, non-intelligent tool (such as Excel, Visio and Autocad) to another.
• Design Gateway – an engineering platform for logical circuit design and verification of single and multi-board system-level electronic designs.



• Design Force – a system-level IC package and PCB design and analysis solution combining conventional 2D design with 3D design in real-time using the latest human interface techniques. Zuken has introduced the use of a digital tablet in addition to the mouse to allow engineers to control the design process with both hands. Although such solution might at first seem difficult to use, the feedback from early users is extremely positive. Although the use of the tablet is not required, the innovation has already proven its impact in increasing productivity and decreasing design errors.

  Design Force has embedded support for high-speed design, allowing engineers and layout designers to conduct signal integrity, EMC, and power integrity analysis, manage constraints and autoroute. Improved product quality is achieved by early detection of design errors and verification of performance requirements through the embedded design analysis and online rules checking. Designers can effectively co-design a chip, package and board, embed components in the dielectric, and verify manufacturing rules in real-time. This ensures that both manufacturing requirements and engineering intent are preserved during the design process.

• DFM Center – a comprehensive manufacturing preparation and output solution supporting panelization and common output formats.