Altium Launches New PCB Design Software With Advanced FPGA and MCU Integration

Altium, a leading provider of PCB design software, has just released the latest version of its flagship product – Altium Designer 23. This major update brings powerful new features and enhancements aimed at simplifying the design process for complex PCBs incorporating FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) and MCUs (Microcontroller Units).

Key new capabilities in Altium Designer 23 include:

• Enhanced FPGA pin planning and optimization
• Automated FPGA pin swapping to minimize PCB layer changes
• Improved MCU part libraries with pre-configured peripherals
• MCU firmware development and debugging within the PCB design environment
• Advanced multi-board design features for projects spanning multiple PCBs

“We’re excited to deliver this significant leap forward in FPGA and MCU integration for PCB designers,” said Iain Elliott, CTO at Altium. “The intelligent automation built into Altium Designer 23 will help engineers tackle more ambitious projects in less time, without sacrificing quality or performance.”

Faster FPGA Pin Optimization Accelerates High-Speed PCB Layout

FPGAs have become increasingly popular for implementing high-performance digital logic in industries ranging from telecommunications to aerospace. However, laying out the dense pin fields of modern FPGAs on a PCB can be a tedious and error-prone process.

Altium Designer 23 introduces new pin planning and optimization features that automatically identify opportunities to simplify FPGA routing. By analyzing the FPGA pinout and applying its knowledge of PCB routing best practices, the software can suggest pin swaps to minimize the number of signal layers changes required.

“In one beta customer’s design, our FPGA pin optimizer was able to eliminate 15 layer swaps, significantly reducing the number of vias required,” noted Frank Krämer, Senior Product Manager at Altium. “This can have huge benefits for signal integrity, especially in high-speed designs.”

New MCU Management Tools Simplify Embedded System Development

Microcontrollers provide the brains for countless electronic products, from consumer appliances to industrial control systems. Historically, PCB designers and embedded software developers relied on separate toolchains to develop the hardware and firmware for MCU-based products.

Altium Designer 23 breaks down that barrier by enabling firmware development and debugging from within the PCB design environment. The software includes pre-built component libraries for popular MCU families, with schematic symbols mapped to detailed STEP models including 3D representations of peripherals like USB and Ethernet ports.

“By bringing PCB and firmware development together in Altium Designer, we’re enabling a more agile hardware/software co-design process,” said Saar Drimer, Electronics Engineering Manager at Altium. “We think this has the potential to dramatically accelerate time-to-market for smart products.”

Growing Complexity Drives Demand for Multi-Board PCB Design

Another trend Altium is tracking is the rise of multi-board PCB designs. As electronic products pack in more functionality, many engineering teams are finding that a single PCB is no longer sufficient. Spreading the electronics across multiple boards can improve manufacturing, facilitate maintenance, and enable more modular product architectures.

However, designing multi-board systems presents new challenges, especially around ensuring correct connectivity between boards. Manually tracking board-to-board connections is tedious and prone to errors.

Altium Designer 23 offers a new multi-board design environment that can manage connectivity across multiple PCBs. The software automatically synchronizes schematics and layout between boards, ensuring that signals are correctly routed through mated connectors.

Multi-Board Design in Altium Designer 23

Capability	Benefit
Synchronized schematics across boards	Ensures correct connectivity
Managed board-to-board connections	Eliminates manual pin mapping
Linked 3D PCB views	Visualizes board-to-board assembly
Coordinated MCAD export	Communicates complete product structure

“We see multi-board design as a key enabler for the next generation of smart, connected products,” said Luke Schultz, Product Marketing Manager at Altium. “Altium Designer 23 provides the automation necessary to efficiently develop and verify these complex systems.”

Altium 365 Adds FPGA Repository and New Simulation Capabilities

Alongside the Altium Designer update, Altium also rolled out enhancements to its Altium 365 cloud platform. A key addition is a new repository for FPGA designs, enabling hardware engineering teams to share and collaborate on FPGA projects.

The Altium 365 FPGA Repository supports versioning and release management for FPGA designs, with check-in/check-out and visual differencing to track changes over time. FPGA designs can be mapped to PCB projects in Altium Designer, enabling seamless co-development.

Another significant update in Altium 365 is the introduction of cloud-based simulation for PCBs. This allows engineers to offload compute-intensive simulation tasks from their local machines to the scalable resources of the Altium 365 cloud.

The initial simulation capabilities focus on signal integrity, power integrity, and thermal analysis. Signal integrity simulation allows designers to evaluate the impact of factors like routing, layer stackup, and terminations on signal quality. Power integrity simulation helps ensure that the PCBA power delivery network can supply adequate current to all components. And thermal simulation provides insights into heat flow across the PCBA, identifying potential hot spots that could degrade reliability.

“Simulation is becoming a necessity for a growing slice of PCB designs,” said Drimer. “By making advanced simulation capabilities accessible through Altium 365, we’re enabling more engineers to verify their designs before building a physical prototype.”

Continued Innovation Reinforces Altium’s PCB Industry Leadership

With this latest round of updates to Altium Designer and Altium 365, Altium is cementing its position as a leading provider of PCB design software. The company’s focus on addressing the needs of engineers working on complex, high-performance electronics is resonating with the market.

“Feedback from our beta program has been overwhelmingly positive,” said Ted Pawela, Chief Ecosystem Officer at Altium. “We’re seeing particular excitement around the new FPGA integration features, which have the potential to dramatically streamline development for applications like 5G infrastructure, advanced driver assistance systems, and artificial intelligence accelerators.”

Industry analysts are also taking note of Altium’s innovations in PCB-FPGA-MCU design. In a recent report, Jay Trevino, Research Director for Electronic Design Automation at Frost & Sullivan, wrote: “Altium Designer 23’s unified environment for PCB, FPGA, and embedded software development sets a new standard for electronics design platforms. The intelligent automation and robust feature set should allow engineering teams to develop smarter products faster.”

As the electronics industry continues to evolve, Altium is committed to empowering engineers with the tools they need to bring their ideas to life. With its relentless focus on innovation and customer success, the company is well positioned to maintain its leadership in PCB design software for years to come.

FAQ

What are the key new features in Altium Designer 23 for FPGA design?

Altium Designer 23 introduces new capabilities for FPGA pin planning and optimization, including automated pin swapping to minimize layer changes. The software can analyze an FPGA pinout and identify opportunities to simplify PCB routing, which can help improve signal integrity.

How does Altium Designer 23 improve the MCU development process?

Altium Designer 23 enables embedded firmware development and debugging from within the PCB design environment. The software includes pre-built libraries for popular MCU families, with detailed models that incorporate both the MCU pinout and 3D representations of key peripherals. This allows for a more agile hardware/software co-design process.

What benefits does Altium Designer 23 offer for multi-board PCB design?

Altium Designer 23 includes a dedicated multi-board design environment that can manage connectivity between multiple PCBs in a single project. The software automatically synchronizes schematics and layout between boards and provides linked 3D views to visualize board-to-board connections. This helps eliminate manual errors and enables more modular product architectures.

What new simulation capabilities are available in Altium 365?

Altium 365 now offers cloud-based simulation for signal integrity, power integrity, and thermal analysis of PCBs. These computationally intensive simulations can be run on the scalable resources of the Altium cloud, freeing up local computing power. Simulation helps engineers verify their designs before committing to physical prototypes.

How is Altium innovating to maintain its leadership in PCB design software?

Altium is continuously innovating to address the evolving needs of engineers working on complex, high-performance electronics. The company’s focus on unifying hardware, software, and PCB design is resonating with customers in industries ranging from telecommunications to automotive and artificial intelligence. By empowering engineers with intelligent automation and a robust feature set, Altium is helping teams develop smarter products faster.