February 2010

 
Envision – what's new, changing and over the horizon
   
Welcome to the February 2010 issue of Envision, our regularly updated collection of insights, news and views from Altium. In this installment you can read how the respected high-end audio company Linn Products injects creative fidelity into electronics design, learn more about DMX512 lighting control with the NanoBoard 3000, and find out how live component data can save your design bacon – plus a whole lot more.
   
 
Harmonizing electronics design
   
Prototype ideas
In an exclusive interview with Ian Wilson, Principle Engineer at high-end audio manufacturer Linn Products, he talks about how the company keeps information flowing from conception to layout to finished product. By balancing electronics precision with creative design, Linn also strives to keep the music flowing faithfully from the musician to the listener.
   
 
Real information, in real time, as you design
   
Live data
If you’re still thumbing though data books, scanning web pages and juggling data sheets to find the right components at design time, there’s a much better way to find the information you need.
Read how Altium Designer now bypasses that drudgery, freeing you to make informed component decisions while you design.
   
 
Productivity through collaboration
   
BAB
Swedish design house BAB Electronik has reportedly halved project development time and doubled throughput by upgrading Altium Designer. Thanks in the main to Altium Designer’s advanced MCAD-ECAD collaboration capabilities, they say it’s “the best thing that has happened to electronics since the invention of the transistor”. Big call…
   
 
Free on-demand Webinar: Design Data Management.
 
Design data management may not be the most glamorous part of the engineering workday. But effective data management and collaboration throughout the organization can have a huge impact on your success in taking products to market faster and with fewer revisions. In an hour, this online webinar will reveal the secrets of creating a pushbutton design data management system. It’s free and available right now. Register and watch the Webinar.
 
 
What are we doing, right now?
 
See what’s happening at Altium, in real-time. Follow us on twitter to find out about the latest news, events, videos and design tutorials. There’s so much going on, can we actually condense it to 140 characters or less?
 
 
FEBRUARY TECH TIP
Altium’s NanoBoard 3000 is suitable for a huge range of tasks, including as a platform for developing lighting controller applications. In this second installment of our two part tech tip, we’ll take a look at a couple of Altium Designer FPGA Projects that implement control of lighting fixtures using DMX-512.
 
Is Kindle the tip of a technological iceberg?
The revolutionary Kindle electronic book reader has been out for a while now, but with the release of its most recent Kindle DX International, Amazon has opened up the services to a worldwide audience. The concept this represents – that of a global internet of connected devices – is far more revolutionary than the device itself. See what you think. Read Kindling the fires of innovation.
 
Altium’s NanoBoard 3000 is hot!
We think so, and so does EDN magazine, which has selected the NanoBoard 3000 system as one of the hot products for 2009. Read EDN’s coverage of the NanoBoard 3000, or take a look at the EDN Hot 100 products list.
 
Meet the Envision team
There are real people behind the creation of Envision, and we've stopped hiding.
 
 
     
 
KEEP IN TOUCH No matter where you are in the development process, we're here to help.

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