Altium Announces Altium Designer 12

CARLSBAD, Calif., March 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Altium, developer of next-generation electronics design software and services, announces Altium Designer 12, the evolution of the award winning unified electronics design solution Altium Designer. Altium Designer 12 was introduced during embedded world in Nuremberg, Germany, one year after the initial launch of AltiumLive and a new Altium Designer 10 platform.

With Altium Designer 12, Altium will continue its successful path which:

• Provided the structure for a content-delivery platform that fundamentally changed the way new features and enhancements can be delivered,
• Offered advanced board layout capabilities, powerful next-generation design data and release management systems and
• Integrated access to Altium's growing pool of online design content and software enhancements.

With this new approach, Altium Subscription customers have already benefited from 16 product updates within the last 12 months, all of which refined and extended the already powerful capabilities of Altium Designer.

Unique delivery model

With Altium Designer 12, Altium Subscription users will further benefit from an industry leading software delivery model. Unlike previous new versions, Altium Designer 12 will not be a large and potentially disruptive software upgrade – it will be delivered as part of, and further solidify, Altium's continuous update model. This means that new features and functionality, as well as improvements and bug fixes, can be rolled out instantly and directly to Subscription users.

Altium's powerful cloud-based infrastructure supports this platform for continuous updates to customers. The Plug-In Manager within Altium Designer gives users full control over which part of Altium Designer to install, and instant visibility into updates and installations.

Altium Designer 12 – reliable, refined, robust

Altium Designer 12 is comprised of the development work, continuous updates and system enhancements from the last 12 months. Some of the key features delivered to Altium Subscription customers include:

• Custom Pad Shapes: Non-standard pad shapes, switch contacts, metal shielding and more can now be created easily out of complex structures while the masks are still managed automatically based on rules.
• No ERC directives: This design directive is placed on a node in the circuit to suppress reported warning and/or error violation conditions (such as an unconnected pin), while still performing a comprehensive check of the rest of the circuit.
• Greater control in High-Speed Designs: Impedance controlled routing is an integral part of managing signal integrity for critical signals on a PCB. The algorithms, which calculate the track width based on the PCB layer stack, include more physical parameters of the PCB to produce better results.

Full Access to AltiumLive Content Store

Altium Subscription customers can access the continuum of Altium Designer updates and thousands of ready to use board-level components (incl. live links into the supply chain), software plugin modules, design templates, reference designs and a growing library of example projects through the AltiumLive Content Store. Through Partnerships with key board-level component manufacturers such as STMicoelectronics, Altera, FTDI and Atmel, hundreds of new up-to-date components have already been released in 2012.

Pricing and availability

An Altium Designer Custom Board Implementation license for complete concept-through-manufacture design is available for $5,495 USD. AltiumSubscription is all about being connected to the latest electronics design techniques, skills and technology developments. 12 months of Altium Subscription is available for $1,500 USD per annum. Users of the older version will benefit from special upgrade pricing to get access to Altium Designer 12, and will be available to ship May 1st, 2012. Altium Subscription customers will receive the update as soon as it is available.

Contacts:
Lawrence Romine
Altium Limited
www.altium.com
Telephone: +1-760-231-0752
Email: [email protected]

Jennifer Bader
McClenahan Bruer Communications
www.mcbru.com
Telephone: +1-503-546-1003
Email: [email protected]

About Altium

Altium Limited (ASX:ALU) creates electronics design software based on the belief that anyone who wants to create electronic products that make a difference should be able to do so. Altium's unified electronics design environment links all aspects of electronics product design in a single application that is priced to be as affordable as possible. This helps electronics designers break down barriers to innovation, harness the latest devices and technologies, manage their projects across broad design 'ecosystems', and create connected, intelligent designs.

Founded in 1985, Altium has headquarters in Shanghai, and operates worldwide. For more information, visit www.altium.com.

Altium, Altium Designer, AltiumLive and Morfik, and their respective logos, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Altium Limited, or its subsidiaries. All other registered or unregistered trademarks mentioned in this release are the property of their respective owners, and no trademark rights to the same are claimed.

SOURCE Altium