 | |
| Developer(s) | Thomas Nau |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 1990 [1] |
| Stable release | |
| Repository | |
| Operating system | Unix-like (BSDs, Linux, Solaris, OS X (experimental) and Microsoft Windows |
| Type | Electronic design automation (EDA) |
| License | GPLv2 |
| Website | pcb |
PCB is a free and open-source software suite for electronic design automation (EDA) - for printed circuit boards (PCB) layout. It uses GTK+ for its GUI widgets.
PCB was first written by Thomas Nau for an Atari ST in 1990 and ported to UNIX and X11 in 1994. Initially PCB was not intended to be a professional layout system but as a tool for individuals to do small-scale development of hardware. [1] [3] The second release 1.2 introduced user menus. This made PCB easier to use and increased its popularity. [1] Harry Eaton took over PCB development beginning with Release 1.5, although he contributed some code from Release 1.4.3.
PCB includes a topological autorouter named Toporouter, developed by Anthony Blake in a Google-funded open source project mentored by DJ Delorie in 2008. [4] It is mostly based on an implementation of the algorithms described in Tal Dayan's 1997 PhD thesis, "Rubberband based topological router". [4] [5] This router has meanwhile been adapted for use with the open-source KiCad project as well.
In 2013, pcb-rnd was forked from PCB.
The Gerber format is an open, ASCII, vector format for printed circuit board (PCB) designs. It is the de facto standard used by PCB industry software to describe the printed circuit board images: copper layers, solder mask, legend, drill data, etc. The standard file extension is .GBR or .gbr though other extensions like .GB, .geb or .gerber are also used. It is documented by The Gerber Layer Format Specification and some related extensions such as XNC drill files and GerberJob to convey information about the entire PCB, as opposed to single layers.
Place and route is a stage in the design of printed circuit boards, integrated circuits, and field-programmable gate arrays. As implied by the name, it is composed of two steps, placement and routing. The first step, placement, involves deciding where to place all electronic components, circuitry, and logic elements in a generally limited amount of space. This is followed by routing, which decides the exact design of all the wires needed to connect the placed components. This step must implement all the desired connections while following the rules and limitations of the manufacturing process.
EAGLE is a scriptable electronic design automation (EDA) application with schematic capture, printed circuit board (PCB) layout, auto-router and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) features. EAGLE stands for Easily Applicable Graphical Layout Editor and is developed by CadSoft Computer GmbH. The company was acquired by Autodesk Inc. in 2016 who announced to support the product up to 2026 only.
TARGET 3001! is a CAD computer program for EDA and PCB design, developed by Ing.-Büro Friedrich in Germany. This software application has been available since 1992 and operates on Microsoft Windows. It supports the design of electronic schematics, PCBs, and device front panels. The software is available in English, German and French.
OrCAD Systems Corporation was a software company that made OrCAD, a proprietary software tool suite used primarily for electronic design automation (EDA). The software is used mainly by electronic design engineers and electronic technicians to create electronic schematics, and perform mixed-signal simulation and electronic prints for manufacturing printed circuit boards (PCBs). OrCAD was taken over by Cadence Design Systems in 1999 and was integrated with Cadence Allegro in 2005.
XCircuit is a schematic capture program for drawing publication-quality VLSI electrical circuit schematic diagrams and related figures. It's part of the Open Circuit Design tools. It's primarily intended for ULSI/VLSI IC design and not for PCB design, the latter though is still possible. XCircuit regards circuits as inherently hierarchical and can save circuits both in PostScript (.ps) and Ngspice (.cir) netlists file formats for further processing. The program compiles PostScript files from special template-labels specified by user.
The term gEDA refers to two things:
An EDA database is a database specialized for the purpose of electronic design automation. These application specific databases are required because general purpose databases have historically not provided enough performance for EDA applications.
Ngspice is an open-source mixed-level/mixed-signal electronic circuit simulator. It is a successor of the latest stable release of Berkeley SPICE, version 3f.5, which was released in 1993. A small group of maintainers and the user community contribute to the ngspice project by providing new features, enhancements and bug fixes.
FreePCB is a printed circuit board design program for Microsoft Windows, written by Allan Wright.
The layout versus schematic (LVS) is the class of electronic design automation (EDA) verification software that determines whether a particular integrated circuit layout corresponds to the original schematic or circuit diagram of the design.
KiCad is a free software suite for electronic design automation (EDA). It facilitates the design and simulation of electronic hardware for PCB manufacturing. It features an integrated environment for schematic capture, PCB layout, manufacturing file viewing, ngspice-provided SPICE simulation, and engineering calculation. Tools exist within the package to create bill of materials, artwork, Gerber files, and 3D models of the PCB and its components.
TopoR is an EDA program developed and maintained by the Russian company Eremex. It is dedicated to laying out a printed circuit board (PCB). The current version is 6.3.17875 as of 2017-09-20.
DesignSpark PCB is a free electronic design automation software package for printed circuit boards. Although there is no charge for the software, the user must register with DesignSpark.com to unlock the program and it displays advertisements which must be acknowledged before the user can begin working.
DipTrace is a proprietary software suite for electronic design automation (EDA) used for electronic schematic capture and printed circuit board layouts. DipTrace has four applications: schematic editor, PCB editor with built-in shape-based autorouter and 3D preview, component editor, and pattern editor.
ODB++ is a proprietary CAD-to-CAM data exchange format used in the design and manufacture of electronic devices. Its purpose is to exchange printed circuit board design information between design and manufacturing and between design tools from different EDA/ECAD vendors. It was originally developed by Valor Computerized Systems, Ltd. as the job description format for their CAM system.
Pulsonix is an electronic design automation (EDA) software suite for schematic capture and PCB design. It is produced by WestDev, which is headquartered in Gloucestershire, England, with additional sales and distribution offices overseas. It was first released in 2001, and runs on Windows.
EasyEDA is a web-based electronic design automation (EDA) tool suite that enables hardware engineers to design, simulate, share and discuss schematics, simulations and printed circuit boards, and to create a bill of materials, Gerber files, pick and place files and documentary outputs in the file formats PDF, PNG, and SVG.
The Proteus Design Suite is a proprietary software tool suite used primarily for electronic design automation. The software is used mainly by electronic design engineers and technicians to create schematics and electronic prints for manufacturing printed circuit boards.
pcb-rnd is a modular and compact software application used for layout design of electrical circuits. Pcb-rnd is used professionally as well as in universities. Pre-built packages are available on multiple operating systems. The software focuses on multiple file format support, scripting, multiple font support, a query language and command line support for batch processing and automation. The software provides user interfaces for command line, gtk2+gdk, gtk2+gl, gtk4+gl, and motif supporting multiple GUIs with the same thing for every interface.
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