Links
Good books,
that I have (read):
(Some of them were not really
written for digital board design, but I think they still can be used for that)
High Speed Digital Design: A Handbook of Black Magic
System Design for Telecommunication Gateways
Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) (Data Center)
Storage Area Networks For Dummies
Frequency-Domain Characterization of Power Distribution Networks
Power Integrity Modeling and Design for Semiconductors and Systems
Power Distribution Network Design Methodologies
Static Timing Analysis for Nanometer Designs (A Practical Approach)
Timing Verification of Application-specific Integrated Circuits
Timing Analysis and Simulation for Signal Integrity Engineers
Advanced FPGA Design: Architecture, Implementation, and Optimization
PCI Express* Electrical Interconnect Design (Intel Press)
Introduction to PCI Express: A Hardware and Software Developer's Guide
(Intel Press)
HyperTransport 3.1 Interconnect Technology
Digital Communications Test and Measurement: High Speed Physical Layer
Characterization
High Speed Serdes Devices and Applications
Microwave Differential Circuit Design Using Mixed-Mode S-parameters
Switch-Mode Power Supplies Spice
Simulations and Practical Designs
Power Supply Cookbook (EDN Series for Design Engineers)
Numerical Techniques in Electromagnetics
Universal Serial Bus System Architecture
Bluetooth Application Developer’s Guide
C Programming for Embedded Systems
UClinux for the Blackfin
processor
But the best is the www.Google.com as a perfect source of
knowledge (articles, white-papers…).
PCB fab
companies:
TTM (USA):
https://www.ttmtech.com/ (high-end, backdrilling, exotic materials)
Sierra
Circuits (Silicon Valley): https://www.protoexpress.com/pcb/about-us/
(high end prototypes with backdrilling)
WUS
(USA, China): http://www.wus.com.tw/index.php/en/
Sanmina-SCI
(mostly USA, China, but do business in Europe too) http://www.sanmina.com/Solutions/pcb_fab.html
(75um traces, uVia)
GCE (USA,
China): http://www.gce.com.tw/index_en/index_en_4.html
(18L, backdrills, hi-spec, good tech support)
ACCL
(Taiwan) http://www.accl.com.tw/aboutus.htm
(18L, backdrills, hi-spec)
Wurth
Elektronik (Germany, UK): http://www.we-online.com/web/en/cbt/CBT_Startseite.php
(95um/100um track/space, uVia)
Graphic
(UK): http://www.graphic.plc.uk/ (75um
traces, uVia)
Exception
(UK) http://www.exceptiongroup.com/pcb-printed-circuit-board-services.html
(75um traces, uVia)
OnPress
(Hong Kong): http://www.onpress.com.hk/
(95um/100um track/space, uVia, far-east cheap, large quantity manufacturer)
Fast Print
(China): http://www.chinafastprint.com/en/
(50um traces, 40 layers. They made 10L boards for me cheap in lo-quantity prod)
Elvia (in
France): http://www.pcb-elvia.com/
(100um, uVia)
Europrint
(in Hungary): www.europrint.hu
Eurocircuits
(in Hungary): www.eurocircuits.com
(online order. Same company as Europrint)
Elekterv
(in Hungary): http://www.elekterv.hu/
(cheap 2-layer, for hibbyists)
hitelap (in
Hungary): www.hitelap.hu
myro pcb
(Canada): http://www.myropcb.com/services-capabilities/pcb-capabilities/
(6x5inch 4layer 39usd, 2layer 9usd, flex and PCBA available)
PCB Pool
(probably china) http://www.pcb-pool.com/ppus/order_productconfiguration_js.html#00
(4layer 120x120mm quantity=1 $155, 2layer 120x120mm quantity=1 $57)
Elecrow (China) http://www.elecrow.com/services-c-73/pcb-fabricate-service-c-73_116/4-layer-larger-than-10-10cm-5pcs-p-818.html
(ultra cheap 2-4 layer PCBs online)
PCBA
companies (Soldering/assembly):
STI (UK): http://www.sti-alliance.com/flexible-manufacturing.php
(uBGA)
Albacomp (Hungary): http://www.albacomp.hu/index.php?pg=menu_125
(BGAs, best quality and price in Hungary, prototype and high volume)
Szem kft (Hungary).: http://szem-kft.internettudakozo.hu/
(Leadfree, 0402 proto, 0603 series pr.)
aviatronik kft (Hungary): www.avia.kfkipark.hu (BGA rework)
radar-tronic (Hungary): http://www.radar-tronic.hu
LPE electronics (Hungary): http://www.lpe.hu/ (manual
soldering)
PCB fab +
PCBA one stop shop:
Elecrow (China) http://www.elecrow.com/services-c-73/pcb-fabricate-service-c-73_116/4-layer-larger-than-10-10cm-5pcs-p-818.html
(PCB 4L/5x5” for $110, 2L/5x5” $30, $20 stencils, $0.03/pin PCBA)
HongBo Technology Co., (China) http://www.hbpcba.com/about-us.html
(PCB+PCBA 5x5” 2L 400comp 5pcs for $231)
HQEW (China) http://pcb.hqew.net/?s=544849 (4layer 120x120
5 pieces blue $121, stencils, PCBA, component procurement, soon flex will be
avail)
PCB Rework
and testing services:
Wellex (Silicon Valley CA): http://www.wellex.com/
(PCBA and small one-off BGA rework jobs)
Covalent Metrology (Silicon
Valley CA): https://covalentmetrology.com/dye-pry-testing/
(BGA dye and pry, X-ray, cross-sectioning)
PCB layout
house:
PalPilot (China, and Silicon
Valley): http://www.palpilot.com/
Remarkable Solutions (Silicon
Valley): https://www.rshd.net/
NRDSI (Hillsboro Oregon): http://www.nrdsi.com/homepage.php
McCauley (Texas): http://www.mccauleydesigngroup.com/contact.php
Freedom Cad Services (all around
USA, and India): http://www.freedomcad.com/
ICD (Australia): http://www.icd.com.au/
Intra Sys (Scotland): http://www.intrasysdesign.com/
EdaDoc (china): www.edadoc.com
Signal
Integrity simulation:
Chris Heard consulting: http://www.cshconsulting.net/
(excellent work on 10G backplane channel)
3D Printing:
Craft Cloud, $17 for a big
3dprint phone holder: https://print.all3dp.com
Maker XYZ, $35 forr same big 3d
print: https://www.makexyz.com/
voodoo, $40 for same 3d print
design: https://voodoomfg.com/direct-print
Tech Forums:
Si-list mailing list: http://www.freelists.org/list/si-list
Edaboard: www.edaboard.com
Xilinx forums: http://forums.xilinx.com/
Blackfin Linux projects: www.blackfin.uclinux.org
Hungarian electronics forum: http://forum.terminal.hu/viewforum.php?f=5&sid=c1c92cfd0795d4ecaf4a05af67f769b3
Cool Free/Opensource
Software
(for Hardware design/testing or Signal/Power Integrity)
Finite Element Magnetics (FEMM) http://femm.foster-miller.net/wiki/HomePage
It is a genaral-purpose 2D quasi-static field-solver. It
can be used for PCB power plane current distribution and voltage drop
simulation, PCB trace cross section AC magnetic/electrostatic simulations (for
RLGC, Z0 and crosstalk)
Sphinx http://www.powerintegrity.net/sphinx
This 2D-EM program can be used for PCB power plane
frequency domain simulations to generate a touchstone S-parameter model, and to
view noise distribution. The free version is limited to 20’000 nodes on its
uniform-grid-mesh.
Sonnet Lite http://www.sonnetsoftware.com/products/lite/
This 3D-EM program can be used for PCB power plane and
Tline frequency domain simulations to generate a touchstone S-parameter model.
The free/Lite version is limited to 2 metal layers+GND, max 4 ports, 16MB RAM.
Quite Universal Circuit Simulator (QUCS) http://qucs.sourceforge.net/
This is a circuit simulator with support for touchstone
macromodels, similarly to Agilent ADS. The program doesn't support
convolutional time domain simulation yet, so the touchstone models can be used
only in AC analysis, but it is still good enough for a power distribution
analysis/design together with the sphinx or with VNA measured data.
TNT-MMTL http://mmtl.sourceforge.net/
Frequency independent 2D cross section field-solver only
for determining PCB trace characteristic impedance. It also can be used for
frequency dependent per-unit-length crosstalk-level simulation.
Fast Fieldsolvers (Fastmodel, Fasthenry, Fastcap) http://www.fastfieldsolvers.com/
These quasi-static 3D fieldsolvers can be used for
parasitic inductance and capacitance simulations on 3D PCB structures and to
visualise return currents in ground planes. The geometry has to be specified by
hand, in a text file.
StatEye http://www.stateye.org/
This program can be used for high-speed serdes and
channel analysis, Eye-diagram simulation. It generates a Matlab code that has
to be simulated in Matlab.
This is a 3D full-wave electromagnetic simulator
(field-solver), which has support for PCB gerber files. It runs on Linux
(Opensuse11-64bit, SLES10)
Faustus MeFisto http://www.faustcorp.com/downloads/
The MeFisto 2D Classic (full) and 3D Nova (limited to
160000 nodes) are 2D and 3D electromagnetic simulators. They are good for
simulating electromagnetic wave (Tline, Plane or 3D) propagation in time
domain.
BEMP http://www.powerintegrity.net/bemp
This macromodelling tool can be used to generate a spice
netlist from a touchstone file of S/Z-parameters.
Eispice http://www.thedigitalmachine.net/eispice.html
Commandline based signal integrity related spice
simulator with support for IBIS models.
NgSpice http://ngspice.sourceforge.net/
Free opensource commandline SPICE simulator.
UrJtag http://www.urjtag.org/
Commandline based Jtag boundary scan test software for
Linux/Cygwin. The new version works on windows. Simple and great. Works with
lots of standard jtag cables, including the Xilinx ParallelCable-III.
Trainer1149 http://www.testonica.com/1149/
Windows/Java based Jtag boundary scan test software.
Still under development, poor documentation, but usable for board testing.
Timing Editor http://sourceforge.net/projects/timingeditor/
Timing diagram editor, for STA or documentations.
RW-Everything http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/downloads/RW_Read_amp_Write_50233_p/
Hardware test program. We can read and write to any
address locations in an x86 system. Very useful for testing newly designed
peripheral or bridge functions.
PCI32 http://members.datafast.net.au/dft0802/downloads.htm
Full system PCI/PCIe device listings with all their
PCI/header (e.g. PCIe actual link width/speed) information.
Unet Bootin http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
Create bootable Linux USB-flash drives or CompactFlash
drives based on difefrent small (50-300MB) Knoppix-Linux distributions. Good
for testing new computerboard prototypes.
Teraterm http://ttssh2.sourceforge.jp/
Serial port terminal. Linux style. More reliable than
Windows HyperTerminal, easier to conenct to simple RX/TX peripherals.
MTTTY http://www.winsite.com/bin/Info?21500000036782
Serial port terminal. More reliable than Windows
HyperTerminal, easier to conenct to simple RX/TX peripherals.
Scilab http://www.scilab.org/
Free/opensource Matlab clone.
Smath Studio http://en.smath.info/forum/
Free Mathcad-like program.
Viewmate http://www.pentalogix.com/Products/ViewMate/register.cfm
Free but not opensource gerber file viewer.
TI-Filterpro http://focus.ti.com/docs/toolsw/folders/print/filterpro.html
Analog active filter design.
Salome-Meca (Salome + Code-Aster) http://www.caelinux.com/CMS/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=46&Itemid=40
Free opensource 3D finite-element fieldsolver for
Heat/Flow/Mechanical problems. Very professional. Runs on Linux.
Unit Change Calculator http://www.tm-research.com/products/tm-desktop-utilities-pack/
Easy metric/inch and other units conversion.
XVI32 http://www.chmaas.handshake.de/delphi/freeware/xvi32/xvi32.htm
Hex file editor.
Kemet Spice http://www.kemet.com/kemet/web/homepage/kechome.nsf/Weben/kemsoft
KEmet capacitor products, and their frequency responses.
Also multiple difefrent capacitors response.
FPM http://www.edaboard.com/ftopic170612.html
Standard footprint creator for Cadence Allegro.
KiCAD http://www.lis.inpg.fr/realise_au_lis/kicad/
Promising opensource schematics/PCB design software
package project. Not really good for computer design, but for smaller boards it
is OK, maybe within few years it will be suitable for some more serious designs
too.
S-Parameter Explorer http://www.eecircle.com/downloads/spex.html
Viewer for S-parameter Touchstone files. You need to
request a free license.
Commandline field solvers (to reuse in
software development)
EMAP: http://www.cvel.clemson.edu/modeling/EMAG/EMAP/emap5/
FastHenry, FastCap, Fastimp: http://www.wrcad.com/freestuff.html
http://www.rle.mit.edu/cpg/research_codes.htm
IBM Tools: http://alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/eip
Nec2: http://www.si-list.net/swindex.html
OpenGems: http://www.2comu.com.cn/products/OpenGEMS.html
YatPac: http://www.yatpac.org/index.php
http://www.hft.ei.tum.de/php/resYATSIM1.php?lang=de
Gmsh/GetDp: http://geuz.org/
Other:
Techonline: (webcasts,
whitepapers) www.techonline.com
IBIS
summit files: http://www.vhdl.org/pub/ibis/summits/
http://www.eda.org/pub/ibis/summits/index-bytitle.htm