Stilwell Baker added electrical engineering and project management to its existing board design and layout, component creation and library management services. The Tualatin, Oregon service bureau opened a design center in Vancouver, Washington in late 2008.

Mentor Graphics reported a drop in revenue. ANSYS and Altium showed earnings increases.

March

Sunstone Circuits launched ECOsystem, a partnership for streamlining the prototype process. ECOsystem grew to include National Instruments, Screaming Circuits, Stilwell Baker, DigiKey, Stratford Digital, CadSoft, Altium and NXP.

Designer Jack Olson of Caterpillar wrote a great article detailing the process of updating IPC-D-325 documentation requirements into the new IPC-2610. Olson asked for feedback from designers, particularly on the use of the word "shall." Thou shall read this.

The entrepreneurial spirit was alive and well in 2009, despite the tough economy. Dave Castine and Deac Descoteaux launched TechBridge Solutions, an engineering and design bureau in Chelmsford, Massachusetts.

Zuken introduced 3-D functionality with its E3. panel solution. E3. panel provides complete design of control panels, including layouts and wiring. A few weeks later, Zuken upgraded the functionality of its E3. schematic solution. Zuken's E3. series of tools for electrical control system design and documentation was in the news for much of 2009.

April

The EDA Consortium reported that EDA revenue dropped 18% for Q4 2008. But PCB/MCM revenue was only down 11%.

IPC APEX/EXPO and Designers Day wasn't the ghost town that many had feared. Year-on-year attendance dropped about 35%, but the show floor was humming most of the week. Exhibitor reviews varied: Some said the show was well worth the expense, but others angrily swore to never again darken IPC's doorway. But our booth/studio was happening. We shot about 140 video interviews; we were so busy I didn't have a chance to gamble until the last night.   

EMA Design Automation acquired DesignAdvance, the Carnegie Mellon University spinoff that developed the CircuitSpace placement tool.

As the economy tanked, military work began to look better and better. South Florida-based 4th Dimension PCB obtained the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) certification. ITAR became a popular certification this year.

DownStream Technologies launched CAM350XL, a unified suite of tools for complete PCB post-processing. CAM350XL combines feature from DownStream's CAM350 and BluePrint-PCB documentation tool.

ANSYS released Simplorer 8, the latest in its Ansoft family of products.