Specctra, version and installation

[Mark Larson]

does anybody have a handle on what's up with Innoveda/Specctra? Here is my understanding:

As long as you have maintenance through them they will continue to update you. If you don't continue maintenance with Innoveda you will have to:

Keep a version of PowerPCB loaded that was good for your rev of Specctra (and translator). Then ascii out your later rev of PowerPCB to that revision so you can use that translater to get to Specctra.

Or go on maintenance with Cadence.

What is the current rev of Specctra that is used with 3.6? with 4.0?

what is the current rev of Specctra from Cadence that will work with PowerPCB? Is it different (features, bundles, ...)from what you get from Innoveda?

It appears the company I work for last received version 8 with ver 3.5 of PowerPCB. Back then it used FlexLM 6, version 3.51 used FlexLM ver 7, anybody understand what licence goes with which? License.dat, sp.pas, specctra.dat..

[Tom]

Mark,

We had to switch our Specctra maintenance with Cadence to get the Specctra V10.0 software.

The last version of Specctra that PADS delivered was V8.0.

I did not know that you can still pay Innoveda for Specctra maintenance.

When you switch maintenance with Cadence, they will send you a new Dongle Key and the latest version of Specctra.

The only thing that Innoveda provides in the Specctra translator.

Watch out for freebees from Cadence. They will tell you if you switch over to them that they will give you a free interactive router and placement tool. Or they might give you additional options for free. Watch out for that word "Free". Yes, they give you the interactive route editor and they tell you it's a $6,000 value. Then when your maintenance comes next year they charge you maintenance for that free module.

Our yearly maintenance went from $750 a year with PADS to $3,500 a year with Cadence because we took advantage of their free offers.

[Mark Larson]

What I meant by support is Innoveda will continue to supply the translater to/from Specctra. As they issue new revisions of PowerPCB, if it requires a new translater they will supply it. It will only work for version 8 of Specctra, not any of the later versions. For that you have to go through Cadence.

Thanks for pointing out that Cadence will try to give you "free" software and then "getcha" on the maintenance.

Innoveda also told me that Blaze with high speed rules will be coming out in summer 02. It is "free" in that if you have the extended rules option these rules will be followed by Blaze. Obviously if you can't define the rules, Blaze isn't going to follow them. It will be interesting to see if we can then dump Specctra mainenance, simply retain the last working rev of Secctra.

[Tom]

So far the PowerPCB translator works with Specctra V9.0 and V10. Innoveda provides the translator on every PowerPCB CD-ROM.

I will dump Specctra in a heartbeat if the Blazerouter can do high speed rules well.

As far as the cost of the new high speed rules for Blazerouter from what I have heard, the Blazerouter will route to whatever options you have. If you have the "Advanced Module" Blaze will route to your Advanced rules. If you have DFT Audit, Blaze will put in your test points.

What I am glad to hear about is the new "Interactive" manual router inside Latium environment that will replace the Dynamic Route Editor. I've seen some specs that indicate if you are routing a "Matched Length" trace manually, it will automatically add the serpintine pattern where you indicate with size and spacing rules that you have established. I like that.