“Premier Farnell is pleased to work with EMA to establish an interface between our vast online product database and industry leading OrCAD Capture CIS, through EMA’s Components Information Portal (CIP), and are excited to offer this new interface to Newark’s design customers across the Americas,” said David Shen, Group SVP and Global Head of eCommerce and Technical Marketing for Premier Farnell. “We see this as an easy interface offering tremendous advantages for our mutual electronic design engineering customers by saving them time searching for the latest electronic components and allowing them to import the parametric data directly into their local parts library.”
Premier Farnell worked in close collaboration with EMA to create DesignLink, a CAD tool interface to Premier Farnell’s database. This interface is implemented within CIP, a web-based interface to the engineering Component Information System (CIS) database. Through CIP, engineers, librarians, purchasing agents, and others can access and manage the CIS database, including the ability to add or modify parts, without the need to use the native database software. CIP users can search the Newark database, containing over 440 manufacturers and over four million parts, using key words to narrow the results. Any part can then be viewed in detail to see specific parametric data; cost, availability, and other purchasing type information; the datasheet; and in most cases, an image of the part. Once the part choice is made, the part information and parametrics can be downloaded into the CIS database, assigned a symbol, and made available to all design engineers within their OrCAD Capture CIS.
In addition to the Newark interface, CIP and CIP Enterprise version 3.0 adds a number of new features to help customers manage their engineering data and processes. One such new feature is the ability for customers to update key distributor data automatically. This capability ensures that cost and quantity available fields are up to date on the final Bill of Materials (BOM). This can also be useful when starting a new design with an existing CIS database.
The Component Information Portal is available in two versions: CIP and CIP Enterprise. Some of the primary benefits are as follows:
- Distributor Interface: allows users to populate their CIS database directly from Newark and Digi-Key® along with all related part information. These newly introduced parts come in as temporary parts, providing differentiation between new parts and approved parts. CIP Enterprise supports multiple users with different access rights, allowing an organization to implement a part approval process and adding a level of protection to help maintain the integrity of their CIS database.
- Starter CIS Database: starts engineering teams with a comprehensive design with 1,500 parts, including parametric data, datasheets, OrCAD Capture CIS symbols, and Cadence Allegro® PCB Editor footprints. The CIP starter database comes with a simplified Microsoft Access database that accommodates all part types in a single table. This makes administration much simpler for the single user. CIP Enterprise includes a Microsoft SQL Server database with 5,000 parts in device specific tables and can be customized to fit the specific needs of the enterprise. EMA also offers an enterprise integration allowing the CIS database to hold data from corporate sources such as an ERP or PLM system.
- Web-Based Solution: providing access to the Component Information System (CIS), giving Engineering and Procurement a more effective way to update the CIS database.
- Competitive Price Point: pricing for CIP starts at $995 plus annual maintenance for the single user version.
CIP 3.0 with the DesignLink interface to the Newark parts database will be available June 15, 2009. Premier Farnell will make the DesignLink database available to its European customers in July and shortly thereafter for its Asian customers.
For more information about the Component Information Portal, visit www.ema-eda.com/CIP or call 800-813-7494 and sign up for a demonstration webinar. Learn how to get current and accurate distributor part data onto the design desktop, manage your CIS database, and ensure a shorter design cycle.
About EMA Design Automation, Inc.
