National Instruments' campaign to broaden the appeal of its LabView product line, and to turn it into a single design environment for use at multiple stages in the product design cycle, takes another step forward with the release of version 9 of the Electronics Workbench EDA Design Suite. NI acquired Electronics Workbench in February 2005. DesignSuite 9 comprises a new release of the design capture and simulation package Multisim (also version 9) together with the printed-circuit-board design and routing software, Ultiboard 9 and Ultiroute 9.

Multisim 9 includes a number of upgrades to its functionality, but the "bigger picture" update is that it is fully integrated with version 8 of LabView. Users can employ the full range of Labview virtual instrumentation features, and mix real-world measurements with simulation results, side-by-side in the same environment. They can also use data that LabView captured—real-world data—as the stimulus to drive virtual circuits in the simulation environment. Multisim already comes with a set of virtual instruments to probe simulated results, but the new release allows users to supplement these with virtual instruments created in LabView. In addition to LabView, designers can also transfer data into the SignalExpress package for viewing and analysis: NI says that as this exchange takes place in the native file formats of the different packages, file translation is eliminated and with it a potential source of errors.

In version 9 of the package you also get circuit-design assistance with parametric design of op-amp configurations; moreover, you can connect back to the theoretical basis for your circuit design by directly using mathematical language to represent functions in your simulation. As with previous versions of Electronics Workbench, you can download a free demonstration version of the software—fully functional, it is restricted to 50 components, 750 pins and two PCB layers. It is, however, a 200-Mbyte download; the company offers a CD alternative.

National Instruments, www.ni.com, www.electronicsworkbench.com.