RS Components DesignSpark PCB version 5.0

The DesignSpark PCB version 5.0 from RS components integrates two additional features within the free design tool - online Design Rule Checking and buses. These features have been introduced to further reduce design times for engineers and to minimise errors during the design process. This new release builds on the previous version of DesignSpark PCB, which provided access to the ModelSource component library, PCB quote service and BOM quote functionality.

The Design Rule Checking tool determines whether the physical layout of an integrated circuit satisfies a series of recommended parameters called design rules. DRC is an important step during the physical verification of a design, which is normally carried out in the post-design phase. Online DRC is an advancement of this process that enables the engineer to detect errors in real time during the design stage, highlighting any issues before the design is finalised and layout completed.

The inclusion of online DRC within DesignSpark PCB Version 5.0 is a significant addition to the software’s functionality, introducing considerable time-saving benefits to the user as any errors can be rectified immediately with minimum knock-on effect to the rest of the design, ensuring maximum yield and reliability.

The increasing adoption of digital design has resulted in the use of on-chip buses, or bundles of related wires, to transfer data, enabling the engineer to combine multiple data signals into a bus in multiples of 8 (eg, 8, 16, 32). Instead of drawing and/or labelling the individual wires in a schematic, a single ‘bus wire’ can be used to represent related wires, thus simplifying the final schematic.