I suspect others of you also received this flyer or will get it in the next
day or two. Wondering what your reactions are. I see a number of things:
1) Now they want to SELL me the Tasking compiler toolset for the 8051
processor that I'll never use, for $800US. Maybe that's why they never
delivered the copy which they promised as being free to all registered 99SE
licensees last Fall?
2) They still claim they'll release Phoenix ("the next generation Protel
design suite") within Q1 2002. Since beta test has apparently not yet even
started, I'm guessing with consideable confidence that it will be either very
buggy or very late. Maybe both, as managers scramble to avoid the
embarrassment of another schedule slip....
3) I'm curious to see if the new VHDL capability is actually going to be
useful, as I have some design work to do in that arena next year. Hopefully
it will be better than the toy support for PLDs in 99SE.
4) I'm anxiously awaiting a look at what they mean by "integrated components
and libraries". If that means their programmers are going to strap some more
constraints on our backs, goodbye. But if it means that the designers of the
supplied schematic and PCB libraries might actually talk to one another, so
that the libraries work together without major bugs, that would be a serious
improvement. Of course, it's nothing more than a bug fix. I and many others
who have posted here completely avoid the Protel libaries because they're so
full of bugs.
5) Since they again tout their "powerful simulation tools and extensive
project and document management features", but they don't indicate any new
"features" of those tools, I'm wondering if it's just the same old junk,
repackaged. "Working" would by itself be a wonderful new feature.
Don't get me wrong - I use and like Protel for schematic capture and PCB
layout. But the bugs remain annoying, and the other highly touted features
are a joke. Here's hoping Altium has been listening to this list a whole lot
more than their new image leads me to believe. I'm still skeptical.....
Steve Hendrix
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