EEWebPULSE_2013_i0086.pdf

EE Web

Issue 86

February 19, 2013

Kayvan

Oboudiyat

CEO, Altium

TECHNICAL ARTICLE

Managing

Electronics

Design Data

TECHNICAL ARTICLE

Microcontroller

Security System

Electrical Engineering Community

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EE Web PULSE TABLE OF CONTENTS

Kayvan Oboudiyat

CEO OF ALTIUM

A conversation with Altium’s CEO about the importance of device ecosystems and how their

CAD devices are fitting in to the bigger picture.

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Kayvan

Oboudiyat

Altium is a leading

provider of electronic

design tools for software

and development hard-

ware. Their unique design

environment allows elec-

tronics designers to connect

people with devices. We spoke

with Kayvan Oboudiyat , CEO,

as well as Aram Mirkazemi , CTO,

about the importance of a device

ecosystem, where Altium’s CAD de-

vices are in this ecosystem and the vi-

sion for Altium for the coming years.

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Kayvan, could you tell

us a little bit about your

background before joining

Altium?

strategy. The second step after that

acquisition was the relocation of

our headquarters to China about

18 months ago. The third step was

the change in leadership, which

happened a couple of months ago.

around the evolution of the web

and is a much bigger thing than

Altium can actually make happen.

If you look at Web 1.0, it was about

information, but with Web 2.0, the

participants and the environment

began interacting and exchanging

information with one another. Web

2.0 was about people and their

identity with the environment. Many

organizations want this kind of

ecosystems for their users. When

you look today, ecosystems are so

ubiquitous that you don’t even notice

them—Amazon, Google, eBay,

LinkedIn, to name a few. But what

is emerging now that is recognized

by many—the Intels of the world

and the IBMs of the world—is Web

3.0, where smart devices are at the

heart of it. With smart devices, the

web and the physical world come

together. Altium is not making

it happen, people are making it

happen by aligning themselves with

it. That’s what we see the device

ecosystem as, and we feel that a

CAD company such as ourselves

can play an important role in this.

or Firefox cannot actually bring the

design process into ecosystems.

as a web app. The end user actually

may not quite know whether it’s

a native plug-in or whether it’s a

web app, so you really could look

at it like a specialized browser for

engineering.

in the areas that are complimenting

and expanding our reach to other

key players in the industry, such

as supply chain and components

manufacturing. We also need to be

open to form relationships with the

investment community, so that we

can, if needed in the future, to raise

capital for mergers and acquisitions,

which we believe is going to add

another dimension our openness

strategy. I also think that openness

strategy needs to be applied within

the organization, to empower our

people to co-create solutions with

our partners. We must open the

doors so that others can come in to

Do you think you will take your

CAD tools and make them

web apps eventually, or will

just the app itself be tied to the

Internet?

Kayvan: I have degrees in electrical

engineering and mathematics

from Reading University, UK.

The first part of my career was

in telecommunications with a

major telecom company based in

Australia. In 1997, I joined, what was

at the time Protel International, as

the managing director, and worked

with Nick Martin and Aram. I’ve

been with the company since then,

in different capacities. Between

1999 and 2003, I played a key role in

the listing of the company, and I also

managed a range of mergers and

acquisitions for the company. These

acquisitions led to the development

and release of the Altium DXP

platform and Altium Designer

product line.

What percent of the

company’s efforts are spent

on development versus all

the other things the company

requires?

In terms of product development

and research, we have around

90 employees and around 60

component library developers.

Kayvan: I would like to point to a

couple of underpinning strategies

for Altium’s new direction. The first

strategy is openness. In the past, we

had what we called a closed-system,

which was applied to our platform,

our relationship with the industry

and forming partnerships. Closed

system was actually necessary so

that we could put our own platform

In the 90s, we developed what is

now known as the DXP platform.

In those years, we referred to it as

EDA/Client, a platform for tools

integration. Even today, if you

look at Altium, it has many tools in

one environment, which is made

possible by the DXP platform.

With the acquisition of Morfik, the

Why don’t you tell us a little

about your goal and vision for

Altium?

“With smart devices, the web and

the physical world come together.

Altium is not making it happen,

people are making it happen by

aligning themselves with it. That’s

what we see the device ecosystem

as, and we feel that a CAD

company such as ourselves can

play an important role in this.”

The main vision of Altium—

particularly over the recent years—

has been to develop technologies

and tools enabling design of

ecosystem of devices, otherwise

known as the Internet of Things by

our customers. This is an objective

that the company is committed to,

and we have already taken a number

of steps towards this objective.

Under the new paradigm we are

aiming to provide the technologies,

tools, and software required, to

enable engineers to create their

own ecosystems of devices. Altium

will become the enabler of that

ecosystem rather than trying to

create a global ecosystem for

others to join in. Of course, we are

an engineering company—our core

competency is board level design,

and it is very important that we

continue to deliver the latest board

level design technology and tools to

our customers.

Could you tell us a little bit

more about Altium as a

company? How many people

work there?

Last time I counted, we had just

over 400 employees. We have direct

offices in US, Germany, China,

Australia, and a small office in the

Ukraine. We also have a network

of 45 re-sellers around the world,

both in countries where we have

direct presence and countries

that are represented by re-sellers.

Since the listing of the company,

we have been focused a mainly on

development of technology, and the

outcome of that effort was Altium

DXP platform and Altium Designer.

About three years ago, we acquired

a company called Morfik, which

was founded by Aram. The reason

behind this acquisition was to bring

web technology into Altium, which

we were lacking at the time. That

was Altium’s first step, in a way,

towards realization of our ecosystem

How do your CAD tools

contribute to the ecosystem of

devices?

In the CAD world, we firmly believe

that the CAD tools need to be in the

forefront and center of that ecosystem

to allow design processes to be part

of the ecosystem. Bringing design

processes into an ecosystem is

much more demanding and much

more involved than is the case

in a typical content management

ecosystem. We see CAD tools as

needing to be right in there, in

other words, the ecosystem would

manifest itself through the CAD

tools—in some ways like the music

industry manifesting its songs and

content through iTunes. We see

CAD tools perform that same role.

A universal browser like Chrome

DXP platform has been extended

to include the web as well as tools

such as the PCB design, schematic

capture, simulation router, and many

more apps. Through Morfik, Altium

has built a platform that allows the

app to exist on the back-end server.

These apps then surface through

the DXP front-end next to PCB and

Schematic. So when you build an

app for this new platform, it will

actually fit right in next to your PCB

and Schematic, but it will be served

and applications together. Altium

is now moving to implement its

strategy of openness—opening up

our platform to the outside world

so that our customers can develop

their own applications that could

work with other applications on our

platform. We also need to make

sure that openness strategy goes

beyond the platform and establish

a much closer relationships with

our customers. We would like to be

open to form strategic partnerships

create a real ecosystem that would

be much bigger than what Altium

may able to achieve on its own.

Could you give us an example

of the types of partnerships

you are talking about and

how they might make the

experience for the designer

more valuable or effective?

Aram: An example that we have

actually done quite a bit of work on,

in terms of technology, is having what

What does the “device

ecosystem” mean in Altium’s

terminology?

Aram: Obviously, a device

ecosystem is essentially centered

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Altium’s Design Software

we call supply chain intelligence. As

you go through your design process,

information about parts is actually

there within the CAD and you can

tell about the availability and cost.

Your bill of material is what we call

a “live BOM,” so you can have a

connection with a part supplier.

This is an example of strategic

partnership with part suppliers.

How many parts does Altium

have for people who use the

app?

been putting a lot of effort in features

that our customers have been

asking for, like productivity features

and we have set up a section of our

website that we call “Ideas,” where

users put ideas up, and Altium will

develop them. We are going to put

a lot of effort into that area as well.

The kind of things we’re thinking

are multi-board systems (and the

ability to work with them), which

is one of the key areas that we can

make some contribution towards by

the virtue of the 3D capabilities that

we have.

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Aram: Currently we have about

150,000 parts but hope to have

760,000 parts added throughout the

next 2-3 years.

What are some of the features

you expect us to see irst over

the next year?

Kayvan: Strategic partnership

is something that we see as a

necessary strategy going forward.

There are, of course, quite a large

numbers of components and a

few major suppliers Altium will be

actively pursuing in order to form

partnership with the key component

suppliers. This isn’t something that

will happen over a short period of

time; it will be a strategy that we

work towards in the short to medium

term.

We have been focusing on the DXP

platform to include web and have

a full professional development

requirement for it. For the most part,

it’s done and we should be rolling

it out this year. As for the other

developments, like supply chain

intelligence, it’s been a big project

that has been running for several

years. We’ve reached a point where

its roll out is imminent. We have also

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