Electronic-design-automation (EDA) supplier AWR has unveiled Version 2008 of its Microwave Office design environment. The release includes more than 100 enhancements and changes designed to improve the user interface and increase flexibility. The enhancements are meant to save time, maximize usable screen space, provide greater insight into the design, and allow bigger designs to be handled more quickly.
Version 2008 of Microwave Office includes an interface to the ICED IC design and verification software as well as improvements for seamless connection with third-party electromagnetic (EM) simulation software as well as to AWR's ACE E and AXIEM tools. Version 2008 also features APLAC harmonic-balance and optional time-domain simulation capabilities for working on complex and nonlinear designs. In addiition, it provides support for parameterized subcircuit layouts as part of the overall design, including tuning, optimization, and yield analysis, and new plotting capabilities that allow a measurement to be plotted versus any other measurement, such as power-added efficiency versus output power. More information on Version 2008 is available on the firm's web site.