Tech Tips

Tech Tip: Re-use Block Basics – Using Design Gateway to build a circuit block library

Building a circuit block reuse library is easier than you think

A reuse library can boost productivity and product reliability.

There are a lot of hardware functions that can be reused over and over again. No need to re-invent the wheel. Making every one of the functional sub-modules sharable in your organization is a dream come true. There is not a single engineer or manager who wants to find out that they just designed a new circuit that resembles one that already existed.

The Cold Reality!

Just about all companies that I am aware of struggle with how to achieve this. It is not a simple task to implement circuit block re-use.

You need the ability to create a “Library” of circuit blocks that can be used by both design authoring and design planning tools.
All the appropriate engineers need access to the contents.
The library needs to be managed:
- Approval control
- Read/write access control
- Easily searchable
- Etc.

Start with the basics.

Do not bite off too big a chunk of the task. Start with something achievable such as a circuit block library.

The short video that follows will show you how to create a basic block library structure and add functional blocks from an existing circuit to it.

Stay tuned to the Zuken Blog for more on this topic.

: Shawn Larson

Senior Technical Fellow

Shawn Larson is a Technical Marketing Manager with over 30 years’ experience in the EDA industry. For the last 15 years, his focus has been on Electronic and Electrical Engineering Product Data Management (e-PDM). Shawn has deployed numerous enterprise-class engineering data management systems and is considered an expert in this area. For fun, Shawn enjoys hiking the White Mountains, an occasional marathon and good Jazz.