Date: 21/04/2009

Microchip offering free schematic symbols and PCB footprints

Microchip Technology in partnership with Accelerated Designs is providing free schematic symbols and PCB footprints. The tool named Ultra Librarian Reader (ULR) tool will provide schematic symbols and Printed Circuit Board (PCB) footprints for Microchip's entire product portfolio, including Microchip's 8-, 16- and 32-bit PIC microcontrollers, dsPIC Digital Signal Controllers (DSCs), Serial EEPROMs and Analog and Interface products.

Both PCB footprints and schematic symbols are available for free download in a vendor-neutral format, which can then be exported to the leading EDA CAD/CAE design tools-including the newly released Cadsoft Eagle support-using the ULR. The standard Microchip footprints generated by the ULR are based on the IPC-7351 specification. The free ULR tool, including both footprints and symbols, is available now for download at: http://www.microchip.com/CAD.

The ULR is a subset of the complete Accelerated Designs Ultra Librarian toolset, and generates components and their attributes in virtually any EDA CAD/CAE format. An enhanced version of the Accelerated Designs Ultra Librarian software is also available for purchase. The enhanced package enables software models to be modified and auto-generated to meet any user-defined requirement.