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Altium
Software company From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Altium Limited is an American[4][5] multinational software company that provides electronic design automation software to engineers who design printed circuit boards. Founded as Protel Systems Pty Ltd in Australia in 1985,[2] the company has regional headquarters in the United States, Australia, China, Europe, and Japan. Its products are designed for use in a Microsoft Windows environment and used in industries such as automotive, aerospace, defence and telecommunications. Its flagship solutions are Altium Discover, Altium Develop, and Altium Agile. The latter two include Altium Designer, a software for unified electronics design, and Altium 365, a platform that connects stakeholders and centralises data. Since August 2024, Altium is a subsidiary of Renesas Electronics.
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History
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1985–1991: Early history
The history of Altium dates to 1985 with the founding of Protel Systems Pty Ltd by electronics designer Nicholas Martin. He was working at the University of Tasmania in the 1980s. He saw an opportunity to make the design of electronics product affordable, by marrying the techniques of electronics design to the PC platform. The company launched its first product in 1985, a DOS-based printed circuit board (PCB) layout and design tool.[2][6] Protel PCB was marketed internationally by HST Technology Pty Ltd. since 1986.[2]
In October 1986 the San Diego–based ACCEL Technologies, Inc. acquired marketing and support responsibilities of the PCB program for the US, Canada and Mexico under the name Tango PCB.[2] In 1987, Protel launched the circuit diagram editor Protel Schematic for DOS. This was followed by Autotrax and Easytrax in 1988.
In the 1990s, the company began developing a unified electronics design system, which uses a single data model to hold all of the design data required to create a product. FPGA, PCB and embedded software development processes were unified with a common project view and data model. A variety of editing tools could then be used to access and manipulate the design, covering areas such as board layout and design, schematic capture, routing (EDA), testing, analysis and FPGA design.[7]
In 1991, Protel released Advanced Schematic/PCB 1.0 for Windows, the world's first Windows-based PCB design system.[8] It also began acquisition of various companies with the technologies needed to create a unified electronics design solution,[9] including Accolade Design Automation in 1998.[10]
1999–2010: IPO and name change to Altium
In August 1999, Altium went public on the Australian Securities Exchange under symbol (ASX:PRI). The company continued to develop and release new versions of this design tool, including Protel 98 in 1998, Protel 99 in 1999 and Protel 99 SE in 2000. In 2000, Altium acquired ACCEL with whom they previously partnered with in 1986.[11]
In 2001, the company changed its name from Protel Systems to Altium and continued to expand throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. It also made more acquisitions including embedded software developer Tasking in 2001 for A$73.4 million[12] and EDA software distributor Hoschar AG in 2002.[13]
Protel DXP was issued in 2003, Protel 2004 in 2004, Altium Designer 6.0 in 2005. In 2010, Altium acquired Morfik Technology Pty Ltd., a developer of visual design tools for engineering and deploying cloud-based software applications. Morfik's founders originally worked for Altium/Protel before leaving to found the company after Altium's IPO.[14][15]
Since 2011: Expansion and acquisitions
In 2011, Altium announced it would be expanding its presence in Shanghai, China, in the second half of 2011 to take advantage of lower wages.[16]
On October 15, 2012, the Altium board removed Nick Martin as CEO and named executive vice chairman Kayvan Oboudiyat to replace him.[17] On January 16, 2014, Altium announced Kayvan Oboudiyat's retirement and succession by Aram Mirkazemi as CEO.[18] In May of the same year, Altium announced that the core R&D operations for its flagship PCB CAD tools would again relocate in a "cost neutral" move to San Diego, California.[19]
In 2015, Altium acquired Octopart, a search engine for electronic and industrial parts.[20][21] The same year, it acquired the cloud-based electronic component management system company Ciiva.[22] Additional acquisitions by the company have included enterprise PLM integration solutions provider Perception Software in 2016[23] and cloud-based EDA tool company Upverter in 2017.[24][25]
On 7 June 2021, it was revealed that Altium rejected a bid from Autodesk, who had already bought the EDA tool EAGLE in 2016,[26] valuing the company at A$5.05 billion.[27]
In February 2024, Renesas Electronics agreed to acquire Altium for US$5.9 billion.[28][4] The acquisition was completed in August 2024, with Altium becoming a subsidiary of Renesas Electronics.[29]
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Solutions
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Altium develops software and platforms for the design and realisation of electronic products, including printed circuit boards (PCBs). Its tools support every stage of electronics development—from schematic capture and PCB layout to sourcing, version-control and manufacturing hand-off—and are used across industries such as automotive, aerospace, defence, and telecommunications.
The company formerly marketed several discrete offerings such as Altium Designer and Altium 365; as of 2024–2025 these have been reorganised under the new product family names: Altium Discover, Altium Agile, and Altium Develop. The reorganisation reflects an evolution from standalone licences toward integrated, cloud-enabled lifecycle platforms.
Current Solutions
Altium Discover
Altium Discover is a platform that equips engineers with a solution-oriented approach to finding, exploring, and selecting components and technologies that meet specific design requirements. It captures the context around design intent to enable more solution-focused engagement, strengthens communication and collaboration with manufacturers and distributors, and provides actionable insight and intelligence to support faster, more informed decision-making.
Altium Develop
Altium Develop is a collaborative platform for multidisciplinary electronics product development centered around PCB design, sourcing, and manufacturing. The product features and price point are suitable for individual contractors or freelance designers, hobbyists, and professional engineers working at large companies. For engineers working on larger teams, collaboration and data management features through a cloud platform provide real-time insight across the entire lifecycle of a project. Every change, comment, and decision is captured in context, giving collaborators shared visibility without the need for formal status checks.
Users can collaborate across electrical, mechanical, sourcing, and manufacturing disciplines within a unified environment. Users can access their product data, functional requirements, and version histories within this environment. Engineers, 3rd party stakeholders, and other team members can be given access to a project at any stage in the product development process.
Altium Develop integrates industry-leading PCB design through Altium Designer, expands project visibility to all functional experts, and displays system requirements contextually within supported design file formats. The platform can also display supply chain data for components directly in libraries, schematics, and PCB layouts, which includes pricing, availability, and lifecycle insights to guide sourcing decisions. Users can also invite manufacturers to review a project by giving direct access to the design data before a design is sent for manufacturer, allowing potential product defects to be identified early.
Altium Agile
Altium Agile is a platform-based solution for electronics product and systems development that connects users and engineering environments through integrations with tools such as Jira, enterprise PLM systems, SiliconExpert, and Z2Data. The solution establishes structure, governance, and managed processes across people, tools, data, and workflows while preserving the speed and creative agility needed in electronics engineering.[30]
Editions
Altium Agile is delivered through two editions: Agile Teams and Agile Enterprise. Each edition is aligned to a distinct organisational profile and set of requirements. These editions correspond to the broader executive vision that separates companies with growth and organisational needs from those with regulatory and digitalisation needs.
Agile Teams
Agile Teams is designed for smaller companies, workgroups, or organisations that face increasing complexity in electronics development but do not operate under extensive regulatory or digital-transformation mandates. It provides an out-of-the-box environment with minimal setup and no need for significant IT infrastructure. Teams focuses on foundational structure and control, enabling organisations to solve challenges such as unmanaged data, disconnected tools, ad-hoc processes, and supply-chain risk.
Agile Enterprise
Agile Enterprise is tailored for larger, digitally mature, and often heavily regulated companies that require deeper integrations, stringent compliance, and enterprise-level governance. It extends electronics development into the broader product development ecosystem, connecting ECAD data and workflows with PLM, ERP, requirements management, compliance systems, and other enterprise platforms. Enterprise emphasises traceability, data security, managed processes, and integration throughout the digital enterprise.
Octopart
Octopart is a searchable electronic-parts intelligence engine offering up-to-date availability, pricing, CAD models and parametric data for millions of components, and is operated by Altium.
Octopart includes BOM Tool, which is a browser-based application for managing Bills of Materials (BOMs). It allows users to upload or create BOMs and automatically match components to Octopart’s database of electronic parts. The tool provides insights into:
- Part availability across distributors
- Current pricing, including volume-based quotes
- Lifecycle status, such as active, NRND, or obsolete
- Compliance information, including RoHS and other regulatory markers
- Alternative and cross-referenced parts
Power Analyzer & Signal Analyzer Extensions
These extensions were developed in partnership with Keysight; they integrate into the PCB layout editor in Altium Designer so that post-layout simulations can be implemented without requiring a 3D electromagnetic field solver.
Power Analyzer is used for DC power integrity; it evaluates voltage drop, current-density and thermal hotspots in the power delivery network in a PCB and displays the results in a rendering of the PCB layout. Power Analyzer has replaced the legacy PDN Analyzer developed in partnership with CST.
Signal Analyzer enables signal integrity and timing analyses within the PCB layout environment. The tool extracts standard signal integrity metrics directly from a PCB layout and it runs inside the PCB editor in Altium Designer. Signal Analyzer determines track impedance, S-parameters, and propagation delay for timing analysis on parallel buses. It also provides automated channel compliance DDR and PCIe buses, or users can create custom S-parameter masks, impedance constraints, and timing constraints for channel compliance analysis.
Other Products
Altium Designer — The flagship PCB/EDA application. As of 2024 the standalone licence offering has been superseded by the Altium Agile/Develop product families; the legacy branding remains in use for parts of the desktop environment.
Altium 365 — Initially released as a cloud-collaboration platform, this product has been folded into the Altium Agile/Develop framework during the 2025 rebranding.
CircuitMaker — A free PCB design tool aimed at makers and hobbyists; no longer actively developed and largely superseded by the cloud-platform strategy.
CircuitStudio — Mid-tier PCB-design software retired in the early 2020s and functionality merged into Altium Designer.
Altium NEXUS — Previously an enterprise PCB-workflow solution; discontinued and replaced by Altium Agile in 2024.
Altium Concord Pro — Data-management and component-traceability server software; replaced by the unified cloud offerings.
Altium Vault — Earlier data-management platform, replaced by Concord Pro and subsequently by the unified cloud offerings.
NanoBoard — A reconfigurable-hardware development kit; hardware line discontinued in the early 2010s.
P-CAD — Acquired via AccelEDA; officially retired in 2006.
AutoTRAX / EasyTRAX — Original DOS-based PCB-tools from the 1980s; long discontinued.
TASKING — Embedded software tool-chain brand formerly included in the Altium portfolio; divested in 2021.
PDN Analyzer — Power-distribution-network analysis tool now integrated as the “Power Analyzer” extension within Altium Designer.
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