Powerview*

Powerview, Viewlogic's UNIX-based EDA environment and tool suite, is the first operating and development environment for electronic design automation (EDA) that makes multi-vendor tool interoperability a practical reality. Powerview gives you the flexibility you need to access data (e.g., the schematic database), customize user interfaces (e.g. a special pull-down menu), develop additional utilities (e.g. adjust a schematic according to corporate rules) and interface additional tools (e.g., a new analog simulator). We give you this flexibility through incorporating procedural programming interfaces, software backplanes, the Viewscript extension language and support for industry standards throughout our products. With the openness of our products, we are confident that they will meet your needs of today and the future.
Powerview uses a standards-based component architecture to allow design engineers to mix-and-match the best tools available, regardless of their source. It also enables corporate CAD staff to build and manage a fully integrated environment that encompasses EDA as well as other critical components of their corporation's total information system.
Powerview delivers robust, multi-vendor tool interoperability by incorporating:
Backplane technology - enables tools of the same type (e.g., logic simulators, PCB layout) to cooperate within a single environment.
Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) - for functional modification, graphic customization, and backplane integration.
Standards-based components - supported are CFI's Design Representation Procedural Interface (DRPI) and Scheme extension language, and the Motif graphical user interface.