Electronica 2000: Valor Spins Out New Internet Company

Electronica 2000: Valor Spins Out New Internet Company
Electronica, Munich - November 22, 2000 Valor Computerized Systems announced the formation of e4eNet, which stands for e-collaboration 4 the Electronics industry Network. The new company will focus on providing supply chain management services through web-based browsers. The new company said it will announce products in the first quarter of 2001.

e4eNet is addressing the growing trend in production outsourcing by integrating the various components of the supply chain; the OEM, component suppliers, board fabrication suppliers, assembly houses, and other providers. The difficulty in working with diverse and disparate groups of engineers is the many data representations for the CAD and CAM functions. Because each company has different data sources and requirements, collaborating on changes and updates becomes a highly iterative and time-consuming function.

To integrate the various functions, e4eNet is establishing a central web-based server that uses ODB++ and XML to create overlays to the data to enable information-sharing capabilities. The component data, including specifications and vendor information, is in a RosettaNet standard format so the various applications can share the data. The web technology, acquired from Sun Microsystems, enables data transfers across platforms. The server tools are written in Java to operate across any operating platform.

Security is enabled through 630-bit encryption for server to server connections, and 128-bit encryption for user to server connections. In addition, the infrastructure permits the establishment of public and private sections within the working areas. The public areas are open to all of the vendors working with a single OEM, while the private areas are restricted to OEM to single vendor communications.

The web-based tools permit on-line design for manufacturing reviews and the merging of data from the multiple databases at the OEM's site. The ability to hold on-line meetings and share information should improve time to market, product quality and the relationships between and amongst the collection of vendors and OEM partners, while reducing the costs of development and manufacturing.

e4eNet has experience with the engineering flows and data for PCB designs through their internal relations with Valor. Its infrastructure supports the evaluation and negotiation of a design through data sharing and electronic alerts, which are set up to notify automatically all affected parties of changes and updates in any of the data sets. Although the web-based tools currently work with Valor and Cadence Allegro PCB design tools, the company plans to have open interfaces to all PCB design and analysis tools as well as the other CAM tools that are used in typical PCB design and manufacturing flows.

Current services include management services, bill of material (BOM) data manager, design for manufacturing (DFM) manager, panelization manager, mechanical data manager, application meeting manager, production checkpoint auditor, guideline administrator, product content manager, and production data release manager. Other applications will be added over time as the interfaces to other tools are developed.

The company will be charging annual subscriptions for its services. Pricing will depend on the number of users and the size of the vendor network for the OEM. Other services will be developed to link to other business-to-business service providers. These other resources will provide other engineering and purchasing capabilities to include component data, vendor information, and web-based design and analysis tools.