Designer's Workbench: The User Environment

Designer's Workbench (DWB) integrates the design aids used at two transmission area locations of Bell Laboratories into a uniform system.1 The set of design aids at the Holmdel, New Jersey location is primarily used for computer architecture and printed circuit board design. The set of aids at the North Andover, Massachusetts location is used to design custom electronics from the silicon chip through the printed circuit board interconnection. Before Designer's Workbench, these aids consisted of more than 40 programs running on 12 different computer configurations at 9 physically separate locations. A major reason for the lack of acceptance of many design-aids systems is that little attention has been given to the needs and limited level of computer expertise of the user community. The users' requirements have been the controlling force in the implementation of Designer's Workbench. The capabilities and functions they require are extensive. Foremost, they need a fully integrated set of application programs for electrical design, test development, and physical design. * UNIX