FEBRUARY 8--National Instruments (Austin, TX;www.ni.com) has announced the acquisition of Toronto, Canada-based Electronics Workbench, a supplier of electronics design automation software. The Electronics Workbench flagship product, Multisim circuit-simulation software, is widely used for electronic-circuit design, board layout, and electrical-engineering training programs by companies and academic institutions including Sony, Boeing, MIT, and DeVry. The acquisition strengthens the integration between functional test and design tools and will advance graphical-system-design technology.
"Our customers are not satisfied with the integration of design, simulation, and test tools in the industry today," said Ray Almgren, NI vice president of product marketing and academic relations. "A graphical-system-design platform that integrates these disparate tools will increase productivity and make testing throughout the design process more seamless. Our acquisition of Electronics Workbench is a step forward in making this vision a reality and satisfying the needs of the design engineering community in industry and academia."
For several years, Electronics Workbench and National Instruments have collaborated to integrate Multisim with the NI LabVIEW graphical development environment through downloadable software and technical resources that have helped thousands of engineers quickly design, simulate and validate electronic circuits. The Electronics Workbench acquisition adds graphical design and simulation software to the National Instruments platform of graphical development tools.
NI will retain all Electronics Workbench employees and continue to operate the company as a separate entity in Toronto, Canada. National Instruments and Electronics Workbench development teams will work to further integrate the products and knowledge of the two companies. As a wholly owned subsidiary of NI, Electronics Workbench plans to continue to develop and offer its complete line of design automation software and directly support educational initiatives with uninterrupted support to participating schools. The acquisition is not expected to have a material impact on National Instruments earnings for the first quarter of 2005.
For additional information, visitwww.ni.com/design/eda.htm or www.ni.com/academic/companion_products_ewb.htm.
