Hardware Podcasts

Altium Is Coming Home to the Designer | Lawrence Romine on OnTrack

OnTrack · 18 Aug 2026 · 37m · Episode 350

What this episode covers

Lawrence Romine, senior director of marketing at Altium, explains the company's strategic pivot from a single-product model to three distinct offerings: Altium Develop, Teams, and Enterprise. He details how Altium Develop targets individual designers and small teams with a PCB-centric, lower-cost solution that excludes enterprise features like single sign-on, while Enterprise serves regulated industries with governance. Romine also addresses user concerns about being left behind during the shift to cloud collaboration, confirming a return to frequent, feature-rich core PCB design releases similar to the 2015–2020 era.

Most relevant to

large enterprises

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Altium, Cadence, Mentor
Products
Altium Develop, Altium Teams, Altium Enterprise, Altium 365, Altium Designer
Tools
Valispace

Related episodes from other shows

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • EMS@C-LEVEL · 23m

    EMS@C-LEVEL 2022 Season Episode #1 with Altium and MacroFab

    Ted Pawela, Chief Ecosystem Officer at Altium, and Misha Govshteyn, CEO of MacroFab, discuss their strategic partnership and the launch of the Altimate solution. They explain how this integration connects Altium Designer directly to MacroFab’s cloud manufacturing network, allowing designers to see real-time cost, availability, and DFM data. The conversation highlights the shift from 'designing for manufacturing' to 'designing with manufacturing' to maintain agility and data coherence during the new product introduction process.

    EDA & CAD toolsDesign for manufacturing & NPI
    10 chapters

  • Moore's Lobby · 52m

    Improving Electronic Design Collaboration by Shifting Left and Right

    Ananth Avva, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cloud Platform at Altium, discusses the challenges and strategies of bringing SaaS practices into engineering via Altium 365. He explains the concepts of 'shifting left' and 'shifting right' to improve collaboration between PCB designers and downstream teams like procurement and compliance. Avva highlights that organizations often overestimate the cost of change and underestimate the benefits of adopting cloud-based system-level thinking, which is crucial for managing complex supply chains and ensuring design integrity.

    Connected products & IoTEDA & CAD tools
    10 chapters

  • The Amp Hour · 1h 00m

    Layout Review with Zachariah Peterson

    Zachariah Peterson, founder of Northwest Engineering Solutions and Altium's technical consultant, discusses the state of PCB design, the industry's shift toward EMC expertise, and the impact of AI tooling. He details Altium's acquisition by Renesas, the critical need for engineers to understand manufacturing constraints and stack-ups, and the risks of relying on semiconductor data sheets for EMC guidance. Peterson also shares insights from his 'Layout Review' content series, highlighting common DRC errors and the value of mentorship in a lean industry.

    EDA & CAD toolsSensors & measurement in products
    9 chapters

  • The Amp Hour · 1h 08m

    Publicly Traded Hobby with Ben Jordan

    Ben Jordan, a former Altium employee and current YouTube educator, and Dave Jones, a former Altium and Autodesk FAE, discuss their shared history at Altium and the company's evolution. They analyze Altium's strategic missteps, including the failed pivot to modular FPGA-based hardware, the disastrous price drop during the GFC, and the cultural shift after founder Nick Martin was ousted. The conversation also covers the technical legacy of Altium's software, such as its Delphi codebase and file compatibility, before touching on Jones's current work in CAD consulting and DSP.

    EDA & CAD toolsGrowth, exits & acquisitions
    6 chapters

  • The Amp Hour · 1h 13m

    Altium...Acquired!

    Dave Jones and Chris Gammell discuss Renesas acquiring Altium for $6 billion, analyzing the strategic fit for automotive electronics and the potential impact on Altium 365 and Octopart. Jones details Altium's history from Protel to its current state, including the controversial acquisition of Morphic and the ousting of founder Nick Martin. The hosts speculate on whether the acquisition will lead to price changes or product consolidation, noting that Altium's CEO Aram Murkazemi stands to make $650 million.

    Intellectual propertyPricing, margins & unit economics
    8 chapters

The summary, chapters and topics are generated from the episode’s audio by this directory, not written by OnTrack. The episode itself belongs to its publisher.