MUNICH – Zuken today announced its support for IPC-2581, joining a growing cadre of companies aligned behind the electronic data transfer format.

"Open standards, such as IPC-2581, have always afforded the greatest benefit to the widest audience," said Steve Chidester, Zuken's head of product marketing. "To support the requirements of our customers and the industry, Zuken will be an active member of the consortium and is committed to supporting this standard as a viable solution for our customers and the industry."

A major Zuken customer applauded the decision. "We're happy to see Zuken support the IPC-2581 format and we're pleased to see the formation of a consortium of vendors and OEMs to promote and encourage adoption of the format," says Mike Green at Lockheed Martin. "We have long believed that independently controlled and maintained standards are the most effective solution for industry-wide needs such as this."

IPC-2581 is a generic standard for printed circuit board manufacturing description data and transfer methodology. Zuken is a founding member of a new cross-industry consortium that has been established to support the standard. The first EDA vendor consortium member to support IPC-2581, Zuken has introduced the format into its CR-5000 product line in response to requests from customers and with the view that an independent format is best suited to meet customer requirements.

The need for an independent format that covers the wide range of needs has been recognized for many years, Zuken said. This led to the recent formation of a consortium for supply-chain adoption of IPC-2581. The consortium's goal is "to accelerate the adoption of IPC-2581 as an open, neutrally maintained global standard to encourage innovation, improve efficiency and reduce costs." Zuken said it supports efforts by independent standards bodies such as IPC to create and maintain neutral standards that all may adopt and benefit from.

Zuken joins Cadence, Aegis, Adiva, Wise and DownStream Technologies among the leading CAD/CAM/ERP companies supporting IPC-2581. Some of these companies will convene this week at PCB West at the Santa Clara, CA, Convention Center as part of a panel to discuss data transfer.

To review a history of the printed circuit board industry's data transfer formats, click here.