Altium
More info
- Creator
- Nick Martin
- Released
- 1985
- Type
- EDA software (PCB)
- Owner
- Renesas (2024)
- Website
- altium.com
An Australian software house whose circuit-board tools became the standard for hobbyists and smaller design shops — a cheaper alternative to the industry giants' EDA suites.
The company was founded in 1985 as Protel in Hobart, Tasmania, by Nick Martin, selling PCB tools for DOS early on. The rename to Altium came in 2001, and its flagship Altium Designer pulled schematic capture, PCB layout and simulation into a single Windows program.
Where Cadence and Synopsys aim at chip design and the very largest systems, Altium found a niche among smaller firms, consultants and education. In 2024 it was bought by the Japanese chipmaker Renesas for around $5.9 billion.