Altium Limited
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| Public | |
| Industry | EDA, Printed circuit board, FPGA, Embedded Systems |
| Founded | 1985 |
| Founder | Nick Martin |
| Headquarters |
Sydney Australia, San Diego United States, Shanghai China, Karlsruhe Germany, Amersfoort Netherlands |
| Products | Altium Designer, Vault, CircuitStudio, CircuitMaker, TASKING, Octopart, Ciiva |
| Revenue | US $100 M (FY 2016) |
| Website | www.altium.com |
Altium Limited is an Australian owned public software company that provides PC-based electronics design software for engineers who design printed circuit boards. Founded in Tasmania, Australia in 1985, Altium now has regional headquarters in Australia, China, United States, Europe, and Japan, with resellers in all other major markets. The company was known as "Protel" until 2001.
Nicholas Martin, an electronics designer working at the University of Tasmania in the 1980s, recognized that the tools then available limited the ability to design printed circuit boards, either through a difficult manual process, or by requiring high-priced software that required expensive mainframe computers. With the development of the personal computer, Martin saw an opportunity to make the design of electronics product affordable, by marrying the techniques of electronics design to the PC platform. In 1985 he founded Protel, launching the company's first product later that same year — a DOS-based printed circuit board (PCB) layout and design tool.
In August 1999, Altium was listed as a public company (ASX:ALU) to assist in funding of strategic technology development and acquisition. The company continued to develop and release new versions of this design tool, following Protel for Windows, the world's first Microsoft Windows-based PCB design system.
Protel's headquarters resided in Hobart, TAS, Australia until 1990 when Nick Martin decided to move the company to California's Silicon Valley, which was proving to be a hot spot for technology companies. In 1994, he moved operations back to Sydney, followed by the successful IPO in August 1999. After a number of strategic technology and company acquisitions (see below), the company changed its name to Altium in 2001. Through various acquisitions Altium has maintained a significant presence in the United States, Europe and Asia. In 2011, Altium announced it would be expanding its presence in Shanghai, China in the second half of 2011 to take advantage of lower wages. The company will remain an Australian headquartered company and will continue to be listed on the Australian stock exchange, with a major administration presence in Sydney. Development continues to be a global effort, with product development staff in United States, Ukraine, Australia and the Netherlands.
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