The Global Information Business unit of Arrow, a component distributor, has joined Mentor's Authorized DataFusion Partner (Adapt) program under their agreement.

"Mentor Graphics customers will get easy access to our best-in-class information without having to leave the design environment that they are accustomed to working in," said Chris Henry, vice president and general manager for Arrow's Global Information Business. "Integrating our data with Mentor's powerful EDA tools offers the best of both worlds, providing supply chain intelligence that will help customers make more informed design decisions."

Mentor's Adapt program is designed to enable Web-based information providers to integrate their services into DMS. Mentor and Adapt member companies are working to develop standard interfaces between DMS and the partners' offerings, which Mentor will offer as add-on modules to DMS. The modules will enable users with subscriptions to a partner's products or services to incorporate the Web-based information into their company's library.

Mentor Graphics expects to have a module early in 2003 that will allow for the integration of Arrow's Ubiquidata into DMS. Ubiquidata makes technical data available in a designer's electronic design automation (EDA) environment. It includes data on product lifecycle, availability, breadth of usage and pricing guidelines to help engineers analyze the viability of a part early in the design cycle before making a selection, potentially eliminating the need for costly changes later when a system moves to production.

The Ubiquidata database will help designers choose devices that are likely to do well all the way through the production cycle, Henry said. Once a part is selected, engineers can share that information with their company's purchasing department through the Arrow Connectivity Dashboard, bridging the development and purchasing processes by giving designers a look at inventory position, backlog and qualify suppliers, Henry said.

"We give engineers the opportunity to do change management at the very beginning stages [of a design] when the production line is not dependent upon them, where parts haven't been purchased yet, and they can make decisions and changes early at a relatively low cost," Henry said.