At this week’s Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) in Boston, electronic design engineers are watching cutting-edge product demonstrations, listening to visionary speeches, and attending technical training classes. However, that is not all that is happening during ESC, as representatives from Digi-Key, NXP, National Instruments, Sunstone Circuits, and Screaming Circuits meet and discuss ways to make design engineers’ jobs easier and bring their designs to market faster.

Digi-Key’s Tony Harris, vice president, e-Commerce, and Dave Doherty, vice president, semiconductor product, are attending the conference and meeting with fellow collaborators to discuss the Sunstone ECOsystem, an open environment designed to make the design-to-manufacture process dramatically easier. Digi-Key and other ECOsystem partners have formed an industry work group to improve the systems and processes required to take a project from the workbench through production. “Our first ECOsystem meeting took place late last year at the APEX show,” says Harris. “Since that time, partners have developed a statement of work and specific plans for company-to-company collaboration.”

The Sunstone ECOsystem Design Environment serves as a centralized force that brings each partner’s area of expertise together to benefit designers. In turn, the ECOsystem enables participating partners to better service their customers. Through the ECOsystem, designers can more seamlessly integrate additional elements of their design flow, such as schematic symbol generation, PCB raw board and assembly quotes, and a full component Bill of Material manager without leaving their EDA environment. Quality working prototypes in fewer turns and shorter time are possible through this open environment.

Harris adds, “Digi-Key is excited to be part of this industry-leading resource. As we make our content, for example component, device library and pricing information, readily available to partners through a web services interface, we support an environment of virtual utility consumption by the design engineering and procurement communities.”

Electronic component distributor Digi-Key Corporation focuses on providing customers with superior service, which includes product selection and availability, on-time delivery, and responsiveness. Using leading-edge processes and state-of-the-art technologies, Digi-Key serves a global customer base from its 600,000 square foot facility in Thief River Falls, Minnesota, USA.

About Digi-Key Corporation

As one of the world’s fastest growing distributors of electronic components, Digi-Key Corporation has earned its reputation as an industry leader through its total commitment to service and performance. Digi-Key is a full-service provider of both prototype/design and production quantities of electronic components, offering more than 1.5 million products from over 400 quality name-brand manufacturers. A testament to Digi-Key’s unparalleled commitment to service, North American design engineers have ranked Digi-Key #1 for Overall Performance for 18 consecutive years (EE Times Distribution Study/August 2009). Additional information and access to Digi-Key’s broad product offering is available at www.digikey.com.