Editing Electronic design automation (section)

{{Short description|Software for designing electronic systems}}
{{redirect|ECAD|the Brazilian organization|ECAD (Brazil)|other uses|ECAD (disambiguation)}}
{{redirect|Electronic design|the magazine|Electronic Design (magazine)}}
{{Use American English|date = April 2019}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2012}}

'''Electronic design automation''' ('''EDA'''), also referred to as '''electronic computer-aided design''' ('''ECAD'''),<ref>{{cite web|title=About the EDA Industry|url=http://www.edac.org/industry|publisher=Electronic Design Automation Consortium|access-date=29 July 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150802073506/http://www.edac.org/industry|archive-date=August 2, 2015|df=mdy-all}}</ref> is a category of [[software tools]] for designing [[Electronics|electronic systems]] such as [[integrated circuit]]s and [[printed circuit board]]s. The tools work together in a [[Design flow (EDA)|design flow]] that chip designers use to design and analyze entire [[semiconductor]] chips. Since a modern [[semiconductor]] chip can have billions of components, EDA tools are essential for their design; this article in particular describes EDA specifically with respect to [[integrated circuit]]s (ICs).