Collaboration provides DesignSpark community with access to highly accurate and credible technical information from Fairchild, enabling faster design times

Oxford, UK, 2 April 2014 - RS Components (RS), the trading brand of Electrocomponents plc (LSE:ECM), the world's leading high service distributor of electronics and maintenance products, and Fairchild Semiconductor (NASDAQ: FCS), a leading global supplier of high performance power and mobile semiconductor solutions, have collaborated to create a set of complete reference designs for seven of Fairchild's most popular evaluation boards.

The collaboration between Fairchild and RS marks a major milestone in the industry's adoption of the Open Source hardware style.

Through this collaboration, the DesignSpark community of over 200,000 users has access to highly accurate and credible technical information from Fairchild, enabling faster design times. Consisting of full circuit schematics and PCB layouts in the industry's standard DesignSpark PCB format, these evaluation boards are now readily accessible to every engineer for insertion as ready-made blocks - with full bill of materials (BOM), pre-populated with ordering data - directly into their electronics designs.

Engineers will be able to save design time by re-using the design examples. As a result, designers can rapidly introduce Fairchild technology with manufacturer's recommended hardware setup into new electronic products. Additionally, they can freely modify the designs to suit their specific design requirements. The reference designs are available to download from the DesignShare collaborative open-source design community on the RS website at http://www.rs-online.com/designspark/designshare/eng/partners/view/fairchild-semiconductor/.

RS Components maintains a well-stocked inventory of nearly 2,000 Fairchild parts. All Fairchild parts stocked by RS are backed up by ModelSource PCB library files, allowing rapid integration into DesignSpark PCB, Altium, PADS, OrCAD and other popular ECAD formats. Further expansion of their inventory will eventually include the entire Fairchild product line and will be available from stock for same-day despatch. Full coverage of ModelSource symbols and footprints is planned for all newly introduced Fairchild products. 

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About Fairchild Semiconductor
Fairchild Semiconductor (NYSE: FCS) - global presence, local support, smart ideas. Fairchild delivers energy-efficient, easy-to-use and value-added semiconductor solutions for power and mobile designs. We help our customers differentiate their products and solve difficult technical challenges with our expertise in power and analog and mixed signal products. Please contact us on the web at http://www.fairchildsemi.com.

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Fairchild Semiconductor Editorial Contact:
Paul R. Hughes
Public Relations Manager
1-(800) 341-0392 X 3110
Email: paul.hughes@fairchildsemi.com

About RS Components
RS Components and Allied Electronics are the trading brands of Electrocomponents plc, the world's leading high service distributor of electronics and maintenance products. With operations in 32 countries, we offer around 500,000 products through the internet, catalogues and at trade counters to over one million customers, shipping around 44,000 parcels a day. Our products, sourced from 2,500 leading suppliers, include electronics, automation and control, test and measurement, electrical and mechanical components.

Electrocomponents is listed on the London Stock Exchange and in the last financial year ended 31 March 2013 had revenues of £1.24bn.

For more information, please visit the website at www.rs-components.com.

Editorial Contact
Lisa Townsend
EMEA PR Manager
RS Components
lisa.townsend@rs-components.com
+44 (0)1536 209026

PR Agency Contact
Janice Fenton
Account Director
Publitek Technology PR
janice.fenton@publitek.com
+44(0)1225 470000

Further information is available via these links:
Twitter: @RSElectronics; @alliedelec; @designsparkRS
RS Components on Linkedin
http://www.linkedin.com/company/rs-components

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