Numerical Innovations

Numerical Innovations was founded by Simon Garrison and Steve Geiger, two veterans of the PCB industry with nearly 20 years of software development experience.

Back in 1993, Simon started in the PCB industry doing CAD conversions for a small PCB photoplotting company in Santa Clara, California. Steve met Simon from a mutual friend while they were both attending San Jose State University – Simon in the School of Engineering, and Steve in the Business (Marketing) School. They immediately hit it off and became friends and business partners. Simon had been running his company Innovative CAD (Computations and Design) doing his conversion work, and Steve was helping with the marketing. When he explained to Steve that he was disappointed in how cumbersome the translation software in the market was, they decided to join forces to create Innovative CAD Software, Inc. (ICD) and they rest is history!

Innovative CAD grew from a two man operation to one of the most recognized companies in the PCB CAM market with it’s tools AutoGERB (world's first exporting of Gerber data directly from AutoCAD) and CAMtastic! (a CAM viewer which morphed into the first PCB DFM tool of its kind). They were the first in the industry to do some “cutting-edge” marketing by offering their products to be downloaded directly from the Web with a full 45 day trial, as well as offering complete online support. This and other sound business strategies positioned them for explosive growth and success. The ease of use, comprehensiveness and accuracy of their software tools started attracting big industry attention. ICD did a promotion with Altium, in which a seat of CAMtastic! was included with the purchase of their Protel software; up to that date it was the most successful promotion 'ever' for Altium, and subsequently ICD was acquired by Altium in 2000 for its remarkable technology.

Simon (now one of the leading experts in PCB CAM software development, as well as CAD conversion software) went on to work with Altium for several years developing its CAM division, then started a new firm developing custom OEM solutions and tools for the IC/MEMs industry. Steve started a successful advertising and public relations firm, which he eventually sold as well. Missing that spark and passion for the PCB market they joined forces once again to start NI with a vision to change the landscape of the PCB marketplace.

With tools like DFM Now! and FAB3000 they are revolutionizing the way CAM and DFM are done for PCB – again with the philosophy of being easy to use, comprehensive and accurate, while providing exceptional value for their customers