In 1968, Eric Wolfendale wrote an article entitled ‘Computer aids for electronic equipment design’ in the first issue of Computer-Aided Design. At the time Wolfendale led a team within Racal Research Ltd that was investigating the possibilities for automating aspects of the process of designing electronic equipment. In the intervening twenty years, Wolfendale's research team has transformed itself into a supplier of electronic design automation (EDA) systems, the Racal Redac Group. Reading Wolfendale's article now is an enlightening task, because it reveals that while substantial progress has been made in developing software to support EDA, the pioneers in the field had clearly identified most, if not all, of the major issues.