Mentor Blogs

I’ve been getting some positive feedback on my previous posts on Concurrent CFD so I thought I’d continue with the thread. I’ve described traditional CFD, upfront CFD and concurrent CFD as very different entities - which they are, but I ought to point out that they represent the evolutionary spectrum of how the CFD technology itself has been packaged over the years. Partly this change results from … Read More

Upfront Analysis, Traditional CFD, Upfront CFD, CAD Integration, CFD, CAD Embedded, FloEFD, Fluent Design, Concurrent CFD, Design Flow

Mentor’s Thermal Design Software Is The Best. OK, say’s who? It’s the conclusion from some independent research carried out by Aberdeen Research Group. Last time I showed that Aberdeen had found that Mentor’s customers are almost 3 times faster at completing thermal verification than users of other tools. Let’s take a look at why that is. Aberdeen found evidence of what users of other tools were doing … Read More

Thermal Management, Thermal Design, Design Flow, Design Process, CFD, FloTHERM.PCB, PCB Respin, Electronics Cooling

Some more thoughts on the fluent design vs. laminar flow analogy In my last post I used the example of an airfoil to illustrate a product design (object) that passes smoothly, or fluently through the design process (a fluid) without causing much turbulence (design rework) that otherwise disrupts the downstream flow (late in the design process) making the flow take longer to recover (increasing the … Read More

Upfront Analysis, Concurrent CFD, Design Flow, CFD, Fluent Design, Fluid Dynamics, Design Process, FloEFD

Electrical engineers often talk about a ‘design flow’, which Wikipedia defines as ‘the explicit combination of electronic design automation tools to accomplish the design of an integrated circuit.’ I heard the term a lot when making presentations at the Solutions Expos in the last few weeks. To someone with a background in fluid dynamics, flow means something rather different, but what electronic engineers … Read More

Upfront, Concurrent Design, Design Flow, CFD, Flow Behavior, Fluid Dynamics, Design Process, FloEFD

Thermal headroom is a concept I’ve been pushing for a few years, but I guess many people aren’t familiar with it, so I thought some additional commentary would be appropriate. Here goes: What I’ve drawn looks pretty simple. Starting from the ambient we can attribute to total temperature rise for some critical IC to a temperature rise in the air, the PCB and/or heat sink, then the temperature rise in … Read More

Thermal Management, Thermal Headroom, Design Flow, Design Process, CFD, FloTHERM.PACK, Thermal Design, FloEFD

A while back I read an article on How to survive a recession, which discusses how small businesses can recession-proof themselves and gives some good common-sense advice. Historically, small companies are been at greatest risk during a recession, yet being smaller means they are more agile, and so better able to make the changes necessary to survive and even prosper when the upturn comes. The article … Read More

Design Flow, FloTHERM.PCB, Cost Saving, Surviving, PCB Respin, Recession

Strictly speaking that’s mechanical engineers, and the information comes from Parametric Design Corporation (PTC), in their white paper Five Things You Should Know About 3D CAD Software. As PTC say - it’s a startling fact. Having had experience of keeping track of my own time to charge to different projects the figure really jumped out at me. I found that if you take away the time spent on internal … Read More

Design Flow, Fluid Dynamics, ROI, FloEFD, Return on Investment, CAE Market, Design Process, Flow Behavior