Mentor Blogs

I like books – lots of ‘em. I rarely turn down a chance to visit a bookstore or search Amazon’s gazillion pages for a book or two on whatever topic I’m interested in at the moment. Most of my personal library contains non-fiction books that explain how to do things. Over the years I’ve found that my book collection trends toward a few categories, the largest of which are Writing, Engineering, Programming, … Read More

SystemVision conneXion, Mechatronic, LabVIEW, Simulink

Recently I’ve been working on several modeling examples for an upcoming workshop. Creating a simulation model for any component presents many challenges, starting with figuring out exactly what you need to model. Naturally, the answer to this question determines not only what information the model can teach you about the system, but also, in general, how difficult the model will be to create. For the … Read More

Mechatronic, Add new tag

I could quickly answer the question posed in this post’s title with four words: Analog and Mixed-Signal. But as with most concepts worth understanding, especially in the engineering world, you need to dig a little deeper to understand some of the finer details, and maybe the larger significance. First, a quick history lesson. IEEE Standard 1076 defined a standard language for logic modeling, which … Read More

IEEE 1076.1, Mechatronic, ieee 1076, Mixed-Signal

Admittedly, I’m a bit biased. After 20+ years in the EDA industry, I’ve developed increasing confidence in modern simulation technology. In short, I generally believe what SystemVision tells me about the systems I analyze. With the right models and simulation settings, I am confident my simulation results will closely match lab measurements on prototype hardware. Part of building confidence is simply … Read More

Mechatronic, Modeling

Just returned to my office after spending most of last week at National Instruments’ NI Week 2010 in Austin, Texas. National Instruments’ focus is best described in two words: virtual instrumentation. They develop and market hardware and software tools that development teams use to create their own virtual test and measurement equipment. NI Week is a yearly technical conference and exhibition to which … Read More

Mechatronics, Mechatronic

School is out. Has been for a few weeks. And the end of every school year brings the usual rush of awards assemblies, especially in junior high and elementary schools. This year was no different. But let me first give you a little background into why we found this year’s awards assembly a little…well…strange. I am the designated math tutor in my house. Yet another benefit – or perhaps implied responsibility … Read More

SPICE, Mechatronic

New features get most of the publicity in a new software release…and well they should. Application software is a competitive business, and feature differentiation is often the only metric new customers use to select one program over another. And new features help software companies build increased loyalty among existing users. I imagine it’s no surprise to anyone that keeping an existing customer is … Read More

IEEE 1076.1, Mechatronic, ieee 1076, physics

The year: 2001. The product: Dean Kamen’s Segway® Personal Transporter. I was instantly intrigued, and to this day I still do a double-take, then gawk, when I see someone cruising around on their Segway. I’m secretly envious of anyone who gets to ride one, so much so that riding, if not outright owning one, is on my bucket list. To me, the Segway is the ultimate in personal A to B transportation. No … Read More

Mechatronic, Mechatronics

I remember my early days in the EDA industry. SPICE was little more than a teenager (I suppose this dates me a bit). I had recently finished a 5-year stint working for the United States Air Force and had just joined a young company as an Applications Engineer to help promote the features and benefits of system design using Hardware Description Languages (HDLs). Though HDL use for semiconductor design … Read More

SPICE, HDL, IEEE 1076.1, Multi-Level Design, Mechatronic, Mixed-Signal

It still happens, even today. The SystemVision team is invited to visit with a customer. After brief introductions, we sit down to discuss their specific mechatronic system design challenges. And then it happens…out comes a detailed schematic that accounts for every component in the system. Naturally, there is nothing wrong with detailed level schematics. At some point, every mechatronic system development … Read More

Mechatronic, Multi-Level Design

Ever wondered what makes a good systems engineer? You know, the engineer who has an uncanny knack for understanding how the elements of a system work together to create the whole? I believe I now know one of the secrets, discovered during a recent trip to Mentor Graphics headquarters in Wilsonville, Oregon. After a long day of discussions, a few SystemVision team members gathered at a local eatery for … Read More

Mechatronic