System Modeling Blog

Rooster Tail Engineering

Posted May 3, 2012, by Mike Jensen

It is not uncommon for the extraordinary to quickly become the ordinary. Consider cell phones, tablet computers (or just computers in general), hybrid cars, heart transplants, drone aircraft, digital cameras, Amazon.com, Facebook…the list is long and varied. Most of these are considered “ordinary” by today’s standards, but each was little more than an idea in someone’s … Read More

Tags: physics, engineering

Automotive IESF 2012

Posted Apr 25, 2012, by Mike Jensen

Believe it or not, summer is fast approaching. My daughter is looking forward to the summer break from school. My sons, being a bit older and each completing a couple of semesters of university studies, are facing a summer busy with research or employment. When they yearn for leisure days of summers past, I usually respond with “welcome to adulthood”. The SystemVision crew is preparing … Read More

Tags: AUTOSAR, IESF, Mechatronics

Teaching and Learning CAN Bus

Posted Apr 10, 2012, by Mike Jensen

One of the great things about working with SystemVision is its ability to model and analyze a variety of systems. One day I might be working with an automotive company discussing the electro-hydraulic performance of an automobile braking system. The next day I could easily be talking with an aerospace company discussing power distribution for the latest generation of a fighter or commercial aircraft. … Read More

Tags: vhdl-ams, CAN bus, mixed-technology, automotive system design, SystemVision, Vehicle Networking, system modeling, System simulation

Analog Modeling - Part 6

Posted Mar 30, 2012, by Mike Jensen

In Part 5 of this series we used the mathematical descriptions of the thermal and electrical properties of an incandescent lamp to create the architecture of a VHDL-AMS-based simulation model. Now it’s time to finish the model, and this blog series, by creating a VHDL-AMS entity for the lamp model. As I mentioned in Part 5, the VHDL-AMS entity defines how a model connects to other elements in a system, … Read More

Tags: HDL, Modeling, analog modeling

Analog Modeling - Part 5

Posted Mar 23, 2012, by Mike Jensen

If you’ve followed this Analog Modeling series, you know we’ve been talking about a general process for HDL-based modeling of analog behavior. If you’re new to the discussion, or simply want to review what we’ve talked about so far, check these links: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4. In my last post we developed a set of equations describing the relationship between the thermal … Read More

Tags: HDL, analog modeling, Modeling

Analog Modeling - Part 4

Posted Mar 2, 2012, by Mike Jensen

It’s time to dig a little deeper into the incandescent lamp behavior I introduced in Part 3 of this blog series. My goal is to select a set of equations that best describe the elements of the lamp’s behavior that I want to quantify during simulation. Recall my comment in Part 3 that a lamp has several characteristics worth analyzing including electrical properties, thermal properties, aging … Read More

Tags: vhdl-ams training, HDL, analog modeling, Modeling

Analog Modeling - Part 3

Posted Feb 10, 2012, by Mike Jensen

Welcome to the third installment in my Analog Modeling blog series. In Part 1 I wrote about why equations are important for simulation. In Part 2 I suggested a process flow for turning device equations into a simulation model, and introduced the basic structure of a VHDL-AMS model. Now it’s time to begin the model definition process. As I outlined in Part 2, the first step is deciding what you want … Read More

Tags: HDL, analog modeling, Modeling

Analog Modeling - Part 2

Posted Feb 2, 2012, by Mike Jensen

In Analog Modeling – Part 1 I reviewed the importance of equation selection in the analog modeling process. In a nutshell, the first step in getting good simulation results is choosing equations that best describe the behavior or device you want to analyze. Your analog equation set could be as simple as a single transfer function describing the relationship between the inputs and outputs of a … Read More

Tags: HDL, Modeling, analog modeling

Analog Modeling - Part 1

Posted Jan 25, 2012, by Mike Jensen

I recently spent some time rummaging around my basement. I suppose my basement is not unlike many others — it’s kind of my family’s catch-all storage place for items too big to fit in a closet. Besides housing my HVAC and water heating systems, my basement is home to a variety of holiday decorations, lots of canned, bottled, and bulk food items, a small collection of mismatched folding tables … Read More

Tags: Modeling, analog modeling

Connecting Tools and Processes

Posted Jan 13, 2012, by Mike Jensen

Searching the Internet is like having a giant, international reference library at your fingertips. If you know what you’re looking for and have a reasonable idea of where to look, with a little patience you can usual find some pretty interesting material related to your search topic – okay, you can also find a bunch of stuff you aren’t looking for, but as I often say, “That’s a topic for a different … Read More

Tags: Mechatronics, Hardware/software co-design, SystemVision SVX