System Modeling Blog

I have read a lot in recent months about Windows 8, Microsoft’s latest incarnation of its flagship Windows operating system. While there are many new features over and above its Windows 7 predecessor, one thing that makes me quite curious about Windows 8 is its optimization for touchscreen technology. Note that I have yet to use Windows 8, but I have used several other touchscreen devices on the market … Read More

I’ve been away from my blog for a couple of months helping the SystemVision Engineering team with a few details related to our upcoming release: SystemVision 5.10. We’re excited about this new release. It introduces, among other things, a new way to create simulation models from a variety of data sources. We think this new capability will make it much easier to create SystemVision simulation models. … Read More

Modeling

In Part 1 of this series I started work on a simple resistor model as a way to illustrate some of the flexibility the VHDL-AMS language offers when creating simulation models. Recall that one of the advantages of VHDL-AMS is adding detail to models – a benefit not available with all modeling languages or methods. With VHDL-AMS, it’s possible to get your model and simulator to report performance … Read More

Modeling

One of the great values of modeling with a hardware description language is simply this: you can tell a model to calculate and report all sorts of information about what’s happening inside it. Consider a generic electrical model, for example. Simulators will report voltages across and currents through the device. But what if you want to know how much power is dissipated in the device? Or if the power … Read More

I recently attended a piano recital for a young man in my neighborhood who studies  music at a local university. He has natural musical aptitude and is an awesome piano talent. During his recital he played compositions from popular yet long since deceased composers: Beethoven, Liszt, Debussy, Prokofiev. If you’re not familiar with any of these names, not to worry. I only know them because my wife’s … Read More

Engineering Design

In my last post I talked about using modeling and simulation to preserve design and technical expertise within a company. This seems a valuable methodology for preventing technical ‘brain drain’ within a corporation. Recently, however, I ran into another simulation dilemma related to sharing simulation knowledge: how to share simulation expertise between companies. Often when I talk with … Read More

Mixed-Signal

Like many youth since time began and there were pianos to play, my daughter takes piano lessons. In musical ways, she is much like her mom. Both play piano and sing beautifully. And like her mom, my daughter’s talent is several notches above average, at the level that leaves you wanting to hear more when each piece is over. I recently attended a recital to listen to my daughter and her fellow … Read More

Modeling

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

It certainly isn’t news that I think Mechatronics is a pretty cool field of study. Whether you design and build mechatronic systems for your profession or your hobby (or maybe both), you have to admit it’s a fascinating subject. As I write this, I’m waiting anxiously for FedEx (or perhaps UPS) to deliver my latest toy – a 2006 Mini Cooper S remote control (RC) car kit. I’ve owned several RC cars over … Read More

motion control, Mechatronics

I’ll start this post, as I sometimes do, with a disclaimer: I am not a rabid football fan. I enjoy watching an occasional game, and my wife is an enthusiastic supporter of her college alma mater’s football team (think blue turf in Idaho), but I don’t live for the game. My wife does not become a football widow, nor my children football orphans, on weekends. Football is a pleasant pastime for me, … Read More

Mechatronics

My daily driver (at least until my daughter gets her driver’s license in a few months) is a 1982 Honda Civic 1500 DX. It’s not much to look at – paint is faded and the upholstery needs extensive repair – but the body is pretty straight and it runs quite well for being 30 years old. Could I afford to drive something else? Yes. In fact, my family’s transportation fleet includes 4 other vehicles of 1998 … Read More

I’m back at my keyboard after a brief, but enjoyable, vacation. Like last year, I trekked with my family to the Oregon Coast. Yes, we enjoy time at the beach, though this time we travelled with extended family so we spent a bit more time driving around site seeing than playing in the tide. In seven days I personally logged some 1200 miles in the driver’s seat. Luckily I don’t mind … Read More

Modeling

Lately I’ve been working with customers interested in using SystemVision to simulate either a real production design, or some sort of evaluation test circuit. To a customer, however, each ran into the “don’t have a simulation model” challenge for one or more devices in their system. Despite SystemVision’s large VHDL-AMS and SPICE model libraries, we didn’t have a … Read More

Mixed-Signal, analog modeling

It’s software release time in the SystemVision® offices, and I’m happy to announce that SystemVision 5.9 is ready for immediate download. Here are some of the release highlights: Design entry: User interface (UI) updates including more flexible user customization; Support for multi-sheet schematics and multi-view symbols; Improved schematic symbol generation; Easier mapping between simulation … Read More

The Bugatti Veyron occupies a unique spot among dealer showroom trophy cars: the fastest production automobile in the world. With a top speed of 254 miles per hour (406 kilometers per hour), the Veyron sits atop the supercar heap, chewing up asphalt at a brisk pace just under 4.3 miles per minute (over 6.7 kilometers per minute). If a Veyron graced my humble two-car garage, I could theoretically travel … Read More

IEEE 1076.1, physics