White Papers

This paper describes ten steps to applying Model Driven Development (MDD) to your design process and shows that the process is neither alien to current thinking, nor impossibly expensive to implement.

MDD is more than just a good idea. It actually helps improve productivity in the design process. It makes it possible to use models all the way down the flow, automatically generating parts of the design and thus improving the design’s quality by bringing in repeatability and standards compliance. It enables actions such as eliminating physical prototypes from the process, by instead simulating digital and analog elements working together and with the control software operating the system. It can also eliminate or significantly reduce the paper trail. MDD has had a hard time achieving widespread adoption and respect as the most effective way to drive a design process.

This paper illustrates the use of several robust analysis options available with the SystemVision simulation tool. Both parametric and statistical analyses are presented using a buck-boost converter as the example. Various post-processing measurement features are also presented.

Mechatronic system design creation and test development are often at opposite ends of a project’s schedule. Benefits accrue in improved system quality and on-time delivery when design and test are pursued concurrently. This paper describes the technologies required to make concurrent design and test possible.

Motion control system development poses many challenges for conventional simulation tools. Not only are these systems extremely complex, but they traverse both technology (domain) boundaries, as well as analog/digital boundaries. Conventional simulation tools cannot adequately deal with these diverse modeling requirements. The SystemVision simulation tool supports full featured model development and simulation at both high and low levels of model abstraction, as well as embedded software and FPGA capabilities. This paper illustrates the development of a comprehensive vector-controlled induction motor drive system, using SystemVision for the development/simulation of all designs.

Not only has the typical system design grown in overall size to accommodate ever-increasing demands for functionality and performance, but these designs must fluently integrate analog and digital hardware, as well as the software that controls it. Successfully integrating and verifying that system components work in concert with each other often proves to be costly in terms of time, money and engineering resources. And, at the same time, there is increased pressure to reduce development cycle time. In order to keep pace with these new realities, new processes and development tools are required. In particular, the development and intelligent use of computer models of these complex systems—once considered a luxury—are becoming critical to the success of the overall development process.

The biggest challenge in using FPGA devices may be one of methodology. FPGA designers are familiar with HDL-based requirements-driven design methodologies for digital electronics. But how can requirements be expressed for a system that, while it contains digital elements, is fundamentally non-digital? Fortunately an executable HDL exists that extends the capabilities of the digital VHDL language. VHDL-AMS language is an undiscovered asset for FPGA designers - a powerful tool to define and verify requirements in a non-digital context.