Monday, May 12, 2008

Reader Comments

at 5/12/2008 8:51:43 PM, Matthew Berggren - Altium said:
Great comments Paul. I certainly can understand where the confusion/frustration about the need to simulate - or moreover, the comments to the contrary - is coming from; specifically in the context of charged emails from EDA vendors claiming it's no longer necessary...But I can also confirm, at least in the context of Altium, we still encourage the "take it for a spin on the test track" approach to design. (In fact, we want to get you there as fast as we can!) Also, there is still a place for simulation and equally so, a place for prototypes. The fact is, this isn't going to go out of style for some time, if ever. But just to clarify our terms...then I'll rant :-) there is more than SPICE-level simulation. VHDL and Verilog (and a range of other perhaps lesser known languages) are also simulatable and often *not* in the context of SPICE simulation. So when we talk simulation, it's clear here that we're talking SPICE more than we are any other languages...and where SPICE is concerned, we can concede that it has and will have its place for the foreseeable future. However it is important to recognize that the world of electronics design has indeed changed and that there are technologies that make the process of meeting or even staying ahead of market demands, much more practical. The fact of the matter is that CPLD and FPGA technology has become a cost-effective method to create a highly configurable, highly reprogrammable system, in which many of the adjustments can be made in-system, without additional prototypes; effectively 'tuning' the circuit when the first run of boards comes back as necessary. Heap onto this the advent of FPGA-based microprocessors, analog capabilities on FPGAs like what's found in Actel's line of Fusion devices, and dedicated DSP capabilities inside the FPGA, and we now have a cost effective means with which to build a highly reprogrammable, highly scalable, almost-complete analog / digital system that may only cost us that first prototype, not the fifth. With any luck, the [SPICE] simulation of that portion of the design that lives 'off-chip' (notice I mention simulation) or the bits that live outside of the FPGA / MCU (along with just good engineering know-how), has gotten us close on the first pass and we may go from prototype to production in one run -- thus the prototype becomes the production board. Moreover, we may revisit the design and without substantial changes to the board, be able to create the next generation product. Afterall, at the pace in which the soft intelligence in a design can and likely will change -- and with the differentiation having largely moved to software or soft-hardware..i.e. the UI being what sells us when we see it in the store -- it is incumbent on us as engineers to create highly scalable systems that can keep pace with demands of the market and demands from the competition. No less, is there a space for simulation? Yes. That is why in our efforts to create a unified design package, we felt it necessary to include mixed mode simulation out of the box. If it's a requirement for you and your designs, then it is our responsibility to design these technologies into the tools. Afterall, it's you who are buying from us. But as much as it is our responsibility to add simulation capability to the tool, it is equally incumbent on us to enable you to design systems using technologies that will keep you and your company "in the game". This is what drives our vision and has led us to design a tool that truly unifies all of these different domains. We would rather you got to the board and could "built it and see how it works" faster. We would also love nothing more than to give you the same flexibility in iterative design capabilities software developers have when designing firmware. This is something the soft hardware revolution promises us. But at the end of the day, the filter still needs to be tested and until we can give you that IP too, we'll keep building out our simulator. :-) Matthew Berggren Manager - Applied Technologies, Altium

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