Online tools expand support for power and analog ICs

National Semiconductor's new Solutions.National.com Web page serves as a portal to an expanded set of analog-design tools. Designers can use the portal to access interactive templates currently supporting 30 block diagrams organized in the automotive, broadband- communications, consumer-electronics, display, industrial, medical-electronics, and wireless-communications market segments.

You can drill down into each interactive block in a diagram and choose ICs appropriate to the application from a list that National’s query-based selection tool dynamically generates. You can narrow the candidate parts list by sorting on any of a range of electrical characteristics.

The company based the Solutions.National.com selection tool on iPhrase Technologies’ iPhrase One Step natural-language query engine that can traverse data on thousands of ICs encompassing hundreds of attributes (Picture). In addition to sorting candidate components, you can access data sheets, application notes, and other support documentation; and link your selection to the online simulator, which National has updated to Webench Version 4.0.

The new simulator revision offers improved accuracy, and a “carbon-copy” feature that allows you to quickly set up simulations of multiple candidate parts by importing circuit parameters and your selections for supporting components from previous simulations. The carbon-copy feature can also simplify design maintenance. As National Semiconductor releases new ICs, the manufacturer adds them to the appropriate application databases. You can rapidly locate and simulate the new devices to determine whether a part represents a good upgrade opportunity in your design. To get the full sense of the tools’ capabilities, try Solutions.National.com and Webench 4.0, which is available for free.

National Semiconductor, www.national.com.

iPhrase Technologies, www.iphrase.com.