Zuken's 'Hot-Stage 2' Simulator Enables Improved Design Prototyping
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept. 6 -- Zuken announced that it has
significantly enhanced its Board Integrity Solution through improved
functionality in the Hot-Stage high-speed prototyping and signal analysis
product. The Hot-Stage product is a signal integrity and EMI focused
protoyping solution that gives design engineers creative freedom to experiment
and investigate signal performance. The enhanced Hot-Stage 2 enables greater
experimental flexibility with new added options. The simulation environment now provides extended 'what if' capabilities,
sophisticated results analysis, comprehensive library management and improved
consistency throughout the design process. Engineers can now experiment with
different driver and receiver models, add or modify termination networks,
change component values on-the-fly, or choose different stimuli to optimize
design performance in real-time. While analyzing the results, automatic
measurement is provided for key parameters such as overshoot or rise time, and
operators such as FFT can be applied to characterize the signal behavior in
different domains. ``This flexibility means that engineers can experiment with their designs
and physical layouts and Hot-Stage will allow them to see the effect of
changes on signals passing through the circuit,'' said Neil Bufton, Zuken
product manager. ``This is to ensure that signals are not degraded beyond
acceptable limits and timing requirements are maintained, both of which are
vital to the success of high speed design.'' With Hot-Stage 2 engineers can streamline the design process, bring
powerful analytical tools into physical layout, link physical and logical
domains and ensure simultaneous compliance with electrical and physical rules.
It enables engineers to decide on realistic constraints early in the design
process, which are then used consistently from engineering through to
manufacture. The same analysis environment can be used throughout the process
(pre- and post-layout) to ensure that the constraints have been obeyed. ``The tight integration of tools within the Board Integrity Solution is
Zuken's strength. This enables engineers to work in a more consistent fashion,
take less time to evaluate design options and reduce time to market,'' said
Neil Bufton, Zuken product manager. ``With Hot-Stage 2 engineers can experiment
with their design more easily and determine the outcome of various changes
further along in the design process. For example, engineers are able to check
the signal integrity and EMC outcomes from 'what if I change this component to
a different one,' or 'what happens if I move this component over here.''' The product comes complete with a simulation library containing over
5000 standard device models. These can be used out-of-the-box, or as source of
buffer models to create user-defined parts. The library can be further
extended by the import of IBIS or Spice models, which are automatically
verified by the simulator as part of the import process. The availability of
an extensive standard library and simple methods for the creation of new parts
helps to overcome the problem of model availability. About Zuken Zuken specializes in professional software solutions for the design of
printed circuit board (PCB), multi-chip module (MCM) and IC packages and
systems. These advanced tool sets facilitate schematic capture, placement,
routing and analysis, and manufacture and test. They operate under UNIX and
Microsoft Windows. Zuken is a global organization employing over 1000 people
and capitalized at over $1 billion. For more information, visit
http://www.zuken.com .
|
