Electronics Automation

Nintendo's novel Wii game controller uses a three-axis MEMS acceleration sensor.
Building on its relationship with Analog Devices, Nintendo is creating a truly interactive, lifelike, motion-based gaming experience for players of all ages while igniting the creative forces of game developers around the world. Nintendo breaks more than 20 years of video game history by abandoning the traditional controller held with two hands and introducing a new freehand-style unit held with one hand. Incorporating the Analog Devices three-axis ADXL330 iMEMS acceleration sensor, the intuitive, innovative Wii controller allows players to run, jump, spin, slide, steer, accelerate, bank, dive, kick, throw and score in a way never experienced in the history of gaming.

Central to the Wii Console's design is accurate and reliable multi-axis linear acceleration sensing.

When facing the design challenges of the new Wii controller, Nintendo collaborated with Analog Devices, a leader in signal processing technology and well known for innovative motion sensing.

The ADXL330's robust three-axis motion signal processing performance enables a new concept in console video game controllers and gaming interfaces by allowing the gamer's body motion to control his or her actions in the game in real time.

The ADXL330 is used to sense motion of the game player in three dimensions of freedom: forward-backward, left-right, and up-down.

When the new controller is picked up and manipulated, it provides a quick element of interaction, sensing motion, depth and positioning dictated by the acceleration of the controller itself.

The Wii Console is more intuitive and realistic than existing game consoles that require buttons to be pushed and will expand the gaming market by appealing to new classes of users.

To achieve a true-to-life gaming experience and the most realistic reproduction of game player motion, Nintendo relied on its experience with Analog Devices' iMEMS Motion Signal Processing technology.

'For the industry's first mainstream game controller using MEMS acceleration sensors, we turned to Analog Devices, an industry leader whose acceleration sensors are used by Nintendo for popular games like Kirby's Tilt 'N Tumble for Game Boy colour', commented Genyo Takeda, Senior Managing Director/General Manager, Integrated Research and Development Division, Nintendo Co, .

'We selected the ADXL330 because its accuracy, small sise, and extremely low power consumption were critical to the Wii Console's design objectives and key for a wireless controller that will revolutionise the gaming industry'.

'Motion is an integral part of our lives.

We are delighted that Nintendo selected us again for another incredibly innovative motion-based product like the Wii Console and Controller', said Bill Giudice, Vice President and General Manager, Micromachined Products Division, Analog Devices.

'Analog Devices offers unparalleled experience with integrating motion sensing to enhance the products we use every day, whether it's the automobiles we drive, the mobile phones we use, or the games we play.

Our customers rely on our ability to deliver high performance, superior quality motion sensors in large volume for many exciting applications.

As a pioneer in the micromachine IC industry, ADI produced the first fully integrated, single chip iMEMS (integrated Micro Electrical Mechanical System) accelerometer in 1991.

Since then, ADI has maintained a leadership position and remains the industry's only producer of high-volume, single-chip iMEMS accelerometers/motion sensors and continues to be the leading supplier of airbag sensors worldwide with shipments of more than 200 million units to date.

Digital power monitors reduce power requirements, cost and thermal challenges in blade servers, blade PCs and ATCA cards.
Analog Devices has announced a family of digital power monitors that reduce power requirements, cost and thermal challenges in blade servers, blade PCs and ATCA cards. The ADM1175/6/7/8 devices address the increasing power requirements of these systems - which result in part from the rising number of processors inside - by overseeing the usage of individual boards in blade-structured systems. Several power-related challenges arise as processor densities increase in computing and telecommunications equipment.

First, new equipment designs are packing individual blades closer together, increasing thermal dissipation and requiring more elaborate cooling systems that consume more power.

Furthermore, emerging blade-structured systems require increased power that cannot always be satisfied by standard available alternating current.

In both cases, system designers are seeing a need to efficiently monitor and actively control power usage.

In previous computing and telecommunications systems, however, either the power was not actively monitored, or a costly combination of discrete solutions including separate current sense amplifiers, ADCs and digital hot swaps were used.

Analog Devices' ADM1175/6/7/8 devices, on the other hand, incorporate a 12bit analogue-to-digital convertor (ADC), hot swap controller and current sense amplifier on a single chip, providing designers with an integrated, high-performance approach to monitoring power consumption.

These devices reduce system cost by 33% and increase performance to 10Ksample/s, compared with available solutions, which routinely offer only 100sample/s.

'Today's computing and telecommunications applications require innovative solutions that address an increasing need for power', said Pat Meehan, Product Line Manager, Power System Management, Analog Devices.

'Recognising this need, we leveraged our power management expertise and intimate knowledge of the PC and server markets to develop a family of products that alleviate much of the strain these blade-based structures are facing'.

'In doing so, designers now have access to solutions that address the power-hungry nature of these applications, maintaining system reliability without having to increase cost or sacrifice performance'.

The ADM1175, ADM1176, ADM1177 and ADM1178 digital power monitors combine a 12bit ADC that provides the highest resolution of integrated dc power measurement available on the market today, a hot swap controller and a current sense amplifier that monitors current in blade servers, emerging blade PCs and ATCA cards.

The devices operate at up to 10Ksample/s, enabling intelligent power management features such as the ability to dynamically control processor clock rates.

The amplifier senses voltage across a series sense resistor and limits the current by controlling the gate voltage of an external N-channel field-effect transistor (FET) in the power path.

The devices also incorporate a convert start pin, allowing for simultaneous sampling of multiple convertors in a system, and thereby enabling all power sources to be instantaneously measured for a complete read out of the total power usage.

The devices control supply voltages from 3.3 to 14V.

An industry-standard I2C interface allows a controller to read current and voltage data from the ADC.

Link for Cadence Incisive integrates Matlab and Simulink with the Incisive functional verification platform for efficient design and verification of SoCs, ASICs and FPGAs.

The MathWorks has introduced Link for Cadence Incisive, which offers verification of Hardware Description Language (HDL) implementations based on Matlab and Simulink models. Link for Cadence Incisive integrates Matlab and Simulink with the Incisive functional verification platform from Cadence Design Systems for efficient design and verification of SoCs, ASICs and FPGAs through cosimulation. By providing a bidirectional path between MathWorks system models and Incisive simulators, Link for Cadence Incisive simplifies and accelerates the verification process, reducing the design time and errors associated with traditional authentication methods.

'Link for Cadence Incisive combines the power of model-based design using Matlab and Simulink with the comprehensive hardware simulation capabilities of the Incisive platform', said Colin Warwick, Technical Marketing Manager at The MathWorks.

'The MathWorks collaboration with Cadence has helped solve a large verification bottleneck in integrated circuit design'.

'This product eliminates the need for time-consuming and unreliable methods like handwritten HDL or Perl scripts'.

Engineers can reuse test benches developed in Simulink with verification environments created using the Incisive platform for full system-level verification.

This flexibility lets them verify, before tape out, that their HDL implementation matches the executable specification previously validated in Matlab and Simulink.

Link for Cadence Incisive supports three workflows - Simulink cosimulation, Matlab test bench, and Matlab component - that offer full interactive debug capability in both client and server.

Link for Cadence Incisive CAN interface to multiple HDL entities and Incisive simulators from a single Matlab test bench or Simulink model.

Link for Cadence Incisive is available immediately for the Microsoft Windows, Unix, and Linux platforms.

Wind River Platform for Networking Equipment, Linux Edition, is to be optimised to support Sun's breakthrough UltraSPARC T1 processor.

Wind River Platform for Networking Equipment, Linux Edition, is to be optimised to support Sun's breakthrough UltraSPARC T1 processor. The combination of a Wind River run-time platform on an open-source 64bit multithreaded architecture will offer significantly increased performance throughput for high-end ATCA applications and will enable telecommunications equipment providers (TEMs) and network equipment providers (NEPs) to build next generation compute intensive communications server platforms. This new support will result in higher service availability, faster time to market, reduced development costs and lower total cost of operations.

Working with Sun Microsystems to deliver this solution, Wind River reaffirms its commitment to meeting the demands of NEPs and TEMs by offering commercially available Carrier Grade Linux (CGL) solutions that provide customer flexibility in designing, scaling and tuning high-end data intensive applications for next generation infrastructures.

Sun's UltraSPARC T1 processor is the industry's first multi-threaded open source chip architecture.

Its complete design is published by OpenSPARC.net and available to anyone under the Gnu General Public Licence.

Having completed an evaluation port of its Platform for Network Equipment, Linux Edition environment to the UltraSPARC T1, Wind River is officially the first CGL solution partner to support the OpenSPARC architecture.

With this solution, developers will be able to create innovative and highly optimised ATCA applications such as Signalling and Media Gateways, Application Servers, Home Subscriber and Location Registers, and many additional components addressing the latest requirements for 3G and IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) deployments.

This solution will enable customers to complete projects faster and with a greater degree of hardware integration than ever before, creating unique, high-value solutions that address current and future convergence requirements for the telecom and communications markets.

'We are excited that the first Carrier-Grade Linux on the UltraSPARC T1 is from Wind River', said Raju Penumatcha, Vice President of Netra Systems and Networking at Sun Microsystems.

'Wind River is recognised for its rich development environment and reliability at the heart of telecommunications networks'.

'Combining these attributes with the unmatched scalability of the Sun OpenSPARC architecture enables a Linux platform that is ready for the next build out of converged networks'.

Pioneered by Sun with the multicore UltraSPARC T1 processor, the open source release of the chip design provides a very high-end, scalable architecture that delivers chip multi-threaded innovation to NEPs and TEMs interested in building next generation ATCA platforms.

The UltraSPARC T1 processor provides high throughput by using eight CPU cores running a hypervisor that provides 32 physical threads into a single ATCA compute blade, 28 more than any other general-purpose multi-core processor in the market today.

In addition the open availability of the processor design and Instruction-Set-Architecture (ISA) greatly simplifies and accelerates the development of run-time software.

'Sun's UltraSPARC T1 processor delivers industry-leading performance and multi-threading features that enable a whole new class of high-end, high-value solutions for markets such as ATCA', said John Bruggeman, Chief Marketing Officer, Wind River.

'As the market leading provider of Carrier Grade Linux-based device software platforms, we are pleased to support the OpenSPARC architecture'.

'Together with Sun, we look forward to offering our customers tightly integrated, highly optimised ATCA solutions featuring the industry's most innovative hardware and software technology'.

Based on a CGL distribution, Wind River Platform for Network Equipment, Linux Edition, integrates with many of the industry's most popular telecommunications boards, making it an ideal fit for the telecommunications and high-end data networking markets.

It supports the emerging PICMG 3.x ATCA specification and various high-availability functions, and includes a standards-based interprocess communication (IPC) mechanism that connects the Linux and VxWorks editions of the platform.

This tested and validated Linux platform is supported and maintained by Wind River.

Software enables users to set up and view a first-pass airflow and heat transfer simulation in minutes while generating high-fidelity design reviews up to 20 times faster than previous versions.

Blue Ridge Numerics has released a new version of its CFdesign software that enables users to set up and view a first-pass airflow and heat transfer simulation in minutes while generating high-fidelity design reviews up to 20 times faster than with previous versions. CFdesign V9, developed for multitasking mechanical and thermal engineers, also offers new analysis features to increase innovation during electronic systems development. CFdesign is used by electronics engineers worldwide to determine chip-junction temperatures in electronics devices, visualise and optimise airflow patterns in enclosures, generate detailed simulations of novel heatsink designs in real-world usage scenarios, test inlet and outlet louvres, hole patterns and hidden air vents, and place critical components in ruggedised systems.

Automation in CFdesign V9 allows both novices and experts to breeze through simulation set-up thanks to two new features: auto mesh sizing and rules on parts.

Auto mesh sizing performs a comprehensive topological interrogation of the geometric model, assigning mesh sizes based on curvature, geometric gradients, and proximity to neighbouring features.

An optimally sized surface and volume mesh ensures faster mesh generation and higher-quality simulation results without any user input.

'This was the last aspect of our software that required some guru-like CFD expertise', says Ed Williams, President of Blue Ridge Numerics.

'With auto mesh sizing, that headache is a thing of the past'.

CFdesign V9 beta customers report meshes to be cleaner and smoother, critical transition regions are instantly and expertly managed, and the ultimate CFD solution is achieved faster than ever before.

The new rules on parts feature in CFdesign V9 intelligently detects MCAD part names within an assembly and automatically assigns volumetric boundary conditions and material properties.

Boundary conditions include heat generation and total heat generation, both of which can be steady-state, transient or temperature dependent.

Materials are assigned from CFdesign's customisable library of fluids, solids, printed circuit boards and the newly added two-resistor electronic components.

The new Accelerant solver within CFdesign V9 uses proprietary CPU optimisation algorithms to radically reduce the time it takes to achieve fully converged fluid-flow and heat-transfer results.

Testing conducted by Blue Ridge Numerics and CFdesign customers show that simulation results for simple models can be generated 40% faster than in previous versions and extremely complex simulations can be completed up to 2000% faster.

'We're addressing the need for speed', says Williams.

'Our surveys show that CFdesign is up to 70% faster than physical test methods and 65% faster than traditional CFD tools for electronics cooling'.

Blue Ridge Numerics has added new analysis features in CFdesign V9 based on its long-established premise that advanced functionality is fully compatible with ease of use.

Compact thermal models allow electronics, mechatronic and thermal engineers to answer one of the biggest questions related to product reliability: 'What are the temperatures within integrated circuits during system operation?'.

CFdesign V9 can supply junction and case temperature and heat transfer information for every component within the system and supports a wide range of microchip configurations.

Supported microchip configurations include BGA (ball grid array), PBGA (plastic ball grid array), TBGA (taped ball grid array), FC-BGA (flip chip ball grid array), QFP (quad flatpack), PQFP (plastic quad flatpack), NQFP (no-lead quad flat ack), and SOIC/SOP (small-outline IC/small-outline package).

The PCB characteriser provides a simple way to accurately include thermal characteristics of any PCB material within a CFdesign simulation.

The unique properties of each copper and dielectric (FR-4) layer are specified, allowing conductivities to be computed automatically and applied within the simulation.

Each characterised PCB can be added to the CFdesign material library for re-use, and can be automatically assigned with the new rules on parts functionality.

Solar loading shows transient electromagnetic heat transfer from the sun, which can for example affect the performance of outdoor security cameras, climate control systems and power utility transformers.

This feature includes radiation through transparent media and even shows shadowing based on the movement of the sun.

Simulation set up is simple: specify time of year, time of day and location on the globe using the database in CFdesign, or assign specific latitude/longitude co-ordinates.

Thermostatically controlled fans and blowers enable users to control a fan or blower with a specified trigger temperature.

The fan is activated automatically when trigger temperature is reached to provide a highly realistic view of full-cycle system performance.

CFdesign V9 delivers its greatest value to the customer when used to conduct comprehensive design optimisation studies prior to physical prototype testing.

The software contains two new enabling technologies for this effort: process automation scripting and the design review server.

Process automation scripting allows users to create a project-specific script that defines model set up, analysis execution, and results extraction for a large number of similar analyses that differ parametrically.

A tradeoff study containing unlimited result quantities is presented as a function of the varying input.

Scripts can also be created that allow CFdesign to operate as part of a design optimisation environment.

The design review server distributes computations across available networked computers, providing a convenient way to conduct extensive, highly interactive design review sessions while working within current hardware and network limits.

CFdesign V9 is fully associative and integrated with Autodesk Inventor, Catia V5, CoCreate, Pro/Engineer Wildfire, SolidWorks, Solid Edge and UGS NX 3D MCAD systems.

Fluid-flow and heat-transfer results can be transferred as an input deck for structural simulations in Abaqus, Ansys, Cosmos, Nastran and Pro/Mechanica.

A novel software analysis tool enables development teams to accurately predict the maximum size of the memory stack required to host an embedded software application.

New from AdaCore, Gnatstack is a software analysis tool that enables development teams to accurately predict the maximum size of the memory stack required to host an embedded software application. Gnatstack is an important component of AdaCore's high-integrity solution (Gnat Pro HIE), which is an enhanced ada development environment used for building safety-critical, embedded software applications that require certification. The tool is targeted at system designers creating high integrity and high reliability embedded applications.

'Manually calculating the amount of memory that should be allocated to a memory stack increases the risk that an embedded application will use more memory on the stack than is available, which can result in memory corruption, unpredictable execution, or a fatal system crash', said AdaCore Senior Software Engineer Jose Ruiz.

'Gnatstack uses data generated by the compiler to determine the worst-case stack requirements'.

'This output is used to ensure that sufficient memory is reserved for the stack(s), and to guarantee that the software application executes safely'.

Gnatstack calculates the worst-case stack requirements for every stack entry point by performing per-subprogram stack usage as well as control flow analysis.

The tool provides an audit trail for the certification of high integrity and high reliability applications, and can detect and display a list of potential problems when calculating the stack requirements.