Online Point-To-Point Simulator Goes Live For LVDS Designers

Nov. 19, 2001

A free online simulation tool is available to support system architects designing with low-voltage differential-signaling (LVDS) technology. Working with Innoveda Inc. of Marlborough, Mass., Fairchild Semiconductor now offers an online, interactive...

David Maliniak

Located in South Portland, Maine, Fairchild's EnSigna Lab has supported systems designers with component selection, device modeling, system simulation, and performance evaluation for multidrop and multipoint backplanes using high-performance ICs such as GTLP. Now, EnSigna Lab offers the same services for point-to-point architectures that utilize differential and single-ended I/O.

The LVDS simulation tool is powered by Innoveda's XTK. This signal-integrity analysis and crosstalk simulation tool is designed to help solve signal-integrity problems on single pc boards and multiboard systems.

On the EnSigna Web, selecting the point-to-point simulator invokes an interactive session in which a system configuration and I/O device are chosen. Environments include PC traces, connector and cable configurations, and backplane traces. Cable, connector, and pc-board trace characteristics can be chosen and modified to optimize signal integrity or analyze performance boundaries. Designers can evaluate across frequency and cable or trace length. Stimuli include Clock and Psuedo Random Bit Sequence (PRBS), allowing for evaluation of IC outputs like eye diagrams and single-event output waveforms (see the figure).

"In design definition, the need for accurate simulation is a critical component to narrow the time between new product introductions, while retaining quality and decreasing costs," says Innoveda's vice president of marketing, Rick Almeida. "The complexity of today's systems demand stringent simulation and verification testing."

Fully equipped with the most advanced test and data-acquisition equipment, EnSigna Lab uses sophisticated simulation software for complex backplane and subsystem environments. It's staffed with industry experts in the optimization of throughput and signal integrity for advanced applications. Services available through EnSigna Web are free of charge and accessible seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

Contact Fairchild at (888) 522-5372, or go to www.fairchildsemi.com/ensigna.

About the Author

David Maliniak | MWRF Executive Editor

In his long career in the B2B electronics-industry media, David Maliniak has held editorial roles as both generalist and specialist. As Components Editor and, later, as Editor in Chief of EE Product News, David gained breadth of experience in covering the industry at large. In serving as EDA/Test and Measurement Technology Editor at Electronic Design, he developed deep insight into those complex areas of technology. Most recently, David worked in technical marketing communications at Teledyne LeCroy. David earned a B.A. in journalism at New York University.