Expedition Enterprise - Printed Circuit Board Software (Part 3)

Analysis and Verification


Signal Integrity, Timing Analysis and EMI
With the Expedition Enterprise flow, signal integrity and electro-magnetic interference (EMI) issues can be addressed and corrected throughout the design process rather than just at the end. Driven by constraints in CES this ensures that designs are correct the first time, effectively reducing design iterations and facilitating optimum system performance.


HyperLynx® provides pre- and post-layout signal integrity, crosstalk and EMC analysis for traditional highspeed interconnects, as well as the emerging SERDES and DDR2/3 technologies. HyperLynx's easy-to-learn analysis environment makes it an every-desktop standard for Expedition Enterprise. Higher-frequency designs and government regulations place increasing importance on EMI control.


This normally required a prototype board, testing in a shielded chamber and re-design. Now with Quiet Expert™, the causes of EMI can be highlighted and eliminated during the design layout, thus significantly reducing design iterations and saving valuable time-to-market.




Power Integrity
With today’s lower and multiple voltage ICs, power and ground is no longer easy to design and analyze. PCBs can contain as many as 30 power distribution networks jig-sawed into
the PCB layers.  These networks must be analyzed for DC voltage drop (sufficient power to all IC pins), current density (too much current through a narrow part of the network), and AC (is the power clean).  


HyperLynx PI (Power Integrity) provides the engineer and designer with pre- and post-layout analysis of complex power distribution networks to insure proper operation and high reliability of the PCB.




Thermal Analysis
As products get faster and smaller, thermal management issues increase. HyperLynx Thermal, FloTHERM®, and FloEFD® provide thermal analysis capabilities for the PCB as
well as the PCB(s) in the full product (enclosure, fans, heat sinks, etc.).


Using these capabilities, the PCB designer can perform analysis on the PCB to determine good placement of the components.  The mechanical designer of the enclosure can insert the
PCB(s) into the complete product and analyze it to see if the heat will be dissipated properly.  The result is a design that has higher reliability and can be manufactured without multiple
prototypes or re-spins.





Automation
Automation provides customization and extensibility within the design and layout products, allowing the addition of custom functionality, the automation of repetitive tasks, and the ability to tailor the flow to customer-specific use-cases and optimize the flow for
specialized processes.  The use of a wide range of industry-standard languages (VBscript, Jscript, TCL, Java, VB6, C++, C#, VB.NET...) minimizes the start-up time for company


For demonstrations of Expedition Enterprise’s advanced technology go to:
http://www.mentor.com/products/pcb-system-design/multimedia/ 


DFM issues are summarized and ranked by severity based on userweightingprogrammers and facilitates script reuse.  The result of automation is to reduce errors, increase productivity, increase the performance, quality, and reliability of the design, decrease the
cost of the design, and decrease time to market (and time to profit).





Design Reuse
The Design Reuse module creates and stores reusable blocks of circuitry, including schematic, as well as PCB placement and routing data, in a central library. These blocks can then be placed and modified in the same design or multiple designs now and in the future. 


Design reuse automates this process and manages the design data to ensure error-free databases and reduce the overall PCB design cycle time by not having to re-design
the same circuit. Layout data can also be easily cut/pasted within a design and into other designs, enabling informal reuse of sections of a design.




Variant Management
Variant Manager manages the creation of multiple product configurations from a single design database. Variant Manager's single-point ECO management minimizes errors,
reduces costs, improves design quality and enhances production efficiency.




Support, Education and Consulting 
Mentor Graphics offers a full range of services to drive your productivity and success with the Expedition Enterprise flow tools. Customer Support offers award-winning technical assistance, innovative electronic support and high-quality product enhancements. 


Education Services offers classroom and online training to help you assimilate new tools and technologies into your design environment. Finally, Mentor Consulting is always ready to provide focused expertise in tough design areas. 


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Hardware Requirements 
• Dual core, 2 GHz or faster 


• Memory: 2 GB RAM 


OS Requirements
• Windows XP Professional
• Windows 7
• HPUX 
• Sun OS 
• RedHat Linux