System Design, Simulation and Analysis Software
Elanix Inc.
Westlake Village, CA
A new comprehensive PC-based software package has been developed specifically to support all aspects of system design. SystemView" is a complete visual design environment for dynamic system design, simulation and analysis. The software suite operates under Windows® with modest hardware requirements and provides analog and digital tools for developing a wide range of digital signal processing (DSP), communications and control systems. The software enables the design engineer to design, develop and test both subsystems and fully integrated end-to-end systems.
System Design and Simulation
SystemView enables the designer to build models of complete systems and subsystems quickly and easily using an intuitive block diagram interface. Linear, nonlinear, discrete and continuous-time, analog, digital and mixed-mode systems can be created by selecting components from SystemView's internal library and connecting them in the design window. One of the tool's more important features is its ability to handle multirate systems, thereby simplifying the implementation of functions such as decimating finite-duration impulse response (FIR) filters. The package's support for multiple parallel simultaneous systems allows the results of system variations from a single run to be compared quickly and easily.
The SystemView software models large, complex systems easily by providing virtually unlimited levels of hierarchy using the MetaSystem® object. MetaSystems are created by grouping blocks into subsystems that then are saved as external files for use in other SystemView files. The software's token libraries include hundreds of models of sources, sinks, operators and function blocks. Source and sink tokens allow signals to be generated and analyzed and data to be imported and exported in a variety of file formats for external processing. SystemView's operator library contains easy-to-use templates for analog and digital filter design as well as for discrete and continuous-time linear system design.
A revolutionary new optional accelerator, Automatic Program Generation® (APG®), increases simulation speeds up to an order of magnitude. Designed to accelerate any processing-intensive model, APG is especially useful for modern digital communications systems such as wireless, cellular and modem
design and test. This software generates Windows-executable files or dynamically linked libraries (DLL) that run as stand-alone applications or link directly back to SystemView simulations. APG executables allow users to modify parameters, such as system time and sample rate, without returning to the native SystemView simulation model. DLLs can be shared with designers working on other parts of the design.
The SystemView stream-driven simulation engine provides twice the speed offered in previous releases and performs up to an order-of-magnitude faster than other high end Windows-based tools. The APG option allows the simulator to outperform the competition's accelerator speed by up to 30 times.
Signal Analysis and Block Processing
The software's analysis window is an interactive environment that permits detailed examination of system waveforms. Outputs from selected system locations are present in an array of individual plot windows. The analysis window also provides a powerful sink calculator for advanced block processing operations on data generated by system simulation. These operations include auto and cross correlation, windowed spectral analysis, algebraic operations, eye patterns, histograms, statistical overlays and waterfall displays. Within the analysis window, block operations can be cascaded to produce sophisticated processing sequences. Examples of block processing functions include auto correlation, complex fast Fourier transformation, convolution, differentiation, integration, log, overlay plots and statistics, scatter plots, spectral density, and tangent and waterfall plots.
Optional Libraries
SystemView includes a suite of optional libraries that enhance the core libraries with powerful functions for specific applications. These libraries allow the SystemView installation to be custom tailored and include options for RF/analog, communications, DSP and logic applications. The user code option allows an unlimited number of custom tokens to be created.
The RF/analog library supports key electronic components used in today's RF designs, such as mixers, amplifiers, RLC circuits and splitter/combiners. Typical RF systems that can be designed include AM, FM, analog- and digital-modulated, and spread spectrum systems.
In a typical example, the RF/analog library is used to design a binary shift-keying (BPSK) demodulator using a phase-locked loop (PLL). Figure 1 
shows the demodulator's block diagram. Figure 2 
shows the Bode plot of a PLL RC filter token. Figure 3 shows the PLL RC filter parameter entry window and Figure 4 shows the 50 kHz modulation signal, and the I and Q data outputs. The complete BPSK 
demodulator is designed and simulated using SystemView and its RF/analog library.
The communications library contains tools necessary for simulating a complete communications system, including error-correction and error-correcting codes, baseband pulse shaping, modulation and demodulation, channel models and data recovery. Complete bit-error-rate curves can be produced in a single run.
The DSP library simulates DSP systems and supports the arithmetic modes utilized by today's most widely used DSP chips. Multiplier, adder, divider and inverter tokens represent true DSP arithmetic operators, and high level processing tools include mixed-radix fast Fourier transforms, FIR and infinite-impulse response filters, and block transforms.
The logic library contains generic tokens such as NAND gates, 7400-class tokens that simulate specific functions available as off-the-shelf parts and custom tokens that implement mixed-signal or logic functions that are not generally available as individual parts.
The user code option allows a custom SystemView library to be built. Token functions are written in C language and inserted into the provided template. The module can be compiled using any commercial C compiler and is integrated automatically into SystemView, and displayed and used similar to the built-in token libraries.
Conclusion
SystemView features comprehensive tools for analog, digital and mixed-mode design and analysis in a user-friendly visual design environment. The dynamic system simulator operates on a 486 or higher IBM-compatible PC with 8 MB of random-access memory (RAM) and 20 MB of hard disk space. The recommended hardware is a Pentium® processor with 64+ MB RAM. SystemView and APG are available on 32-bit Windows '95 and NT platforms. Pricing for SystemView version 2.0 starts at $3495 ($2495 for the APG option). Delivery is from stock. Additional information is available at the company's Web site at http://www.elanix.com.
Elanix Inc.,
Westlake Village, CA
(800) 535-2649
or (818) 597-1414.