Agilent Technologies Inc. announced a stereo 3D viewer capability for the Momentum G2 Element and FEM Element electromagnetic (EM) simulators in its Advanced Design System (ADS) EDA platform. The new stereo 3D viewer leverages NVIDIA Quadro graphics processing units (GPU) and NVIDIA's unique 3D Vision quad buffered stereo technology, originally designed for immersive mechanical design, digital content creation and video games, to render electric and magnetic fields and currents for scientists and engineers in crisp, vivid, high-resolution 3D.

Ever since Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell developed the idea of electric and magnetic fields, there have been attempts to visualize these illusive 3D constructs. Unfortunately, these attempts were constrained by the limitations of 2D paper and later, 2D computer displays. Maxwell's own "A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism" (1873) is a prime example attempting to illustrate 3D fields using perspective drawings. Overcoming these constraints, Agilent's stereo viewer succeeds in allowing users to actually see fields and currents in 3D.

The stereo 3D viewer consists of a support download that enhances ADS 2009 Update 1. It requires a computer equipped with an NVIDIA Quadro FX 3800 or higher professional graphics solution, NVIDIA 3D Vision stereoscopic glasses, and a 3D Vision ready 120 Hz display.

"Agilent's stereo 3D viewer capability is cutting-edge technology that design, signal integrity, EMI, and layout engineers can use to review the layout and fix problems ahead of tape out," said Jeff Brown, General Manager of the Professional Solutions Group at NVIDIA. "Engineers can see time and cost savings benefits from this solution by identifying and solving critical issues in today's multi gigabit-per-second board and package designs."

"You really have to see this new stereo viewer capability to believe it," says Colin Warwick, Signal Integrity Product Manager in Agilent's EEsof EDA organization. "Once you do, its benefits are obvious. Our tools are for engineering a 3D structure, so showing its fields and currents in 3D gives our customers insights that previously weren't possible."

The stereo 3D viewer is the result of a close collaboration between Agilent and NVIDIA aimed at creating a complete solution to help EDA tools run better, and improved EDA tools to help engineers design more innovative hardware. Other ongoing projects include massively parallel EM, and circuit simulation that harness the massively parallel CUDA architecture of NVIDIA Tesla GPU computing solutions.

Quad buffered stereo is enabled with 3D stereoscopic glasses and displays, driven by NVIDIA Quadro FX high-end and ultra-high end solutions. For more information on supported glasses and displays, including NVIDIA 3D Vision, please visit www.nvidia.com.