SSS Online is proud to highlight our favorite design tools, software and reference books on
this page. We have had many useful hours of faithful service from the tools / items listed below.
We make our living developing new products for OEMs and as such have a detailed (if not intimate)
knowledge of these tools. If you need any help designing circuits, systems or equipment /
instrumentation with any of these tools, please call us at TEL: 865-717-9339, FAX: 865-717-9904
or email:
-- to find out more about
these tools, just click on one of these topics:
Editor's Note: These reviews were prepared by Randy Roberts of RF/SS Consulting (now retired),
and were originally posted on this page in February 1999. As time permits, we will update the information
and provide additional reviews on new tools.
ACOLADE is a software tool that enables the user to quickly and easily design and
implement simulations for a communication system of arbitrary complexity. An
invaluable feature of ACOLADE in such analysis applications is its overall
flexibility. The simulation is based on the concept of Models; each Model corresponds to
a typical component in a communication system (e.g., channel, transmitter, receiver,
encoder or decoder). The architecture of ACOLADE is such that, within broad
limits, Models can be interconnected at will to model any conceivable communication
system. The ACOLADE Graphical User Interface (GUI) provides an intuitive
and simple means to specify Model choices and interconnections; the components
of the communication system are represented by blocks on the GUI "canvas" and
data paths between these components by lines ("connections"). By using the
Models packaged with ACOLADE, the user need not be concerned with the details of
the simulation as an entire system can be designed by literally "pointing and
clicking"; no coding is necessary.
Shown below is a screenshot of the analysis of a IS95a CDMA forward link
consisting of Wireless Multipath Channel, Coherent Rake Correlator and Parallel Combiner.
For more information, including pricing and distribution information on current versions
of this software, contact Applied Wave Research at:
A Screen Capture From an Actual Run of SystemView on a PC.
New SystemView RF/Analog Library Provides Advanced RF
Component Models for Windows Users
Editor's Note: as of August 18, 2005, Eagleware-Elanix has
been purchased by Agilent Technologies. See more news about this aquisition
here. Also, Elanix SystemView
has been renamed simply 'SystemVue' as of April 2005, and information on this product is available
here.
ELANIX, Inc. recently introduced a
powerful new optional library for RF/Analog applications. We have been using these add-ons
for SystemView and have found this version of the program and the
complete libraries to be an excellant set of S/W Tools for the Wireless Designer.
The SystemView RF/Analog Library, the latest addition to the add-on SystemView Libraries,
supports the important electronic components used in today's RF designs and completes the initial
suite of SystemView Libraries.
For the first time, SystemView users will be able to incorporate actual analog circuits and
components into their system simulations. For example, RF mixers and amplifiers actually create
the spurious frequency components that engineers will encounter during final hardware
development. Highlights of SystemView are:
SystemView by ELANIX Features
True dynamic system simulator.
Intuitive sampled data (z-domain) and continuous (Laplace domain) system specification.
Multi-rate systems, multiple parallel systems.
Mixed time-continuous and time-discrete systems.
Graphical FIR filter design, including lowpass, bandpass, highpass, band-reject, Hilbert
(90 degree phase shift), and differentiators.
Extensive library of IIR filters including multi-pole Bessel, Butterworth, Chebyshev,
and Linear Phase.
FFT types: magnitude, squared magnitude, spectrum analyzer (mWatts in 50 ohms), spectrum
analyzer (Watts in ohms), power spectral density (mW/Hz, 50 ohms), power spectral density
(W/Hz, 1 ohm), phase (modulo +- 180 degrees), phase (unwrapped) in degrees, group delay
in seconds, real, imaginary.
Unlimited support for embedded, multi-level subsystems.
Full complement of logic functions, switches, and non-linear devices.
Complete libraries of Sources, Sinks, Functions, Operators, and MetaSystems.
External and internal signal sources and sinks.
Built-in system diagnostics and connection checks.
SystemView by ELANIX Applications
Signal processing, communication, and control systems, including analog, digital, and
mixed mode systems.
Phase and frequency locked loops.
Modulation, demodulation, and channel modeling.
Complete DSP system design and test.
Analog to digital conversion systems, quantization, and sampling systems, including
delta-sigma data converters. In-phase and quadrature systems.
Linear and non-linear system design and test.
Solutions to linear and non-linear differential equations, including Chaos theory.
Control system design and test.
Integrated System Flexibility
SystemView by ELANIX fully supports multi-rate systems, parallel simultaneous systems, and
internal or external data sources and sinks. More complex systems may use SystemView by ELANIX's
powerful new MetaSystem object, which provides unlimited creation, editing and interconnection
of embedded subsystems.
Innovative Filter and Linear System Design
SystemView by ELANIX also provides a new approach to analog-digital filter design, discrete
time linear system design, and continuous time Laplace linear system design. These systems
are designed using SystemView by ELANIX's innovative and efficient graphical templates. Results
of the initial design and any subsequent modifications are automatically computed by SystemView
by ELANIX, incorporated into the simulation, and graphically displayed in the time, frequency,
or phase domain.
Interactive Signal Analysis and Display
Beyond system design and simulation, SystemView by ELANIX also provides a truly interactive
Analysis window for the detailed examination of system waveforms. Zoom, scroll, spectral
analysis, scaling, filtering and much more, are only a mouse-click away
Intuitive and Powerful
SystemView by ELANIX is a completely intuitive personal simulation tool that presents a
comfortable visual interface to the user. The power of SystemView by ELANIX lies not only in
its simulation engine, but also in the remarkably quick way in which truly complex systems may
be created and tested. SystemView by ELANIX is the preferred personal simulation tool for
scientists, engineers, physicists, and mathematicians seeking significant increases in design
productivity.
Optional Libraries
The SystemView by ELANIX environment includes a suite of optional libraries that enhance
the function library with powerful additional functions for specific application areas.
Current options include libraries of Communications, DSP, Logic and RF/Analog functions, as well
as a user-definable extensible token library. These optional libraries allow users to affordably
tailor their SystemView by ELANIX installation by choosing only those additional functions that
they require.
This library includes such models as fixed and variable amplifiers, operational
amplifier circuits (op-amps) double balanced mixers, several power splitter and power combiner
types, couplers, diodes (including Zener diodes), resistor-capacitor differentiators,
resistor-inductors, low-pass and high-pass RC and L-C filters, PLL filters, LC tank and
quadrature circuits, coupled resonator pairs, and more.
"The SystemView RF/Analog library was developed by our engineers and scientists with
the goal of providing accurate and useful models of the circuits and components commonly used
in today's advanced RF and analog designs," said Geoff Chatfield, Director of Marketing. "With a
single mouse click, designers can analyze the Bode (Gain and Phase) and Root Locus plots for their
circuit designs. System designers now have access to sophisticated component models on the
affordable, user friendly PC/Windows platform."
SystemView by ELANIX is the preferred Microsoft Windows-based alternative to high-priced
workstation simulation tools. This dynamic system simulator running on i386 and higher
IBM-compatible PCS with 4 MB RAM and 3 MB hard disk space features comprehensive tools for
analog, digital, and mixed-mode design and analysis in a user-friendly visual design environment.
Applications range from DSP, communications, signal processing, and control to general
mathematical system modeling. SystemView Illy supports mixed mode (i.e. analog and digital)
multi-rate systems, parallel simultaneous systems, and internal or external data sources and sinks.
More complex systems may use SystemView's powerful MetaSystem object, which provides
unlimited creation, editing, and interconnection of embedded subsystems, as well as continuous
refinement of the system performance model.
SystemView also provides a new approach to analog-digital filter design, discrete time
linear system design, and continuous-time Laplace linear system design. Users specify these
systems using innovative and efficient graphical templates. Results of the initial design
and any subsequent modifications are automatically computed by SystemView, incorporated into
the simulation, and graphically displayed in the time, frequency, or phase domain.
SystemView version 1.8 is available now for $2450. Optional Communications, DSP,
Logic, and RF libraries are available starting at $525.
ELANIX, Inc. develops advanced hardware and software signal processing and
communications systems for defense and commercial markets. ELANIX introduced SystemView,
its Microsoft Windows based design and development engineering software in 1993. ELANIX also
designed and developed the Xmath Signal Analysis Module, a major signal processing software
CAE system running under UNIX and other operating systems.
SystemView is one of the finest system modelling and
block diagram simulation tools available today. Be sure to visit their WWW home page
(press the link below), register and then download
their evaluation S/W package. Try it -- I'm sure you will like it!
Elanix, Inc.
5655 Lindero Canyon Rd., Suite 721
Westlake Village, CA., USA, 91362
Telephone: (818) 597-1414
FAX: (818) 597-1427
E-mail: was elanix@elanix.com
Website: previously http.//www.elanix.com
