Intusoft Releases "DSP Designer" in SPICE Simulation Tool Suites


Carson, CA (December 1, 2008) -- Intusoft announced today the first release of "DSP Designer," a novel approach to developing digital control and digital signal processing (DSP) functions using the IsSpice4 simulator inside several of Intusoft's ICAP/4 suites and Test Designer product.

DSP Designer is a revolutionary breakthrough to DSP development. The new capability enables digital control algorithms to be visually simulated using special device models to create and simulate Z transformations and corresponding DSP programming instructions, including hidden parameters not accessible within usual DSP design. Results are viewed as waveforms and Bode plots, enabling the designer to grasp a visual correlation of the DSP's micro-code and design performance. Other aspects of a DSP can be simulated such as digital and analog signal conversions, sample/hold, filtering and load. DSP Designer is also valuable for verifying design accuracy and performance if assembly code instructions are manually entered through an integrated development system, as is traditionally done.

DSP Designer: A Novel Approach
DSP Designer offers a breakthrough in eliminating the tedium and error-prone assembly language programming of DSP. Intusoft's ICAP/4 simulation framework employs functional blocks and fast "average" models to create Z transforms for simulating DSP digital control. The models perform synchronous switching, which simplifies the SPICE model and always performs in a continuous conduction mode (CCM). DSP Designer enables large-signal line and load transient analysis, start-up analysis and noise injection for predicting EMI, as well as provides built in self-test (BIST) when used within Intusoft's Test Designer product.

Larry Meares, founder and chief engineer at Intusoft positioned: "It's a known fact that programming assembly-language instructions for DSP is very tenuous, also allowing mistakes to be passed through without detection. The engineer can now accurately create transfer functions and verify the results, prior to passing on equivalent coding instructions." In the near future coding from DSP Designer's IsSpice4 simulator will be automatically converted to assembly language format, inputting that data through an integrated development interface (IDE), which feeds into the DSP development board's memory. DSP Designer includes a firmware plug-in that enables signals from Tektronix series 1000 and 2000 oscilloscopes to be viewed directly in ICAP/4's "IntuScope" waveform viewing tool, alongside equivalent simulation waveforms. Several design examples and technical DSP articles are accessible from Intusoft's website, and in newsletter # 82 at: http://www.intusoft.com/newsletters.htm.

Intusoft's marketing director, Tim Ghazaleh, commented: "The DSP marketplace had a reported $7 billion presence in 2007. In response to this we're evangelizing a groundbreaking approach to DSP, making the development and programming of DSP systems easier for both digital and analog designers." DSP Designer is ultimately slated to work with a development board designed by Intusoft in Q1, 2009. This would work in conjunction with select DSP boards from MicroChip Inc., Texas Instruments and possibly others.

DSP Designer is included in several of Intusoft's higher-end simulation packages, whose upcoming release will also be in December, 2008. DSP ICs are used in the majority of digital phones, and increasingly are found in several electronic and energy end-use markets.

 

Reference Account Program
Intusoft's reference account program offers its customers no-cost and reduced-cost upgrades to DSP Designer in exchange for their evaluation and work with the software package. The program will also be open to new purchasers of DSP Designer.

Corporate Background:
Established in 1985, Intusoft designs, develops and markets award-winning design automation software to electronics industries worldwide. Its headquarters are in Carson, California, including a worldwide network of resellers. Intusoft's products target a breadth of applications across all industrial, technological, military and consumer industries, by providing leading tools for analog and mixed-signal design of boards and ICs, as well as automated test synthesis.

Information on Intusoft and its products is provided at www.intusoft.com.

For Further Information Contact:

Tim Ghazaleh
Director of Marketing, Intusoft
Direct (925) 425-9833
Phone: 310-952- 0657 Fax: 310-952-5468
Email: tim@intusoft.com