National Instruments and Ansoft Work to Speed RF System Design Cycle
Companies Integrate NI LabVIEW and Ansoft Designer for Rapid Prototyping, Verification of RF Designs
PHILADELPHIA -- National Instruments and Ansoft LLC announced Wednesday (June 11) an integration between Ansoft Designer™ high-frequency electronic-design software and the NI LabVIEW 7 Express virtual instrumentation software. Through a new API that integrates Ansoft Designer and NI LabVIEW, design engineers can easily incorporate real-world measurements into their RF and wireless system design flow to accelerate the model development and system validation of today's complex RF and mixed-signal systems. A set of example programs for integrating LabVIEW and Ansoft Designer, is available for download at http://ni.com/design.
"By working with NI, we can provide our customers with a more efficient method of validating wireless, wire-line and optical-communications application designs. We are extending traditional RF system design simulation by combining the Ansoft Designer automated design environment with the advanced measurement capabilities of LabVIEW," said Nicholas Csendes, Ansoft president and CEO. "This provides a solution that covers the complete design flow, from concept and system design to individual component and system testing."
Engineers use the Ansoft family of circuit, system and electromagnetic modeling and advanced simulation products to create and simulate RF and microwave system designs. Now, with the new LabVIEW data exchange tools for interfacing with standard Touchstone RF data files, LabVIEW and Ansoft Designer can easily share data. Through LabVIEW, design engineers have access to a wide variety of measurement I/O - from vector network analyzers to modular RF instruments, such as the new NI PXI-5660 RF signal analyzer - so they can generate real-world stimuli and take real-world measurements. Engineers then can compare measured results with simulation data to identify design flaws earlier, greatly improving time-to-market and quality of communications technologies used in cell phones, cable modems, PDAs and other wireless devices.
"Our work with Ansoft brings the full benefits of virtual instrumentation to RF system design," said Mihir Ravel, NI vice president of technology and corporate development. "By integrating LabVIEW with Ansoft Designer, engineers can take advantage of powerful math and digital signal processing tools for signal analysis and connect to the broadest array of instruments."
The new LabVIEW data exchange tools for integrating with Ansoft Designer work with both LabVIEW 7 Express and LabVIEW 6.1.
About National Instruments
National Instruments is a technology pioneer and leader in virtual instrumentation - a revolutionary concept that has changed the way engineers and scientists approach measurement and automation. Leveraging the PC and its related technologies, virtual instrumentation increases productivity and lowers costs for customers worldwide through easy-to-integrate software, such as the NI LabVIEW graphical development environment, and modular hardware, such as PXI modules for data acquisition, instrument control and machine vision. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, NI has more than 3,000 employees and direct operations in 40 countries. In 2002, the company sold products to more than 25,000 different companies in more than 80 countries around the world. For the past four consecutive years, FORTUNE magazine has named NI one of the 100 best companies to work for in America.
About Ansoft
Ansoft is a leading developer of high-performance electronic design automation (EDA) software. Engineers use Ansoft software to design state-of-the-art electronic products, such as cellular phones, Internet-access devices, broadband networking components and systems, integrated circuits (ICs), printed circuit boards (PCBs), automotive electronic systems, power electronics, and fuel-cell technology. Ansoft markets its products worldwide through its own direct sales force and has comprehensive customer-support and training offices throughout North America, Asia, and Europe.