VISUALIZATION OF TRADEOFFS BETWEEN CIRCUIT DESIGNS

• US 20100325599A1
• Filed: 08/26/2010
• Published: 12/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: National Semiconductor Corporation (Texas Instruments, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: National Semiconductor Corporation (Texas Instruments, Inc.)
• Inventors: Garrison, Martin, Vo, Khanh Nhat, Gibson, Phil, Perry, Jeffrey R., Mac, Dien
• Granted Patent: US 9,087,164 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 716/122
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2117/02 Fault tolerance, e.g. for transient fault suppression
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2119/06 Power analysis or power optimisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2119/08 Thermal analysis or thermal optimisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/00 Computer-aided design [CAD]
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 3/156 with automatic control of output voltage or current, e.g. switching regulators

Abstract

A system may include a database configured to store information including characteristics of a plurality of components. The system may further include a server in communication with the database and configured to receive design requirements indicative of desired power supply designs; query the database for components that satisfy the design requirements; determine a plurality of power supply designs in accordance with the components and the design parameters; determine key parameters of at least a subset of the determined power supply designs; and rank the power supply designs.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a database configured to store information including characteristics of a plurality of components; and

a server in communication with the database and configured to;

receive design requirements indicative of desired power supply designs;

query the database for components that satisfy the design requirements;

generate a plurality of power supply designs in accordance with the components and the design parameters;

determine key parameters of at least a subset of the determined power supply designs; and

rank the power supply designs according to at least a subset of the key parameters.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a user device in communication with the server and configured to:

send the design requirements to the server in a request for power supply designs;

receive the plurality of power supply designs from the server responsive to the request; and

graphically display tradeoffs between the plurality of power supply designs according to at least a subset of the key parameters.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the user device is further configured to display a tabular listing of the plurality of power supply designs in addition to the graphical display of the tradeoffs.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the user device is further configured to indicate one of the plurality of power supply designs as being a recommended design.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the user device is further configured to indicate a preferred quadrant of the graphical display indicative of power supply designs providing a desirable tradeoff of the key parameters being displayed.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the design requirements are indicative of an input voltage source to power the power supply designs and a load source to be powered by the power supply designs.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein determining the key parameters includes determining a bill of materials cost.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein determining the key parameters includes performing circuit simulations to determine at least one of circuit behavior over time and thermal characteristics.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein determining the key parameters includes calculation of electrical efficiency using an operating values module.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the power supply designs are optimized according to a set of design tradeoffs specified by the design parameters.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the server is further configured to:

rank the power supply designs according to the set of design tradeoffs specified by the design parameters; and

determine a recommended design as the design having the best ranking.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein optimizing the power supply designs includes:

determining, based on the set of design tradeoffs, relative weights for at least two key parameters of a component of the plurality of power supply designs;

determining initial scores indicative of how close each of the at least two key parameters of the component are to target values for each of the at least two key parameters;

calculating a plurality of weighted scores for the component based on the initial scores and the corresponding weights; and

calculating a final score for the component based on the plurality of weighted scores.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein generating the plurality of power supply designs includes determining at least one of a bill of materials, a schematic and a printed circuit board layout for each of the plurality of power supply designs.

14. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a computing device including a visualizer design tool application, design requirements indicative of desired power supply designs including design tradeoffs;

determining components that satisfy the design requirements;

generating a plurality of power supply designs in accordance with the components and the design requirements;

determining key parameters of at least a subset of the determined power supply designs; and

graphically displaying tradeoffs between the plurality of power supply designs according to the determined key parameters.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising representing a first of the key parameters as a first axis of the graphical display, and representing a second of the key parameters as a second axis of the graphical display.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising representing a third of the key parameters as a third axis of the graphical display.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the third axis is represented by characteristics of items of a two dimensional graphical display, the characteristics of the items being varied to indicate the third of the key parameters.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising varying characteristics including at least one of item size and item color to indicate the third of the key parameters.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising utilizing system defaults for the key parameters represented by axes of the graphical display.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising defaulting a first axis to a system footprint key parameter, a second axis to a system efficiency key parameter, and a third axis to a bill of material cost key parameter.

21. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

querying a database for components that satisfy the design requirements, the database storing information including characteristics of a plurality of components; and

receiving the components that satisfy the design requirements from the database.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the design requirements indicate at least one manufacturer or channel supplier, and wherein querying the database for components includes filtering for components only from the at least one manufacturer or channel supplier.

23. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

determining one of the power supply designs to be a recommended design; and

indicating the one of the plurality of power supply designs as being a recommended design in the graphical display.

24. The method of claim 14, further comprising ranking the power supply designs according to the determined key parameters.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

setting target values for at least two of the determined key parameters of the power supply designs;

calculating initial scores for the power supply designs, where the closer each of the at least two determined key parameters is to the corresponding target value, the higher the score for that key parameter;

assigning weights to the at least two of the key parameters based on the design tradeoffs specified in the design requirements;

determining final scores for each power supply design based on the initial scores and the weights; and

ranking the power supply designs according to the final scores.

26. The method of claim 24, further comprising determining a recommended design as the power supply design having the highest ranking.

27. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

determining an ordering of the power supply designs based on the ranking; and

displaying the power supply designs in a tabular list according to the determined ordering.

28. The method of claim 14, further comprising receiving a selection of one of the power supply designs for at least one of further analysis and purchase.

29. A method, comprising:

sending, from a user device, a request including design requirements indicative of desired power supply designs;

receiving, by the user device, a plurality of power supply designs responsive to the request; and

graphically displaying tradeoffs between the plurality of power supply designs according to key parameters of the power supply designs, the power supply designs being ranked according to key parameters determined for at least a subset of the power supply designs.

30. The method of claim 29, further comprising:

determining components that satisfy the design requirements;

generating a plurality of power supply designs in accordance with the components and the design requirements; and

determining the key parameters of at least a subset of the determined power supply designs.

31. The method of claim 29, further comprising displaying a tabular listing of the plurality of power supply designs in addition to the graphical display of the tradeoffs.

32. The method of claim 29, further comprising representing a first of the key parameters as a first axis of the graphical display, and representing a second of the key parameters as a second axis of the graphical display.

33. The method of claim 32, further comprising representing a third of the key parameters as a third axis of the graphical display.

34. The method of claim 29, further comprising indicating a preferred quadrant of the graphical display indicative of power supply designs providing a desirable tradeoff of the key parameters being displayed.

35. The method of claim 29, further comprising including design tradeoffs in the design requirements, wherein the received power supply designs are optimized according to the design tradeoffs.

36. The method of claim 29, further comprising indicating one of the plurality of power supply designs as being a recommended design in the graphical display.

37. The method of claim 36, further comprising ranking the power supply designs according to the determined key parameters;

wherein the recommended design is determined as the power supply design having the highest ranking.

38. A computer-readable medium tangibly embodying computer-executable instructions configured to cause a computing device to:

receive information relating to design requirements indicative of desired power supply designs including design tradeoffs;

determine components that satisfy the design requirements;

generate a plurality of power supply designs in accordance with the components and the design requirements;

determine key parameters of at least a subset of the determined power supply designs;

rank the power supply designs according to the determined key parameters; and

graphically display tradeoffs between the plurality of power supply designs according to the determined key parameters, the display representing a first of the key parameters as a first axis of the graphical display, and a second of the key parameters as a second axis of the graphical display.

39. The computer-readable medium of claim 38, further comprising instructions configured to cause the computing device to represent a third of the key parameters as a third axis of the graphical display.

40. The computer-readable medium of claim 38, further comprising instructions configured to cause the computing device to:

generate a requirements web site configured to receive the design parameters; and

send the requirements web site to a user device.

41. The computer-readable medium of claim 38, further comprising instructions configured to cause the computing device to:

generate a results web site configured to cause a user device to display the generated at least one design in accordance with the plurality of power supply design parameters; and

send the results web site to the user device.