Mentor Graphics collaboration with NI speeds time to market with faster test bench development

WILSONVILLE, USA: Mentor Graphics Corp. announced that collaborative efforts with National Instruments have resulted in a solution that provides test-oriented feedback to design teams at every step of the design process.

The new SystemVision SVX Client environment for the NI LabVIEW software allows designers to develop their test bench against a virtual prototype based upon their specification, and then use the exact same test bench in the NI LabVIEW software on physical prototypes. This process allows test bench development to be done in parallel with system development and prototyping, speeding time to market and time to certification.

The combined power of the SystemVision SVX multi-discipline collaboration environment with the NI LabVIEW software, the industry’s leading graphical system design software, allows test program development to proceed without waiting for physical prototypes. With this solution, test program developers can not only deliver ready-to-go product tests, they can also provide test-oriented feedback to the design teams.

The SystemVision SVX environment provides a virtual prototyping of the entire system, while the LabVIEW software implements test program development and execution.

“Unlike the traditional design, simulation, and test sequential process, the combination of SystemVision SVX with LabVIEW provides for continuous product test program development much earlier in the development cycle, which provides a traceability that is particularly appealing in businesses with high levels of required certification,” said John Pasquarette, vice president of Software Product Marketing at National Instruments.

“We are pleased that a case study of this approach will be presented by a major implantable medical electronics company at the upcoming NIWeek 2010 graphical system design conference.”

The SystemVision SVX environment is a virtual execution environment that connects otherwise isolated, domain-specific modeling and software tools dynamically—at any phase of the design process—over a secure, managed signal channel. Its client-server architecture provides for precise, distributed, time-synchronized interfaces between signal generators and consumers, which are easily placed, as symbols, in graphical tools.

In addition, a C/C++ Application Programming Interface (API) makes it easy for application embedded software to interact with models of control systems, multi-physics subsystems, sensors and actuators, and analog and digital electronics.

“The SystemVision SVX environment allows designers to create a precise virtual prototype based upon the product’s specifications,” said Serge Leef, vice president, System-Level Engineering Division, Mentor Graphics.

“This allows the test bench to be developed simultaneously with product development, providing earlier test feedback into the design process, and greatly shortening design cycles by making development and test parallel rather than serial. The result is significantly faster time to market and time to certification."