TABLE OF CONTENTS Although many users of VHDL-AMS may only be interested in analog and mixed-signal electrical systems, the language also supports a broad range of other energy domains. By defining an appropriate nature, subtypes for branch quantities and tolerance groups, we can describe any energy domain that exhibits energy conservation analogously to electrical systems. To help in creating a common VHDL-AMS modeling framework, a collection of commonly used energy domains is described as a suite of packages in preparation for IEEE standardization. We discuss the packages in Chapter 10. In this section, we discuss techniques for modeling mixed-technology systems using VHDL-AMS.
One application of mixed-technology modeling is to integrate secondary physical effects into the system model. For example, the behavior of electrical and electronic systems can depend significantly on thermal effects, so an integrated model representing both the electrical and thermal energy domains provides greater fidelity. Systems engineers in particular must consider a wide variety of concurrent engineering issues during system development, and the unified modeling capability of VHDL-AMS enables much better coupling between domains. With the increasing complexity of systems on silicon, multiple-domain modeling addresses important design challenges.
Another application of mixed-technology modeling is for systems that bring together components from different domains. Mixed-technology, or mechatronic, systems are common in telecommunications, automotive, aerospace and biomedical areas, just to name a few. The ability to assemble systems with components from various domains, such as electrical, microelectromechanical (MEMS), microfluidic and optical, is becoming more common. VHDL-AMS provides mixed-technology designers with...
