The Detail, Without the Pain
Early adopters have been impressed with Icepak 4.0's non-conformal meshing. Dr. Sam Zhao, a senior engineer with Broadcom, explains that non-conformal meshing "is especially desirable for large electronic system simulations where detailed thermal models of devices are necessary for improved accuracy in junction temperature predictions."
Dr. Zhao continues, "In a benchmark test using a telecom system thermal model, the problem cell count was reduced from over 1.2 million cells, to just over 300,000 cells with non-conformal meshing. The smooth transition from high cell density zones within and surrounding electronic components on the printed wire board, to low cell density zones in the free stream region, improves the resolution of solutions and reduces solution time for this test," says Zhao.
Jill Childers, a mechanical engineer with Metro-Optix, reports that "The one board set [simulation] went from a mesh count of 1,799,905 to 407,373 cells… The database that would have taken more than eight hours solved in two hours."
Productivity-Enhancements
Icepak 4.0 also introduces a new and highly intuitive user environment, which features a model manager, advanced object wizards, alignment tools and four-window simultaneous views:
Model Manager manages the creation, edits, replication, and other object functions; assemblies; libraries; and problem/project configurations and settings. Centralized model management allows the user to quickly and easily access different aspects of the model, and is particularly useful when handling large and complex models.
Advanced Object Wizards make it easy to build a complex model from scratch in minutes. The user creates ready-to-use heat sink configurations; IC packages, such as Plastic Ball Grid Arrays (PBGA), Tape Ball Grid Arrays (TBGA), Quad flat packages (QFP) and others; and can also create Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs); and fans with 3D housings and hubs.
Four-Window Viewing simultaneously displays complex 3D models from four viewpoints with on-screen iconic view controls to select viewpoints The user can manipulate the geometry, as well as post-processing views, from different angles since each of the viewports are independently controllable. This powerful visualization tool allows the user to quickly and efficiently view the results of simulations of complex models to make appropriate design decisions.
Pricing and Availability
Icepak 4.0 is available on UNIX, NT, and Linux platforms. It is provided at no additional cost to all current Icepak users who have chosen to purchase upgrades along with their Icepak licenses. Icepak license fees are determined by the number of processes that a user requires. Users may also purchase unlimited usage support.
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