ANSOFT SHIPS MAXWELL SPICELINK 1.2

NEW RELEASE SPEEDS HIGH-SPEED INTERCONNECT ANALYSIS BY FACTOR OF 10 OR
MORE

Pittsburgh, Pa. September 20, 1993 - Ansoft Corporation announced today
that it is shipping Version 1.2 of Maxwell Spicelink, a signal integrity
design software product for high-speed electronic design applications.

The most important enhancements in this release are new field solvers that
can increase the speed of electrical characterization by a factor of ten
or more over previous versions. Power and ground plane characterization is
simplified by the addition of automatic SPICE model generation for
structures with multiple sources and sinks. Maxwell Spicelink 1.2 includes
all previous capabilities for simulation of 3D structures, including
non-ideal grounds and ground bounce, for the design of electronic
packaging, connectors, and MCMs and PCBs.

Maxwell Spicelink addresses high-speed digital design issues including
signal integrity and crosstalk, parasitic parameters, power and ground
plane placement, and electromigration. The product's primary strength is
its sophisticated capabilities for electromagnetic analysis of
interconnect structures, including 3D modeling of package and die
interconnects, PCB connector and bus structures, and semiconductor
metallization. Circuit level signal integrity modeling can be performed at
the SPICE-level to study crosstalk, ringing, and reflections with
SPICE-level accuracy.

"Now, design engineers can use the same signal integrity tool for modeling
different classes of interconnect problems without taking a substantial
performance hit," commented Dr. Zoltan Cendes, Founder of Ansoft
Corporation. "Previously, engineers needing electrical characterization
often had to choose between an accurate, general finite-element field
solver, as in previous versions of Maxwell Spicelink, or specialized fast
solvers that had limitations in terms of accuracy, problem size, material
types, or geometry."

"With Maxwell Spicelink Version 1.2, certain classes of interconnect,
including both single and multilayer packaging structures and RC-dominated
interconnects can be characterized using the new fast field solvers. When
more general capabilities are needed, such as in many packaging or MCM
structures involving ground bounce, the designer can still use the
finite-element modeling technology proven in years of use by Ansoft
customers."

The 10X or greater speed improvement in C matrix extraction comes from a
new algorithm for capacitance computation called multipole acceleration.
Other integral-equation techniques such as BEM suffer a substantial
performance penalty with large models because the full-matrices used in
these methods require order n**3 solution times. Multipole techniques,
however, offer linear (order n) performance, and solve geometrically
complex structures in MCM and semiconductor packaging applications very
efficiently. Maxwell Spicelink Version 1.2 is the first commercial product
to incorporate multipole acceleration (MPA).

The 10X to 100X speed-up in R and L calculations for 3D structures results
from enhanced proprietary fast FEA algorithms for computing current
distributions, combined with a modified Neumann integration technique for
accurate L matrix calculation. Other implementations of Neumann
integration use a filament method to model current flow in an
interconnect, severely limiting its accuracy. The new approach implemented
in Maxwell Spicelink eliminates this problem by using true 3D conduction
solutions to determine the actual current distribution in the
interconnects.

In addition to fast L, C, R computation in 3D, other new capabilities
included in Maxwell Spicelink Version 1.2 are:

* 3D AC analysis including skin effect and induced eddy currents
* A fast planar solver that can import DXF files of single layer
  planar structures to compute resistance and capacitance of
  these structures automatically
* SPICE output compatible with HSPICE, PSpice, and ContecSPICE 
  is produced automatically
* Network licensing is available.

Maxwell Spicelink 1.2 runs on popular UNIX-based workstations and the
purchase price is $49,500 (US).

A October 27 seminar at Techmart (San Jose, CA) will show-case Maxwell
Spicelink Version 1.2. Ansoft will present solutions for several types of
ground plane problems.

Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Ansoft Corporation has over 600
customers worldwide in the electronics, automotive, aerospace, and
manufacturing sectors. The company's products are sold through
distributors in Europe and Asia. Ansoft developed the microwave CAE tool,
the High-Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS), sold worldwide by the
Hewlett-Packard Company. Ansoft headquarters are located at Four Station
Square, Suite 660, Pittsburgh, PA 15219-1119 USA. Phone 412-261-3200. Fax
412-4719427. Internet info@ansoft.com.

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