ENGINEERING CONSULTING
Speeding Edge’s engineering consulting services address a wide-range of hardware system-level design issues. From trouble-shooting existing designs to helping develop next-generation designs that work right the first time, Speeding Edge’s consulting expertise is unparalled in the industry The first step in our consulting services efforts involves learning as much as possible about your existing problem and/or new design effort. This effort is accomplished via conference calls and review of existing design documentation. Upon that review, Speeding Edge will:
- Identify the issues that need to be addressed
- Develop a plan for addressing the issues of concern
- Provide a time-line for the consulting effort
- Provide a budget for the consulting effort
- Upon project completion, ensure that the consulting effort has met all of our customer’s criteria
Our services include providing on-going signal integrity engineering support to several manufacturers of ultra high performance products that include hundreds of signal paths ranging from PCI speeds to 10Gb/S. Providing consulting services on products containing gigabit and higher data paths has become a specialty of Speeding Edge including developing specifications for the IC packages used to house these high-speed circuits.
Speeding Edge has provided efficient solutions to severe EMI problems that have evaded the skills of many EMI “gurus” who have tried the standard fixes in general circulation in the industry. Products that have been fixed range from disc drivers to supercomputers.
Speeding Edge provides consulting services to clients engaged in developing high-speed PCB and system designs.
Services provided include:
- Wiring rule generation
- Coupling and cross talk control
- PCB cross section design
- Simulation tool use
- Logic family choices
- Connector selection
- Termination rules
- PCB testability
- PCB routing techniques
- Bus design
- PCB cross section evaluation
- High-speed material selection
- EMI control
- Controlled impedance
- Impedance testing
- Differential signaling
- Power Subsystem Design and Testing
Companies that have retained Speeding Edge for engineering consulting services include:
- Altera
- Analog Devices
- Arista Networks
- Atmel
- Blade Networks
- Calix
- Cisco
- cPacket
- Daktronix
- Fabric 7 Networks
- General Dynamics
- General Electric
- GTE
- Intel
- Intuitive Surgical
- Juniper Systems
Speeding Edge’s consulting services are priced based upon the type and extent of consulting services required. Therefore, our consulting fees are negotiated on a case-by-case basis. For more information regarding our consulting services and the fees associated with them, please contact us at 707-568-3983 or send an email to the Speeding Edge Vice President of Marketing, Kella Knack at kjspeedingedge@cs.com.
For those customers who require on-site training efforts in addition to engineering consulting services, Speeding Edge can create custom service packages to address these needs.
Test Laboratory
Speeding Edge, specialists in gigabit and higher designs, now offers test laboratory services for high-speed PCB impedance and power subsystem testing.
Two important tests that need to be performed
In order to ensure viability of the design in terms of high speed criteria, the following tests must be performed:
- Verifying that transmission line impedances are correct
- Testing the power supply impedance vs. frequency to make sure that all loads are properly supported.
The expertise of Speeding Edge staff as well as equipment owned by the company enables the verification of transmission line impedances as well as the ability to test power supply impedance vs. frequency to support load requirements.
Because the two pieces of equipment required to perform these tests-a time domain reflectometer (TDR) and a spectrum analyzer cost about $30,000 or more and are used infrequently, it does not make sense for most engineering departments to make these costly investments. In addition, the successful completion of these tests requires a specialized skillset not available in most departments.
Speeding Edge uses a TDR to measure transmission line impedance. The TDR consists of a voltage step generator that launches very fast rise time pulses down the line to be tested and a sampling oscilloscope that monitors the voltage that travels on the transmission line. From the size and polarity of a reflection, the transmission line impedance can be measured.
In addition, Speeding Edge maintains a spectrum analyzer that is used with a tracking signal generator to measure the impedance vs. frequency of a power subsystem. Both of the tests that Speeding Edge offers, verification of transmission line impedance and testing of power subsystem impedance vs. frequency, are offered as contract services and can be performed either at a customer facility or at the Speeding Edge headquarters.
Note: Performing both impedance and power supply tests is best done with special test structures designed into each PCB. Descriptions of these preferred test structures can be obtained from Speeding Edge.