RCA Engineer Vol.No .2Mar. /Apr. 986

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A technical journal published by the RCA Technical Excellence Center 0 13 Roszel Road 0 P. 0. Box 432 0 Princeton, NJ 08543-0432 0 Tacnet: 226-3090

RCA Engineer Staff Operations, RCA Americom 0 Jim Feller Division Vice - Tom KingEditor President, Technology, Aerospace and Defense 0 Mahlon Fisher Division Vice -President, Engineering, Video Component & Mike LynchAssociate Editor Display Division 0 Larry Gallace Division Vice -President, Louise CarrArt Editor Product Assurance, MIS and Materials, Solid State Rosemarie CruzEditorial Assistant/Composition Specialist Division 0 Arch Luther Senior Staff Scientist, RCA Laboratories 0 Bill Webster Vice -President and Senior Maria PragliolaSecretary Technical Advisor, Electronic Products and Technology

Editorial Advisory Board Tony Bianculli Manager, Engineering Information, Technical Consulting Editors Excellence Center Jay Brandinger Staff Vice -President, Ed BurkeAdministrator, Marketing Information and Commun- Engineering, Electronic Products and Technology 0 Frank ications, Aerospace and Defense 0 Walt Dennen Manager, Burris Director, Technical Excellence Center 0 Jim Naval Systems Department Communications and Information, Carnes Division Vice -President, Engineering, Consumer Missile and Surface Radar 0 John Phillips Director, Business Electronics 0 John Christopher Vice -President, Technical Development and Services, RCA Service Company

About our cover the pervasive PC has become very much a part of the engineering workplace. With the proper software, PCs have successfully performed the functions of many traditional engineering tools. In this issue we see some of the possible uses in engineering for the PC and its more sophisticated cousin, the engineering workstation. Of course, with each new application comes a new set of problems to solve, and this issue discusses a number of those, too.

Cover design by the RCA Engineer staff. 0 To serve as a medium of interchange of technical Cover photo by James Pryor, RCA Solid State Division information among various groups at RCA 0 To create a community of engineering interest within the company by stressing the interrelated nature of all contributions 0 To disseminate to RCA engineers technical information of professional value 0 To publish in an appropriate manner important technical developments at RCA, and the role of the engineer 0 To help publicize engineering achievements in a manner that will promote the interests and reputation of RCA in the engineering field 0 To provide a convenient means by which the RCA engineer may review professional work before associates and engineering management 0 To announce outstanding and unusual achievements of RCA engineers in a manner most likely to enhance their prestige and professional status. computer model includes the effects of dis- Quarter for their exceptionally high level of Roger B. Hogan, Michael Cummings, and tributed parasitics. The model enabled Mr. personal commitment, sustained perfor- Kenneth Ward were selected by the Amer- Wignot to predict a parasitic oscillation mances, and leadership. ican Ihstitute of Aeronautics and Astro- mode and have a fix ready when the prob- nautic:3 (AIAA) to receive the Haley Space lem showed up during the factory pilot run. Mesut Ciceker for providing the guidance, encouragement and initiative for his team Flight Award for their outstanding contribu- It also was used to solve a radiation prob- tions to the advancement of astronautic during the integration and test of American lem. The work done is usable on all MTT technology. All three Astro employees were units, and will be useful to future rf designers Satellite Company's communications satel- lite, ASC-1. a part of the NOAA/NASA/RCA Recovery in reducing factory problems with tuners. Team ()f the NOAA-8 satellite. Michael Mihavetz and a team from Astro's Astro Employee of the Quarter Management Information Systems (MIS), for makingitpossible for RCA to meet the Awards contractual requirements of the Air Force Five engineers at RCA Astro-Electronics on the DMSP 11-14 series of meteorological Division have been named Employee of the satellites.

Professional activities

Hittinger receives IEEE award Directors upon persons of outstanding and the Mohth for the month of November. This extraordinary qualifications and experience award is recognition of Don's outstanding William C. Hittinger, Executive Vice Presi- in IEEE -designated fields who have made contribuition on the GWEN and AF-FSP dent (retired), has been named by the IEEE important individual contributions to one or programs. Board of Directors as the recipient of the more of these fields. On the AF-FSP, Don was responsible for 1986 Frederik Philips Award "for leadership John Bauer's citation is "for outstanding the successful design and development of in electronics research and development." technical leadership in establishing leadless a state--of-the-art solid-state power con- Mr. Hittinger received the award at the Inter- chip carrier technology and surface mount- verter unit (PCU). He was instrumental in national Solid State Circuits Conference in ing packaging techniques as a viable ap- solving two major problems on the GWEN February. The Philips Award recognizes proach to high -density, low-cost military program. On the interface of the LFPA to the outstanding accomplishments in the man- and commercial packaging." ATU, Dc4n quickly diagnosed a problem and agement of research and development. Dr. Dr. Perlman was honored "for contribu- imPlemnted a retrofitable fix to protect William M. Webster received the same tions to microwave solid-state device and the PA and was able to diagnose reliability award in 1980. circuit design, and leadership in computer - problerris on the UPS manufactured by aided methods for microwave engineering." NOVA as a faulty control circuit design. Don redesigned the control circuit using the same Nelson is ACS Chairman components and furnished the design to Brown receives NAB award the vendor for implementation. His perfor- J. Roy Nelson, RCA Laboratories, has been Dr. George H. Brown, retired RCA engineer- mance on these two programs had a tremen- elected 1986 Chairman of the Central Jersey dous imbact on cost and schedule. Section of the American Chemical Society. ing executive, has received the National Association of Broadcaster's 1986 Engineer- Marianne Nolan was chosen Engineer of ing Achievement Award. It was presented the Month for the month of December for at the 40th annual Broadcast Engineering Bauer and Perlman elected her outstanding contribution on the GWEN IEEE Fellows Conference luncheon on Tuesday, April 15 program and the successful acceptance during NAB's annual convention at the testing of the TRW HMI Computer program. Dallas Convention Center. The Board of Directors of the Institute of Her at)ility to analyze and solve problems Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) was quite apparent in her efforts toward the recently announced the election of John A. Communication and finalizati7n of the acceptance test and pre- Bauer, Missile and Surface Radar Division, liminary qualification test procedures. This and Dr. Barry S. Perlman, RCA Laboratories, Information dedicaticn led to the successful acceptance to the membership grade of Fellow. The Systems Division test and POT of HMI. grade of Fellow recognizes unusual distinc- tion in the engineering profession and is Donald Bussard of RF and Microwave conferred only by invitation of the Board of Engineering was chosen the Engineer of

84 RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 Engineering Excellence Award for Ills out- ing the very high clutter cancellation re- Philip Morris and Thomas Sipher, for the standing performance on the STC-%/DBS quired, and performed the antenna configu- extensive and thorough evaluation of several Attitude Control Subsystem test program. ration tradeoff studies that resulted in a candidate CAD/CAM systems, leading to Without the benefit of experienced personnel novel low-cost approach for the Naval identification and RCA corporate approval and sufficient staffing, this very complex Airship Radar. of a multi -million dollar, second -generation mechanical CAM system for CE. This evalua- attitude control test was successfullY com- Thomas J. Sikos, for significant contributions tion focused on several key attributes (geo- pleted as a result of his dedication, broad to the software system development for the inherent capabilities, and long hours Of work. lightweight surveillance radar test bed. As metric modeling, programming environment, hardware platform, application software, and Mr. Tracy performed as director and coordin- responsible software systems engineer and imaging capability) that provide a foundation ator as well as customer liaison. lead designer of the radar control computer, for improved design quality and significant The Engineering Recognition Award has Mr. Sikos developed a control architecture been presented to Patrick Burkle for his fully compatible with both the array pro- design cycle reductions. In addition to per- effortsin completing critical accelerated cessor and the host computer operating forming thorough evaluation and benchmark testing of several vendor's mechanical CAD thermal balance testing, analysis, and design systems. His modular top-level design and modifications for the thermal control system programming direction were major factors systems, Mr. Morris and Mr. Sipher have design for the ASCI spacecraft. in the on -schedule, below -budget imple- developed an innovative parametic approach to remote transmitter and television cabinet/ mentation. mask design. Circleville presents first TEC William Fitzgerald, for the development of a Award Ruvin named 1985 Annual new VIPUR (Variable Interval Pulse Regu- TEC Award winner at MSRD lator) power supply system. Utilizing a high - Thomas H. Kirchgessner of the VCDD Circle- voltage power MOSFET operating in a non - ville plant has been awarded a Technical The Missile and Surface Radar Division's synchronous mode, the VIPUR provides not Excellence Award for the design and instal- 1985 Annual Technical Excellence Award only increased average power capability, lation of a hot funnel glass code date proc- has been given to Abe Ruvin for special but also higher peak power and transient ess that has proved to be a virtually main- technical achievements directed toward handling capabilities. The unique use of the tenance -free system since its installation. establishing MSRD's credentials as a bona power MOSFET operating at increased fide competitor in the field of lightweight frequency has permitted considerable reduc- airborne radar. tion in ferrite size, space, and cost when Fourth Quarter, 1985 MSRD compared to the chopper system as used in TEC Awards Ten receive CE fourth-quarter the CTC 131. Bill Testin and Juri Tults, for the develop- The following are winners of the Missile awards ment of the FS -III tuning system and its first successful application in the MTT1 and Surface Radar Division's fourth-quarter The fourth-quarter 1985 Consumer Elec- used in the CTC 120 chassis. The system Technical Excellence Awards: tronics Operations Technical Excellence includes improved testability, automatic Geoffrey S. Edelson, for major contributions Awards were announced on Feb. uary 20, channel programming, extended cable tun- to RCA's growing capabilities in advanced 1986. They were: ing range, a new channel change muting airborne lightweight surveillance radar tech- Jacob Sosniak and Leslie Avery, for the algorithm, and on -screen display stabiliza- nology. Mr. Edelson's contributions to the development of structures on integrated cir- tion. The FS -III IC combines the functionality ground -based test bed proposal effort in- cuits that protect the device from damage of four ICs from previous tuning systems. A cluded a set of unique processirtg algo- due to electrostatic discharges (ESD). Mr. new five -band op/switch replaces the pre- rithms required for operation of trte long - Avery designed and developed structures vious system, which used a three -band dwell radar system. His technical iirection for both bipolar and analog integrated cir- switch and a discrete circuit. The FS -III was of the test bed effort resulted in an advanced cuits that protect each pad and the internal processor that meets or exceed:4 perfor- designed to be used across the line of circuits from ESD damage. Mr. Sosniak digitally -tuned systems. mance requirements, delivered on time and designed and developed laboratory appara- G. Rene VanHoorde, for the research and under budget. tus and techniques to evaluate and quantify development of a reliability model for color Miles C. Johnson, for outstanding analytical the performance of ESD protection struc- television. Although established reliability skills and technical leadership, demOnstrated tures. He also coordinated the implementa- models are well known, they are primarily in the design implementation of the AEGIS tion of Mr. Avery's structures in several IC designed for military applications and do antenna power supply. In additicn to his designs at CE. The structures, which provide not reflect the home television environment. direct responsibility for the input power sec- protection to discharge levels of 4KV, offer Mr. VanHoorde's model predicts reliability tion design, Mr. Johnson applied his circuit ESD immunity levels two to three times using data from stress tests, past failure and mathematical skills to assist others in greater than the competition. rates, vendor ratings, and component rat- overcoming magnetic and stability rroblems. John Furrey, for the initiation and design of ings. It is considered unique in the television His efforts contributed significantly to the a module (PWCPA) to provide cost-effective industry. Field data has shown the results implementation of the technically complex stereo in a leader model television receiver. of the new model to be statistically twice multi -output switching power supply. The module combines a volume/tone con- as precise as the previous method. The Abraham E. Ruvin, for innovative system trol module and stereo power amplifier. Mr. model is used to evaluate each chassis design, performance analysis, and technical Furrey worked to minimize the parts count go -round and highlight areas for improve- leadership on the lightweight surveillance and power requirements, and designed a ment. It has been instrumental in the reduc- radar program. His broad radar systems system that resulted in a net savings of tion of field failure rates since 1981. expertise was particularly effective in select- nearly $8.00 at the instrument level. Although ing waveforms and processing approaches the design was started at GR-1,it was Leroy Wignot, for the development and use for detecting stealth targets in heaVY clutter. completed in time to meet the original instru- of a computer model to design the oscillator Mr. Ruvin established the feasibility of achiev- ment introduction date. circuits in the MTT-1 tuning system. The

RCA Engineer 31-2 mar. / Apr. 1986 83 Technical excellence

VCDD TEC Awards Paul D. Baker, for the evaluation of the performance and establishment of potential productivity gains of iron oxide working plates in making 19V100 aperture masks in the Barceloneta production environment. Thomas J. Michielutti, for the evaluation of the performance and establishment of poten- tial productivity gains of iron oxide working plates in making 19V100 aperture masks in the Barceloneta production environment. Cooper Opresko Krufka Mulholland Samuel B. Deal, for the successful coordina- tion, development, and implementation of the automated ADP materials and processes for the 27V SP color picture tube. Hsing-Yao Chen, for the design and develop- ment of an electron gun for use in high - resolution data display tubes having state- of-the-art resolution and convergence per- formance. Thro Lausman Baker Michielutti Samuel P. Benigni, for the development and implementation of vibratory finishing tech- niques for electron gun parts resulting in improved color picture tube performance. Michael E. Mitchell, for his contributions to the design and installation of automatic load and unload equipment for color picture tubes in the Subjective Color Automatic Test System. John L. Adams, for this contributions to the Deal design and installation of automatic load and unload equipment for color picture teristics of RCA's complete family of COTY tubes in the Subjective Color Automatic Test color picture tubes. Others honered were: System. Stephen T. Opresko, for the implementation of a thermal/mechanical modeling capability Astro TEC Awards for analyzing electron guns for color picture P. Bruschi, D. Corrington, D. Sable, A. Spitz, tubes. and T. Young received the Astro-Electronics Frank S. Krufka, for the design of concepts, Engineering Excellence Award for the Mes- circuits, and algorithms to measure opening sage Authentication Device concept and Adams size and other parameters of unphosphored design implemented on the ASC Communi- display panels. cation Satellite. RCA Video Component and Display Division Denis G. Mulholland, for the development The RCA Astro Engineering Excellence Com- (VCDD) recently honored thirteen employees and implementation of vibratory finishing mittee presented the Engineering Excellence for their outstanding contributions and techniques for electron gun parts resulting Award to Chirasak Thasanatorn for his achievements in engineering during 1985. in improved color picture tube performance. development of an in-house analysis capa- Charles A. Quinn, Vice President and Gen- Dennis E. Thro, for the development of a bility to perform Coupled Transient Loads eral Manager of the Video Component & universal yoke holder to support deflection Analysis for payloads launched by the Shut- Display Division, presented the awards to yokes in test sets. tle. This new in-house analysis capability each of the quarterly winners and concluded is essential for accurately predicting the by presenting the 1985 Engineer of the Year Thomas C. Lausman, for the design and dynamic loads for all Shuttle launched award to John C. Cooper. Mr. Cooper, who development of an electron gun for use in payloads. has five patents to his credit, was recog- high -resolution data display tubes having nized for his design of the degaussing sys- state-of-the-art resolution and convergence Terry Tracy, member of the Attitude Control tems and evaluation of the magnetic charac- performance. Systems group, has been awarded the

RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 82 Istvan Gorog, Director, Manufacturing Tech- nounces his organization as follows: James Bruno J. Walmsley, Director, Engineering- nology Research Laboratory, announces M. Overman, Director, Broadcast Control Standard IC Products, announces his orga- his organization as follows: David P. Bort- and Communications; Joseph M. Rohr, nization as follows: Kenneth W. Brizel, eld, Head, Control Systems Research; Director, Program Production, Sharon R. Manager, Engineering-Logic, Memory & Phillip M. Heyman, Head, Advanced Tech- Johnston, Manager, Capital and Project Microprocessor Products; Charles Engel - nology Research; and Saman Hong, Head, Implementation; Theodore O'Karma, Direc- berg, Manager, Test Engineering; Lewis A. Modeling and Analysis Research. tor, Communications and Support Services; Jacobus, Jr., Manager, Engineering-Auto- Thomas C. Nollie, Manager, Screening motive & Consumer Products; Sterling H. Fred Sterzer, Director, Microwave Technol- Rooms; Joseph A. Ralston, Jr., Technical Middings, Section Manager, Layout Ser- ogy Center, announces his organization Manager, Studio Technical Operations; vices; and Bruno J. Walmsley, Acting Man- as follows: Erwin F. Belohoubek, Head, Warren Allgyer, Managing Director, Long ager, Engineering-Computer, Telecom- Microwave Circuit Technology; Raymond Range Space Plan, Engineering; S. Merrill munications & Industrial Products. L. Camisa, Head Microwave Components Weiss, Managing Director, Systems Engi- Technology, S. Yegna Narayan, Head, neering; Charles Jablonski, Director, Tech- H. Gene Patterson, Director, Application Microwave Device Technology; Markus nical Strategic Planning; David Rabinowitz, Specific IC Products, announces his orga- Nowogrodzki, Head, Subsystems and Spe- Director, Computer Imaging & Automation nization as follows: R. Adrian Bishop, cial Projects; Barry S. Perlman, Head, Software; Peter Haas, Manager, Engineer- Manager, Product Marketing-Application Design Automation Technology; Herbert J. ing Operations and Services; Louis Libin, Specific ICs; James E. Gillberg, Director, Wolkstein, Head, Space and Counter Mea- Manager, Allocations Engineering; and Alan Engineering-Application Specific ICs; and sures Program. J. Wechsler, Project Manager, BSE. Henry S. Miller, Manager, Design Centers.

Charles J. Nuese, Division Vice President, Communication and Manufacturing-ICs, announces his orga- Information Systems Division Solid State Division nization as follows: Frank F. Cocozza, Manager, Plant Operations-Palm Beach Charles A. Schmidt, Acting Division Vice RCA and Sharp have entered into a strategic Gardens; Raymond T. Ford, Manager, Wafer President and General Manager, Communi- alliance with WaferScale Integration, Inc. Fabrication-Palm Beach Gardens; Charles cation and Information Systems Division, The agreements provide for licensing and J. Nuese, Acting Manager, Operations Sup- announces the appointment of Donald J. joint development of WSI's CMOS macrocell port; and John R. Steiner, Director, Environ- Parker as Division Vice President, Digital library, non-volatile memories and bit -slice mental & Plant Engineering-SSD. Communications and Recording Systems; products. WSI is a privately held California based corporation. Joseph Pane as Director, Special Programs; James L. Magos, Director, Government & High Reliability-IC Products, announces and Joseph B. Christopher as Director, Carl R. Turner, Division Vice President and Plant Operations. his organization as follows: Joseph A. General Manager, Solid State Division, Augusta, Administrator, Government and announces the appointment of Larry J. High Reliability IC Administration; William Microelectronics Center Gallace as Division Vice President, Product F. Allen, Manager, Design Engineering Assurance, MIS and Materials. Government and High Reliability IC Prod- ucts; Jack Handen, Manager, Product Mar- David S. Jacobson, Director, IC Product Carl R. Turner, Division Vice President and keting-Government and High Reliability Operations, announces his organization General Manager, Solid State Division, as follows: Richard H. Bergman, Manager, IC Products; Donald R. Carley, Manager, announces the appointment of Richard A. Applications & Product Engineering-Gov- Test Operations; Robert A. Donnelly, Man- Santilli as Division Vice President, Strategic ager, Product Engineering and Production ernment and High Reliability IC Products; Planning. and James L. Magos, Acting Manager, Control; Peter P.!dell, Manager, Wafer As part of the agreement, RCA/Sharp Operations Support. Fabrication Operations; and Richard H. Microelectronics, Inc. has acquired 7 per- Zeien, Manager, Package and Assembly cent of WSI's outstanding stock. Richard Operations. Stephen C. Ahrens, Director, Product Mar- Santilli, Division Vice President, Strategic keting-Standard IC Products, announces Planning will represent RCA, Sharp and his organization as follows: Donald L. Missile and Surface Radar RSM on the WSI board of directors. Beech, Manager, Product Marketing-Tele- communications & High Speed Logic Prod- Heshmat Khajezadeh, Division Vice Pres- Division ucts; Edmund J. Blickle, Manager, Product ident, Integrated Circuit Products, an- nounces his organization as follows: Marketing-Microprocessor Products; Rich- William V. Goodwin, Division Vice Presi- ard E. Funk, Manager, Applications Engi- Stephen C. Ahrens, Director, Product dent and General Manager, Missile and neering-Linear & Logic Products; Ralph Marketing-Standard IC Products; John R. Surface Radar Division, announces the S. Hartz, Manager, Memory & Microproc- Kowalak, Administrator, IC Administration; appointment of Bryce D. Inman as Director, essor Applications Engineering and RSM Submarine Combat Systems. James L. Magos, Director, Government & Product Definition; Thomas J. McInerney, High Reliability-IC Products; Charles J. Manager, Product Marketing-Distribution Nuese, Division Vice President, Manufac- turing-ICs; H. Gene Patterson, Director, & Memory Products; and Jack Yellin, Man- NBC ager, Product Marketing-Linear Products. Application Specific IC Products; and Bruno Michael Sherlock, Executive Vice President, J. Walmsley, Director, Engineering-Stan- Operations & Technical Services, an- dard IC Products.

RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 81 Manager, PRICE Model Operations; and Groff, Manager, Program Operations; John inhis current position, Vice President, William W. Kuhn, Manager, PRICE System Hallal, Manager, Program Operations; and Strategic Planning. Projects. Walter R. Wadden, Staff Scientist, Software Systems. Larry J. Byers, Manager, Test Technology, Mark H. Burmeister, Director, PRICE Sys- announces the appointment of James M. tems, announces his organization as fol- Eugene M. Stockton, Acting, C31 Systems, Keeth, Manager, Direct Broadcast Satellite lows: Mark H. Burmeister, Acting, PRICE announces his organization as follows: Test Systems. Marketing; John J. Procaccino, Manager, John J. Morris, Manager, Program Opera- PRICE Business Operations; William E. tions; Gerard T. Ross, Manager, Program Earth Observation Satellite Rapp, Staff Engineer, PRICE Systems; and Operations; Allan R. Stern, Manager, Pro- Roy M. Summers, Manager, PRICE Opera- gram Operations; Chris A. Wargo, Manager, Company tions and System Projects. Program Operations, and James C. Wil- liams, Manager, Program Operations. An Executive Committee has been named for the Earth Observation Satellite Company Americom (EOSAT), which has taken over operation Astro-Electronics Division of the Landsat satellite program. Members John Christopher, Vice President, Technical of the committee from RCA are Charles A. Operations, announces his organization Jack A. Frohbieter, Division Vice Pres- Schmidt, RCA Group Vice President, Gov- as follows: Joseph F. Elko, Manager, Space- ident and General Manager, Astro-Elec- ernment Communications Systems, and craft Engineering and Operations; Murray tronics Division, announces the appoint- Robert A. Amadio, Director, Finance, for Fruchter, Director, Terrestrial Systems, ment of Frank A. Boyer as Director, Plant RCA Astro-Electronics Division, East Wind- Technical Operations; Joseph J. Schwarze, Operations. sor, N.J. Names from Hughes Aircraft Com- Director, Quality Management and Ad- pany's Santa Barbara Research Center, vanced Space Programs; and Carlton N. Goleta, Calif., were Dr. Robert Talley, Presi- Thomas, Manager, Business Operations. Consumer Electronics dent, and Warren Nichols, Vice President. Operations The executive committee is responsible Joseph F. Elko, Manager, Spacecraft Engi- for EOSAT policy and executive manage- neering and Operations, announces his Jack K. Sauter, Group Vice President, ment and overview. EOSAT, a joint venture/ organization as follows: Jacob Levin, Consumer Electronics and Video Com- partnership formed by Hughes and RCA Manager, Mission Operations; Archie T. ponents, announces that effective imme- Corporation, is headed by C. P. Williams, Miller, Manager, Spacecraft Operations; diately, the Video Display Monitor Products President and Chief Operating Officer. The and Joseph F. Elko, Acting Manager, Space- Division name will be changed to Display federal government, which formerly oper- craft Engineering. Systems Division. The organization will ated the Landsat satellites, transferred the continue to report to the Group Vice Pres- program to EOSAT last September. Landsat Joseph J. Schwarze, Director, Quality Man- ident, Consumer Electronics and Video involves the remote sensing of the Earth's agement and Advanced Space Programs, Components. resources by satellite and the dissemination announces his organization as follows: of the collected data to users around the Lindy W. Morgan, Manager, Procurement Richard A. Sunshine, Director Mechanical world. Quality Assurance; Albert E. Schmidt, Man- Design Engineering, announces the ap- ager, Reliability and Quality Engineering; pointment of Roger D. Sandefer, as Man- William R. Palme, Manager, Advanced ager, Product Protection Engineering. Government Volume Space Programs; and Rodney A. Stevens, Manager, Configuration Management, Prod- Bruce M. Allan, Vice President, Strategic Production uct Safety, and Drafting. Planning, announces his organization as Charles A. Schmidt, Group Vice President, follows: Theodore L. Allen, Manager, Prod- Government Communications Systems, uct Operations; James 0. Early, Manger, announces the appointment of Joseph L. Quality Systems and Procedures; R. Eugene Automated Systems Division Mackin as Division Vice President, Govern- Eddy, Vice President, Warranty Programs ment Volume Production. Eugene M. Stockton, Division Vice Pres- and Training; Reginald J. McKinstry, Jr., ident and General Manager, Automated Director, Entertainment Tubes and Parts The Division Vice President and General Systems Division, announces his orga- Product Management, Distributor and Spe- Manager, Government Volume Production, nization as follows: Duane M. Belden, cial Products Division; Denzil R. Miller, announces the appointment of Victor C. Director, Plant Operations; Glenn W. Cole- Director, Business Analysis; William H. Scarpello as Manager, Manufacturing. man, Division Vice President, Market- Needham, Manager, Finished Goods Pro- ing and Advanced Planning; Emilio W. curement; Gilbert M. Ravelette, Manager, Dusio, Division Vice President, Engineer- Video Cassette Recorder Merchandising; RCA Laboratories ing; Thomas E. Fitzpatrick, Division Vice Alfred J. Schick, Manager, Video Products President, Vehicle Test Systems; James E. Technical Support; and Brian K. Smith, James J. Tietjen, Vice President, RCA Kupec, Director, Employee Relations; Ken- Manager, Television Product Systems Laboratories, announced that effective neth I. Pressman, Director, Finance; David Development. March 1,1986, Jay J. Brandinger was M. Priestley, Division Vice President, Auto- appointed Staff Vice President, Manufac- matic Test Systems; Murray D. Radio, Jack K. Sauter, Group Vice President, turing and Materials Research, replacing Director, Materials; and Eugene M. Stock- announces that Bruce M. Allan will assume James L. Miller who retired on April1, ton, Acting, C31 Systems. responsibility for the Direct Broadcast Sat- 1986. Additionally, Dr. Brandinger will con- ellite Program. These responsibilities in- tinue his present responsibility as Staff David M. Priestley, Division Vice President, clude the interdivisional coordination of Vice President, Engineering, and in this Automatic Test Systems, announces his product design, development and market capacity will report to the Executive Vice organization as follows: Donald R. Bartlett, introduction. Mr. Allen will continue to report President, Electronic Products and Manager, Program Operations; John H. administratively to his functional superior Technology.

80 RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 Engineering News and Highlights

Frohbieter is head Astro-Electronics

and General Purpose Communications Sat- serve in the Armed Forces, he returned to ellites. He was previously Manager, General Lancaster as a production engineer in Power Purpose Communications Satellites, respon- Tube manufacturing. He has held various John D. Rittenhouse, Executive Vice Pres- sible for all aspects of each program's engineering positions including Manager, ident, Aerospace and Defense, has an- delivery, performance, and cost. In 1971, Engineering Standards. He has also served nounced the appointment of Jack A. he became a Systems Manager for the on several military ad hoc and JEDEC com- Frohbieter as Division Vice President and Atmosphere Explorer Program and later mittees. Mr. Bedrosian received the BS in General Manager, RCA Astro-Electronics served as the Program Manager for other Electrical Engineering from the University Division. He succeeds Charles A. Schmidt, Astro programs such as the Dynamics of New Hampshire in 1953. who has been named an RCA Group Vice Explorer, TIROS and GSTAR satellite President. systems. Prior to his current appointment, Mr. Mr. deBastos received the BS and MS Frohbieter served as Division Vice President, degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Communication Satellite Programs. His re- Oklahoma State University. He is a member sponsibilities included Video Distribution of Pi Tau Sigma, Theta Chi and the Amer- Staff announcements Satellites, General Purpose Communications ican Geophysical Union, and is an Associate Satellites, and the NASA Advanced Com- Fellow of the AIAA. He is also an assitant munications Technology Satellite (ACTS) professor, adjunct staff and Chairman of program. Previously, as Director, Satellite the Mechanical Advisory Commission at Aerospace and Defense Programs, he was responsible for manage- Mercer County College in Trenton, N.J. ment of Astro's fixed -service communica- Leonard V. Fox, Staff Vice President, Fi- tions satellite programs. nance, announces his organization as fol- Mr. Frohbieter received the BS in Elec- Bedrosian is named NPD TPA lows: Arthur J. Barrett, Manager, Facilities trical Engineering from the University of and Special Programs; Mark H. Burmeister, Evansville. He also attended Purdue Uni- and Ed Rep Director, PRICE Systems; John R. Lee, versity and is a graduate of the Harvard Director, Operations/Contract Review and Peter G. Bedrosian has been named the Operations Analysis; and Peter J. Pernice, Business School Advanced Management Technical Publications Administrator and Director, Financial Planning and Operations. Program. the RCA Engineer Editorial Representative for the Lancaster plant of the New Products John D. Procaccino, Manager, PRICE Busi- Division. He is a Member, Technical Staff ness Operations, announces his organiza- deBastos named Division VP in the Communications Department of the tion as follows: Benjamin Chackman, Man- at Astro Closed -Circuit Video Equipment activity, and ager, PRICE Timeshare Services; Geraldine is responsible for the establishment of data C. Devlin, Administrator, Contracts; Richard Jack A. Frohbieter, Division Vice President sheets, brochures, and product guides for E. Moyer, Administrator, PRICE Business and General Manager, RCA Astro-Elec- all products manufactured or marketed by Operations; and Susan Steinberg, Admin- tronics has announced the appointment of the New Products Division in Lancaster, istrator, PRICE Systems. Ricardo deBastos as Division Vice Pres- Pa. and Vaudreuil, Quebec. ident, Communications Satellite Programs. Mr. Bedrosian joined RCA in 1953 as a Roy M. Summers, Manager, PRICE Opera- Mr. deBastos is responsible for management specialized trainee in the Color Kinescope tions and System Projects, announces his of all Astro communications satellite activ- Production Development group of the Lan- organization as follows: Francis B. Barnett, ities, including Video Distribution Satellites caster plant. After a leave of absence to Manager, PRICE operations; Peter B. Korda.

RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 Communication and H.P. Miller D. Raychaudhuri A Comparison of High Resolution Stability and Optimal Retransmission Information Systems Division Schemes for the Two -Dimensional Linear Control of Announced Retransmission Random Access Systems -IEEE D.G. Herzog ID.W. Donze Advection Equation -Presented at the T. Anastasia I Communications Society, IEEE Hardware Implementation of a Two -Axis, 38th Annual Meeting, American Physical International Conference on Three -Tapped, Finite -Impulse Response Society, Division of Fluid Dynamics, Communications, June 23-26, 1985, (FIR) Digital Filter -Presented at the Tucson, Ariz., Nov. 24-27, 1985 Chicago, Ill. Society of Photographic Scientists & D.P. O'Rourke IR.O. Yeager IJ.I. Pridgen Engineers (SPSE), 25th Fall Symposium - A.L. Bramble L.K. White Imaging, Arlington, Va. Nov. 17-22, 1985 Agile, Low Power CMOS/SOS A Modeling Study of Superficial and published in Symposium Brochure Frequency Synthesizer -Presented at the Topography for Improved Lithography - Journal of the Electrochemical Society, H.R. Barton, Jr. GOMAC '85 Conference, Orlando, Fla., Vol. 132, No. 12, December 1985 Unit Production Cost Tracking Model Nov. 7, 1985, and published in the UPCT6-Presented at the Electronic GOMAC Conference Proceedings Industries Association (EIA) G-47 M.H. Riddle IP.F. Muraco Meeting, Washington, D.C., October 2, Missile and Surface Radar Rotary Digital Recording -Addressing 1985 and published in EIA Engineering the Storage Needs of the Future - Division Design Integration Bulletin No. 1-B Presented at the 21st Annual 1985 F.J. Buckley O.E. Bessette International Telemetering Conference, The Search for Software Quality, or One High Data Rate, High Capacity, Severe Las Vegas, Nev., Oct. 28-31, 1985, and More Trip Down the Yellow Brick Road - Environment Optical Disk Recording published in the ITC -85 Proceedings ACM Software Engineering Notes, Vol. 11, Equipment -Presented at the 21st Annual No. 1, January 1986 T.E. Sasena International Telemetering Conference, Applications Specific Chip Set for Las Vegas, Nevada, Oct. 28-31, 1985 and T.A. Dorsay Microprocessor I/O -Presented at the published in ITC -85 Proceedings Command -Activated Diagnosis and Test GOMAS '85 Conference, Orlando, Fla., (CADET) on the DDG and CG 65 Class S.L. Corsover W.L. Vaughan Nov. 6, 1985, and published in the Ship-AN/UYK-44 Users' Technical Frequency Response of an Image GOMAC Conference Digest Conference, Monterey, Cal., November 6- Recorder Using Repeat Scan -Presented 7, 1985 J.D. Whalen at the Society of Photographic Scientists Trends in Personal Computing and Engineers (SPSE), 25th Fall R.J. FelbingerH.G. Rouland Technology -Auerbach Data Processing Symposium -Imaging, Arlington, Va., Nov. Improved system engineering support of Management Periodical, December 1985 17-22, 1985 and published in the instruction modes, technical manuals, Symposium Brochure and training courses -RCA Engineer, Vol. 30, No. 6 (Nov/Dec 1985) D.A. Ellengold I M.H. Merkert Oddo J.J. RCA Laboratories Salerno D.R. Higgs Simplified Voice Tracking Model W.F. KosonockyF.V. ShallcrossT.S. Engineering Documentation in the Simulation -Presented at the IEEE VillaniJ.V. Groppe Computer Age -Are We Using the Tools Globcom '85 New Orleans, La., Dec. 2-5, 160X224 Element PtSi Schottky -Barrier Wisely? -IEEE Philadelphia Section, Joint 1985, and published in the Proceedings IR-CCD Image Sensor-lEE Transactions PCS/EM Meeting, Philadelphia, Pa., on Electron Devices, Vol. ED -32, No. 8, January 27, 1986 H. Holcombe August 1985 Project Development Using Design and W.K. Holden Development Tools -Presented at the P.A. Levine Mechanical design problems associated 1985 Fall Digital Equipment Computer Low -Noise CCD Signal Recovery -IEEE with glass -reinforced polytetra- Users Society (DECUS) U.S. Symposium, Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol. fluorethylene printed -wiring boards - Anaheim, Cal., Dec. 9-13, 1985 ED -32, No. 8, August 1985 RCA Engineer, Vol. 30, No. 6 (Nov/Dec 1985) H.P. Miller E.S. Nartowitz I A.M. Goodman A Comparison of the Flux -Corrected Evaluation of Silicon Optical Absorption F.E. Oliveto Transport Method with Other Low - Data for use in Minority -Carrier -Diffusion - Reliability for the '80s -Productivity and Dispersive Schemes for 2-D Length Measurements by the SPV Technological Innovation Symposium, Incompressible Convection Dominated Method -Journal of the Electrochemical The Engineers' Club of Philadelphia, Flows with Steep Gradients -Presented Society, Vol. 132, No. 12, December 1985 January 23, 1986 at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Winter Annual J.R. Nelson H.R. Weiss Meeting, Miami, Fla., Nov. 17-21, 1985 Electromagnetic Interference Shielding of A new peripheral computer interface for and published in ASME Journal of Fluids Plastics -Presented at the University of the AEGIS weapon system -RCA Engineer, Vol. 30, No. 6 (Nov/Dec 1985) Engineering Toledo (11/7/85)

78 RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 Pen and Podium Recent RCA technical papers and presentations

To obtain copies of papers, check your library or contact the author or divisional Technical Publications Administrator (listed on back cover) for a reprint.

Advanced Technology joint meeting of the IEEE MTT/ED Architecture-SAE International Laboratories Societies and the Computer Society, Congress and Exposition, Detroit, Mich., January 23, 1986 February 26, 1986 J.A. Adams IJ.W. Dempsey I MGale G.W. KaizarN. Straguzzi F.C. Luce IW.B. Schaming A.J. Silva Artificial intelligence applications-RCA Automatic classification of ship targets- Reconstruction of Undersampled Engineer, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Jan/Feb 1986) RCA Engineer, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Jan/Feb Periodic Signals-Thesis Toward 1986) Masters Degree in EE and CS at MIT, E. AlexanderR. McClainC. Tsikos IB. Department of EE and CS, Cambridge, SiryjR.M. Carrell T.E. LynchD.E. Graff Mass., January 1986 Advanced technology for mail processing Acoustic phonetic techniques for in the 1990s-RCA Engineer, Vol. 31, No. automatic speech recognition systems- 1 (Jan/Feb 1986) RCA Engineer, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Jan/Feb 1986) Astro-Electronics Division W. P. AltmanG. M. ClaffieM. L. Levene Optical storage for high performance G.W. Mebus J.B. Shields IL.T. D.R. Chalmers IJ.J. Pustay applications in the late 1980s and Armstrong IH. Rosenthal Advanced Communication Satellite beyond-RCA Engineer, Vol. 31, No. 1 Ada software development tools-RCA Thermal Design Using Variable (Jan/Feb 1986) Engineer, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Jan/Feb 1986) East/West Radiators -24th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Conference, Reno, D.E. Britton P.B. Pierson Nev., January 6-8, 1986. Verlangen: formally verifying system Advanced robotics projects at ATL for designs-RCA Engineer, Vol. 31, No. 1 servicing-RCA Engineer, Vol. 31, G.F. Chilson, Jr.D.F. ChuC. Trundle (Jan/Feb 1986) No. 1 (Jan/Feb 1986) Comparison of Predicted and Measured Acoustic Response of Components - E.J. Conklin F.B. Warren Mounted Sandwich Panel -4th Intl Leonardo: design environment of the Advanced technology for future imaging Modal Analysis Conference, Los Angeles, 1990s-RCA Engineer, Vol. 31, No. 1 sensors-RCA Engineer, Vol. 31, No. 1 Cal., Feb. 3-6, 1986 (Jan/Feb 1986) (Jan/Feb 1986) D.R. ChuB.P. Wang R.J. DickW.A. HelbigW.D. Moyers D.A. WilleA. Rosen On Changing Boundary Conditions in A High -Level Systolic Architecture for Laser development and applications- Structural Dynamics -4th International GaAs-Presented at the 19th Annual RCA Engineer, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Jan/Feb Modal Analysis Conference, Los Angeles, HICSS, January 8-10, 1986 and published 1986) Cal., Feb. 3-6, 1986 in the Proceedings, Vol. 1. D. Chu IB.P. Wang T.Y. Chen A. Feller Automated Systems Division Model Refinement Using Test Data -4th A New design methodology reduces International Modal Analysis Conference, design time for very large applications - J.E. GreenupS.H. Ward IE.G. Zablocki Los Angeles, Cal., Feb. 3-6, 1986 specific integrated circuits (ASICs)-RCA Non -Contact Sensors for Automotive Engineer, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Jan/Feb 1986) Testing-SAE International Congress and J.P. Layton Exposition, Detroit, Mich., February 26, Multi -Mode Nuclear Space Power W.A. HelbigW.F. HeagertyR.M. Zieger 1986 Systems -3rd Symposium on Space Design Issues in GaAs Computer Nuclear Power Systems, Albuquerque, Systems for Efficient Execution of HLL S.C. Hadden N.M., Jan. 13-16, 1986 Programs-Presented at the 19th Annual A Design Manager's View at RCA- HICSS, January 8-10, 1986 and published Corporate Window Session, Cornell V.J. MancinoV.R. Monshaw IW.J. in the Proceedings, Vol. 1, pp. 238-245. University, Ithaca, N.Y., February 6, 1986 Slusark Reliability Considerations for W.A. HelbigR.H. Schellack R.M Zieger S.C. Hadden Communications Satellites-Reliability The design and construction of a GaAs Engineering and Physics Roles in Symposium, Las Vegas, Nev., Jan. 29, technology demonstration Industry-Aeronautics and Engineering 1986 microprocessor-RCA Engineer, Vol. 31, Physics Address at Cornell University, No. 1 (Jan/Feb 1986) Ithaca, N.Y., February 26, 1986 T. Tracy IR. HoganK. Ward The Reactivation of Attitude Control on W.A. Helbig M.E. Petty IK.J. St. PierreJ.R. Wilkinson NOAA-8-Rocky Mountain Guidance and RISC vs. CISC, GaAs vs. Silicon, and Multiple Fault Diagnosis with Portable Control Conf., Keystone, Col., Feb. 1-5, Hardware vs. Software-Presented at the ATE Utilizing a Knowledge -Based System 1986

RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 77 Patents

RCA Laboratories Pankov, J.I. Microelectronics Center Method of making p -type hydrogenated Dingwall, A.G. I Zazzu, V. Knop, K.H. amorphous silicon -4551352 Solid-state color -encoding television Apparatus for matching FET switches as camera -4546380 Powers, K.H. for a video digital -to -analog Compatible and hierarchical digital converter -4553132 Kosonocky, W.F. IElabd, H. television system standard -4550335 Schottky -barrier diode radiant energy detector with extended longer Pritchard, D.H. Patent Operations wavelength response -4544939 Apparatus for reducing motion induced distortion in a frame combed Meise, W.H. IDischert, R.A. Kosonocky, W.F. IShallcross, F. V. chrominance signal -4555723 Compatible wide-screen color television Method of making a charge -coupled system -4551754 device imager which includes an array of Rao, S.T. I Trager, L.L. Schottky -barrier detectors -4548671 Bath and process for the electrodeposition of micromachinable Solid State Division Kumar, M. copper and additive for said Broadband adjustable phase modulation bath -4551212 Chandrasekhar, H.S. circuit -4549152 Method of making integrated PNP and Reichert, W.F. NPN bipolar transistors and junction field Levine, P.A. Method of making a gallium arsenide effect transistor -4553318 Low noise black -level reference for CCD field effect transistor -4545109 imagers -4549215 Dackow, P.N. Russell, J.P.I Goodman, A.M. Auto ranging counter -4546487 Levine, P.A. Power switching circuitry

Dark -current level regulation in solid- Faulkner, R.D. I Rhoads, J.L. state devices -4551762 Schiff, L.N. Electron discharge device having a Noice reduction system for a single ceramic member with means for reducing sideband multiplex signal -4554679 Lewis, H.G., Jr. I Stiller, T.M. luminescence therein -4554481 Logarithmic color matrix for a digital television receiver -4544945 Sepp, W.E. Harwood, L.A.1 Shanley, R.L., 2nd Progressive scan speed-up Tri-level sandcastle pulse processor -4550336 Lewis, H.G., Jr. I Stiller, T.M. decoder -4555722 Digital signal processing system employing logarithms to multiply and Southgate, P.D. Rodgers, R.L., 3rd Thermally isolated imager -4547809 divide -4555768 Feedback kinescope driver -4547799 Wagner, T.M. Longeway, P.A. Savoye, E.D.I Tomasetti, C.M. Apparatus for mounting crystal -4547648 Complementary color splitting filters used Imaging device having improved high in a color camera -4555163 temperature performance -4547957

Maa, J. I Halon, B. Anisotropic etching of Whartenby, J.C.Kumar, M. Predistortion circuit with aluminum -4547261 feedback -4554514 Video Component and Martinez, M.R. IMitchell, W.J., Jr. Display Division Press workpiece thickness measuring White, A.E. Panel seal and support structure for fiber Opresko, S.T. system and method -4548066 optic cable -4548465 Cathode-ray tube having a low power Nicholson, W.H. IPritchard, D.H. cathode assembly -4554479 Apparatus for frame -to -frame comb Wine, C.M. Apparatus for synchronizing a source of Schlack, R.E. filtering composite TV signal -4550340 computer controlled video to another Cathode-ray tube having an electron gun Palmer, R.C. IPlotnick, M.A. video source -4554582 assembly with emissivity modifying Video disc encoding and decoding means -4554480 system providing intra-field track error Woodward, O.M. correction -4551770 Cross -polarization corrector for circular waveguide-4549310

76 RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 The Engineer's Notebook license fee. Traditional methods of pricing relate to product cost, between the MOU originating the software and RCA Labora- are based on historical data, or are established through market tories in which RCA Laboratories takes responsibility for all sampling and testing. The nature of the product combined marketing, licensing, and administrative functions. A significant with the by-product approach to marketing makes it impractical aspect of the relationship is that all revenues are shared by the to apply these traditional approaches. Our method is to establish MOU and RCA Laboratories. a fee in accordance with the utility value of the software to the In addition to the marketing functions just described, Software customer. Through accurate quantification of this value is not Marketing prepares and distributes the RCA Software Catalog, always possible, a reasonable approximation can be made. which contains a listing of RCA proprietary software. The Promotional methods depend upon the size of the market and catalog is distributed to all libraries and updated periodically to the method of distribution. When third party distribution is used, promote greater use of existing software and to prevent dupli- the prime licensee assumes the responsibility for distribution. For cation of effort. very small markets and to locate a suitable third party, promotion consists of direct contact with the potential licensee. In the case of large markets, the established business -to -business methods of Summary direct mail, promotional articles in trade journals and papers, The increased use of computers in the performance of engineer- advertising, presentations at technical meetings, and trade shows ing and manufacturing tasks, coupled with a deficiency of are used. existing software, has resulted in greater amounts of engineering All software is released under a licensing agreement that time to develop software. Much of this software is unique and protects RCA's rights to the software and limits RCA's obliga- has value to others both inside and outside RCA. This situation tions and liabilities. Preparation and administration of the agree- presents RCA with an excellent opportunity to realize additional ments is performed by the Contracts Administration activity. gain from the engineering dollars spent in developing software. The Software Marketing activity, though part of RCA Lab- Addressing that opportunity is the task of the Software Marketing oratories, markets software for any RCA organization having activity. need of its service. In such cases, an agreement is reached

RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 75 The Engineer's Notebook Software, a valuable by-product atRCA A.J. Stranix RCA Laboratories Princeton, N.J.

Software is the new driving force in the world of computing. As Developing promotion programs recently as 1981, it was still considered a cottage industry, in Negotiating licenses spite of annual sales of 2.7 billion dollars. By 1984, annual sales Administration of product exceeded 10 billion dollars, and are expected to more than triple These tasks, described briefly below, are those faced by a small in the next five years. To put this in perspective, 1984 television entrepreneur. sales totaled six billion dollars. Prospects of a rapidly expanding market have enticed not only Candidate programs are located from several sources, includ- dozens of small entrepreneurs, but also have prompted the ing RCA Technical Reports, programs submitted to the Patent traditional hardware manufacturers (IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Department for copyright, or programs that are submitted DEC, etc.) to establish new software units or to enter into joint directly to Software Marketing by the software authors. In ventures with existing software suppliers. Even unlikelyplayers addition, incentive programs have been proposed that should such as communication companies and publishers-including aid in increasing software author participation. CBS, Dow Jones, Dun & Bradstreet, McGraw Hill and Simon Determining marketability includes the obvious decision & Schuster-are licensing programs that are then marketed regarding market size, value, expected return, competition, etc. through their distribution channels. But in addition, it entails: RCA develops more software than many companies in the Determining the existence of and the resolution of anylegal software business. Our programs are usually of the applications obstructions. type and scientific in nature. As our engineers andscientists Establishing whether it is in RCA's best interest tolicense or perform their tasks, they continually advance the leading edge of to retain the software as company -private. technology. Ever increasing percentages of technology advance- Ensuring that RCA has copyright ownership. ments are being accomplished with the use of computersand software. The necessary software, in all too many is responsible for assuring that cases, does not exist and is developed as onewould create a tool the marketing decisions are made in compliance with RCA needed to perform an engineering task. The expense of this Corporate Policy, and that all affected MOUs have the oppor- development is considered part of the cost of designing or tunity to evaluate the decision to license a particular program manufacturing the product, and is recovered through the sale of and to comment on any effects a decision to license would have market a software that product. on their business activity. The decision to Software, however, is an intellectual property that has value package is made jointly by the Patent Department, Legal beyond its direct utility to RCA. As such, it can be copyrighted Department, the MOU originating the software, any user MOU, and licensed to others for a fee. Thus through the marketing of and the Marketing Department. In special instances, the review software, RCA has the opportunity to realize a greater return on will also include the Licensing Department. its software investment dollars. It was to address this business Methods of distribution include direct licensing to the end user opportunity that the Software Marketing activity was established. as well as marketing through a third party.In keeping with the The software marketing concept is to take what as developed criteria to minimize RCA manpower involvement, the most to solve RCA's software needs and market this "by-product" to desirable distribution method is through a third party, preferably others with similar needs. RCA offers a license to interested one whose product/service is complementedby the licensed parties for an appropriate license fee. Our licensees receive a software package. An ideal third -party candidate is the manu- copy of the RCA software, appropriatedocumentation, and the facturer of the equipment controlled by the software, because his right to use the software. Being a by-product, the software is sales force is in place and his customers are potential licensees. usually licensed "as is" with no warranties. Since the marketing The software package enhances the value of his product, therefore of software is beyond the objectives of the RCA activity that making it more appealing to his customers. In such a scenario, generated it, involvement of the designers is kept to a minimum. the third party becomes a prime licensee with the right to grant The tasks performed by the Software Marketing activity sublicenses to his customers. He takes full responsibility for the he include: sales, installation, and servicing of the software. In return, receives a greater market acceptance for his product as well as a Determining product availability portion of the license fee, with*the balance of the fee going to Determining product marketability RCA. Establishing a distribution method When the third party approach is not possible, direct licensing Establishing appropriate licensing fees to the end user is considered. This approach is usedwhen the customer base is small and the required support isminimal and 01986 RCA Corporation. available. Final manuscript received November 25, 1986 One of the more difficult tasks is establishing an appropriate Reprint RE -31-1-13

RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 74 The Engineer's Notebook

slowed down by the need to move data in and out eight bits at entirely. This chip, called the V20,is designed to implement a time, instead of 16 bits at a time. A related processor, the many of the functions of the 8088 in hardware Intel 8086, is a true 16 -bit machine, and has the full 16 -bit data instead of software. What this means is thatoperations which might take path to the outside world. Unfortunately, the twoprocessors are several machine cycles for the 8088 not pin -compatible, so you just can't pull out your 8088 and processor to complete are performed in fewer cycles by the V20processor. This results in replace it with an 8086. There are, however, somemeasures greater speed, for although the clock time you can take to speed up your IBM PC by adding a co- is not changed, the number of clock cycles neededto perform a task may be processor. The co -processor is a device that takes over certain reduced, depending on the task. Although functions that the main processor would otherwise perform, and some advertisements claim as much as a 50percent increaw in speed, a more does them more rapidly. There are two types of co-processors realistic number is 10 to 12percent, based on a mixture of tasks available for the PC. One of these is specifically designed to to be performed. This chip also does take over the floating point mathematics operations from the not require special software to effect a speed increase, as does the8087. While this chip is 8088, and the other takes over the bulk of the computing tasks said to be 100 percent .hardware from the 8088 and leaves the 8088 just doing input-output and and software upward com- patible, I have not tested it, andthus cannot vouch for that memory management. claim. The first of these, the math co -processor, is an Intel 8087 processor. It was designed by Intel specifically to perform floating point math functions, and works along with the 8088 Printer buffers processor, taking over when certain machine instructions direct it to do so. Since the 8087 has 80 -bit -wide registers, as compared Generally, it is true that a machine such as the IBM PC can to the 16 -bit registers of the 8088, it can perform arithmetic only do one thing at a time. However, by offloading some of operations with much greater precision and much faster than the work to another processor, you can gain an effective speed the 8088. Typically, the addition of an 8087 co -processor toa increase. One of the ways to do this is with a printer buffer. system may result in as much as a five -hundred -fold increase in Essentially, the way a printer buffer works is to provide the processing speed for certain operations. A typical overall average computer with a place to dump the data to be printed, accept speed increase is from five to seven times for a computational the data as fast as the computer can output it, then store the task that performs a mix of floating point operations. It should data and feed it to the printer at the rate that the printer can also be noted, however, that NO speed increase will be realized accept it. Typically, an IBM PC can output data from the unless the software being run is written in such a manneras to parallel port at a speed several times greater than even the utilize the co -processor, because it relies entirely on the execution fastest printer can accept it. Thus, if you put a buffer on the line of a special extension of the processor instruction set in order to to the printer, the IBM PC will be done "printing" the data perform its work. Thus, you won't see a speed increase for tasks long before the printer is actually finished, and thus will be free such as running an interpreted BASIC program, which doesn't to move on to the next task. The PC does its printing as a use the co -processor. background prompts anyway, stealing CPU cycles from whatever A second type of co -processor is an auxiliary processor board process is going on when they won't be noticed. By using the that fits in one of the expansion slots in the machine, and plugs buffer, the PC is making optimum use of the machine cycles into the processor socket on the motherboard. This type of that it dedicates to the printing. It may be noted that there are processor essentially replaces the 8088 processor with an 8086, software programs that dedicate a portion of memory to be set 80186, or 80286 processor, which are newer, more sophisticated aside as a printer buffer. While these are better than having no members of the same processor family as the 8088. These are printer buffer at all, they suffer from two drawbacks. First of capable of higher performance levels than the 8088, butas all, they take up part of the random access memory space that noted earlier, are not plug -compatible with the 8088, and thus would otherwise be usable as program or data storage space. require the extra hardware on the expansion board to operate. This is not too much of a problem if you have the machine Examples of this type of board are the PC -Turbo from Orchid configured with 640 kbytes of memory, because very few Technologies, and the Quad Sprint board from Quadram. These programs can make use of all that memory anyway. The boards will give the PC some of the operating properties of the second problem is that these programs also take up machine new PC AT, which uses the 80286 processor, but they are cycles, and can therefore actually slow down the execution of really no substitute for the PC AT. programs, since they are essentially another task for the processor Also perhaps worth mentioning is the QuadLink board from to manage. Quadram Corporation. This is a co -processor board that allows the use of Apple II software on the IBM PC, by taking over control of the disk drives and display. This might be useful if What if it doesn't say IBM on the front? you have a heavy investment in Apple software, but the user Many of the upgrades mentioned here also will workon IBM should be aware that it will not run all Apple software, because clones as well. Generally, if the machine to be upgraded has some is copy protected. full-length expansion slots, is slot interface -compatible with the There is one other type of processor that is available for the IBM PC, and uses the same processor and operating system, at IBM PC. Nippon Electric Corporation makes a processor that least some of the upgrades mentioned in this article should is designed to replace the 8088 processor in the IBM PC work.

RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 73 The Engineer's Notebook floppy drives to be mounted. Larger drives are available as full - backed up. Thus, a pair of 32-Mbyte hard drives could easily height units.If an expansion chassisis used, the fixed -disk take 200 diskettes and several hours to back up. This lack of a drives can be put in it, and four half -height floppy drives can be convenient means of backing up the data on a fixed disk has mounted in the main chassis. led many users to ignore this vital function until it is too late. In The addition of a fixed -disk drive also requires the use of a order to remedy this situation, an easy to use means of backup fixed -disk controller card, which will use up one of the expansion (that would also be inexpensive to use) was needed. The slots in the PC. The standard fixed -disk controller used by IBM answer to this requirement came first in the form of theBernoulli supports drives up to only 10 Mbytes in size, but there are Box. The original 10-Mbyte Bernoulli Box has a capacity of many aftermarket controllers produced bycompanies such as slightly less than that of a 10-Mbyte (actually 10.6-Mbyte) hard Xebec, Western Digital, and Data Technologies Corporation drive; thus, in order to do an image backup of the disk, two that may be outfitted with firmware to support the larger drives. cartridges are needed. This unfortunately wastes about 94 percent If you are short of expansion slots within the PC, there is even of the capacity of the second cartridge. In order to back up a a controller card available from Xebec withthe capacity to 10-Mbyte drive on a single Bernoulli cartridge, a file -by -file handle two hard drives and two floppy drives at the same time. backup can be done. Another option available for updating an IBM PC is to add Another backup medium that is gaining popularity is the external mass storage. One of the most popular choices is the quarter -inch tape drive. A drive of this type can back upfrom IOMEGA Bernoulli Box. The Bernoulli' Box uses removable 10 to 60 Mbytes on a single tape, can do either image or file - cartridges as the storage medium. A single Bernoulli cartridge by -file backups, and can often restore a single file from an may contain up to 20 Mbytes of data, 'and anynumber of image backup. Some of the tape drives on the market, such as cartridges may be swapped in and out of the drives in a similar the Archive Scorpion, use their own controllers, while others, fashion to the way diskettes may be swapped in and out of a such as the Irwin Magnetics, can use the connector on the back diskette drive. In addition to allowing virtually unlimited offline of the floppy drive controller, which is normally used for the storage, this has the additional advantage of allowing a user to connection of a third and fourth drive. The obvious advantage remove the cartridge for the purpose of locking upsensitive to the type that uses the floppy drive controller is thatit does data in a secure area if so desired. With the installation of the not take up a slot for the tape controller. However, if you are proper ROM in the PC, you can even start-up themachine using more than two floppy drives, or if you have a disk from the Bernoulli Box instead of a floppy disk, in a similar controller that can only handle two floppy drives, such as the manner to the way you would start up from a fixeddisk. The Xebec 1220 combination controller or the controller in the Bernoulli Box, in addition to being used as an alternative mass Compaq or CoronaIBMlookalikes, you can't use this type of storage device, is also often used as a backup device for fixed - drive. There are usually separate controllers available for oper- disk drives. ating this type of drive, but they are often designed only for the PC AT, and may or may not work with the PC XT and regular PC. Backup for the masses Fixed disks, because they can hold so much data, hold within Power to run it all them the potential for disaster as well. Anyone who has ever had a fixed disk crash, and has lost valuable data because of it, The standard IBM PC has a power supply capable of providing can describe in great detail the value of backing up yourdisk. 63.5 watts of power to run the motherboard and all the Fixed -disk backups may be performed in either of two basic expansion cards and disk drives within the machine. This power ways; either file -by -file, or image. In a file -by-file process, supply is insufficient to power a fixed disk, and may also be individual files are copied to another medium, one at a time. In insufficient to power all of the expansion memory and other an image backup, an image of the entire disk,including unused devices that may be stuffed into the chassis by using expansion sectors, is copied to the backup medium. There are advantages cards. Both theIBM PCXT and theIBMExpansion Chassis, to both methods; file -by -file backup offers a convenient means on the other hand, are equipped with 135 -watt powersupplies, of restoring damaged files one by one. Image backup, on the which are sufficient to power one or two fixed disks and just other hand, is usually faster and, since it backs up unused about anything else one might wish to put in the machine. Such sectors as well, can usually back up a fixed disk containing a supply, which will fit in the space occupiedby the original copy -protected software, and later restore it withoutmaking a PC power supply, is now available from many sources as a re -installation of the software necessary. replacement part, for those who might wish to upgrade the PC In Versions 2.1 and later of DOS, IBM provides a system with a fixed disk. For those who fear overloading even such a utility to allow a file -by -file backup of a fixed disk, using floppy heavy duty supply, 150- and 175 -watt supplies are available as disks as a backup medium. The capacity of a floppy disk is 360 aftermarket add-ons from a few suppliers, as well. kbytes, while the capacity of the IBM fixed disk is 10.6 Mbytes. A little arithmetic shows that it takes 31 diskettes to back up More processing power one fixed disk. In addition to taking a fair-sizedpile of diskettes to back up even a small fixed disk, it also takes a fair amountof ThePC family, as noted, is based on the Intel 8088 micro- time. Both the expenditure of time and the number of diskettes processor. While it uses 16 data bits in all itscalculations, it has required rises linearly with the size of the hard drive to be only an 8 -bit data path to the outside world. Thus, it often is

RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 72 The Engineer's Notebook

in either the enhanced color mode or the monochrome graphics drives at all, so if that is really what is required, it should be mode. easy enough to find. There are other display options to consider as well. IBM also produces a Professional Graphics Adapter, which provides even Mass storage devices nicer text and higher -resolution graphics display.Princeton Graphics Systems has produced a high -resolution monitor, called The IBM PC, like any other computer, loses the contents of its the SR -12, which has finer horizontal resolution, and twice the memory when the power is turned off. Therefore, in order to number of scan lines for increased vertical resolution. This save programs and data, some sort of non-volatile storage is monitor is normally used with a card that doubles the scan rate needed. The original IBM PC could be equipped with a cassette of the signal going to the monitor, thus eliminating the "dot- recorder for program and data storage, but this wasvery slow matrix" look of the text characters displayed. Cards such as the and inefficient, and did not allow for much flexibility in storage. Tseng Laboratories ColorPak and UltraPak allow such things IBM also equipped the original PC with full -height, single -sided as more color flexibility in graphics and 132 -column displays diskette drives, each of which held up to 160k of storage. on the monochrome display. Special software drivers are needed Beginning with the introduction of Version 1.1 of the Disk to take advantage of these enhancements, however. Operating System (DOS), double -sided drives, which held 320k, were supported. Version 2.0 of DOS provided two more Thanks for the memories advances in disk storage. One of these was an increase in the amount of data one could store on a drive by increasing the As mentioned earlier, the original IBM PC was limited to 64k number of sectors in a disk track from eight to nine. This of memory on the motherboard, and the later models of the provided a capacity of 180k for single -sided drives, and 360k PC, including the PC XT, are limited to 256k ofmemory on for double -sided drives. A far more significant advance, however, the motherboard. This limitation in memory size was intended was the introduction of a 10-Mbyte fixed -disk drive. This drive by IBM to be overcome by adding additional memoryon plug- stores as much data as 31 floppy disks, but the storage medium in boards placed in expansion slots on the motherboard. The is not removable. In order to equip the PC -1 andsome very original IBM memory expansion boards held only 256k,so that early models of the PC -2 with a fixed -disk drive, the BIOS in order to increase the memory of the machine past 512k, two ROM in the machine must be updated to the one that supports of the available expansion slots would be used. This could the hard disk drive. The 10-Mbyte hard disk was originally present a problem for the owner of a five -slot PC, or even an offered as standard equipment on the PC XT, but it has since eight -slot PC XT. You could run out of slots rather quickly that been made an option. The same disk drive was also available way. Companies such as AST research and Quadram soon installed in an expansion chassis, should one desire to add it to solved this problem by providing multifunction cards thatpro- the standard PC. vide more than one function on a card, thus vastly increasing The IBM PC can accomodate up to two full -height floppy the array of options you can put in one machine. Typically,a disk drives within its main chassis. There are, however,any multifunction card might contain up to 512k of memory,one number of half -height disk drives available that may be installed or two serial ports, an on -board clock, a parallel port, and in the PC or PC XT; thus it is possible to install up to four disk perhaps even a game port. This is as much equipment as could drives in the PC or PC XT. As a matter of fact, the standard be contained on seven of IBM's boards; two for the memory, IBM diskette drive controller is capable of supporting four two more for the serial ports, and one each for the clock, the floppy disk drives through an the external 37 -pin connectoron parallel port, and game port. When you count the fact that the the back of the drive. Those interested in the technical details of IBM PC requires a monitor interface card and a disk drive this connection are referred to an article called "The Third controller card, you might need a nine -slot motherboard to Drive" in the June 1895 issue of PC Tech Journal (Vol. 3, No. configure a system that could be built using a multifunction 6), written by Jack Wright and David Zarodnansky of RCA board and only three slots. Of course, IBM also thought ofa Laboratories. way to get around the lack of slots in the PC. They have Of course, the disk drive mounting bays in the PCcan just as produced an expansion chassis for the PC and the PC XT. The easily be used to mount fixed -disk drives. The original PC XT expansion chassis has eight expansion slots, one of which is contained one full -height floppy disk drive and one full -height taken up by a transceiver card. A matching card takes upone 10-Mbyte fixed -disk drive. It is just as possible to outfit the PC slot in the main chassis, providing a total of four slots in the or PC XT with a pair of half -height floppy drives and one or main chassis, and seven in the expansion chassis. two half -height fixed -disk drives as well. Machines using version The expansion chassis also contains a full -height, 10-Mbyte 2.0 or 2.1 of DOS support fixed -disk drives up to 16 Mbytes in hard disk. While this is fine if you want to add a 10-Mbyte size. Versions 3.0 and 3.1 of DOS support drives of up to 32 hard disk, as you will see later in this article, the 10-Mbyte Mbytes each without special software device drivers, and it is full -height disk is no longer exactly the state of the art. Inmy possible to install drives as large as 140 Mbytes each by using opinion, it would have been much more useful had IBM sold special software device drivers supplied by the vendors of the the expansion chassis without the hard disk, although aswe drives. Ten, twenty, and even forty-Mbyte fixed -disk drivesare have seen, the need for an expansion chassis can often be now readily available in half -height form factors. This makes it eliminated altogether with multifunction cards. There are other possible to fit an IBM PC with up to 80 Mbytes of online companies that sell an expansion chassis without any disk storage within the chassis, while still allowing one or two

RCA Engineer 31-2 Mr..r. / \pr. 1986 71 The Engineer's Notebook Dressing your PC for success David Zarodnansky RCA Laboratories Princeton, N.J. It's been five years since the IBM PC first appeared on the scene, and there has been a host of newer and shinier machines introduced, but just because there are some fancier machines around doesn't mean that you should relegate your PC to the scrap heap yet. There are plenty of items that can be added to the PC to make it perform nearly as well as the newer models, often at a fraction of the cost of trading up to a newer machine. The IBM PC series includes the original IBM PC, which will be referred to herein as the PC -1, the later models of the IBM Illustration by Joseph McGarrity PC, which will be referred to as the PC -2, and the IBM PC XT. capability of displaying bit -mapped graphics. The Hercules card The series is based on an Intel 8088 microprocessor. The PC -1 is supported by most, but not all, major software packages that had up to 64 kilobytes (kbytes) of memory on the motherboard, and used 4116 memory chips. The PC -2 and PC XT have up use graphics, so you have to be careful to note whether the software you plan to run supports the Hercules card. Due to to 256 kbytes of memory on the motherboard, and use 4164 memory chips. The two types of memory chips are not inter- memory addressing conflicts, the earliest Hercules cards could not co -exist with a color graphics card in the same system. The changeable. Additional memory is available with add-on mem- newer versions of the Hercules Monochrome Card may be ory boards, which are inserted into one of five expansion slots within the machine. Other slots can be used for a floppy disk turned off and on at will to allow the use of a color card in the same system, although they will not give acri-ss to both graphics drive interface board, a color or monochrome video interface board, serial ports, parallel ports, and so on. The original PC -1 pages if the color card in the system is not also made by Hercules. was equipped with BIOS (Basic Input Output System) firmware A disadvantage of the IBM color card was the lack of a (the BIOS ROM), which allowed a maximum of 544 kbytes of printer port on the card. The monochrome card from IBM, in memory to be installed in the system. This BIOS ROM made addition to serving as a monitor interface, also contained a no provision for a hard disk. The PC -2 and the PC XT are parallel port for use with a printer. If one used a color card equipped with a BIOS ROM that supports up to 640 kbytes of instead, a printer interface card was also required if a printer memory and other devices that require a BIOS -callable firmware, was to be used. Recognizing the need for a colorinterface card such as a hard disk. with a printer port built in, Hercules also has produced a color The PC -1 and the PC -2 each have five expansion slots. The interface card that provides one. In addition, as mentioned PC XT has eight expansion slots, although two of these are above, the Hercules Color Card has a software switch that so-called "short" slots; that is, they will not accommodate a allows it to be used with a Hercules Monochrome Card. Another full-length expansion card. This is usually not a problem, how- advantage is the fact that the Hercules Color Card is a short ever, because many manufacturers produce short cards to go in card, so it can be placed in one of the short slots in a PC XT these slots. with no problems. IBM's monochrome monitor comes in only one color, green. Monitor options Other companies, such as Princeton Graphics Systems (PGS) and Amdek, have produced monochrome monitors in amber IBM's original idea with regard to monitors was to allow two options; either a monochrome monitor or a color monitor and white, which many users feel are much easier on the eyes for long term use. PGS and Sony have also produced color could be purchased and used with the appropriate monitor monitors with a finer dot -pitch than that of the IBM color interface card. The advantage to the monochrome monitor and monitor, thus providing a sharper image, although with no interface is that the text quality is excellent-however, there further increase in resolution due to the fact that they are still was no graphics capability. A color monitor system could be used with the standard color monitor interfaces. Thus the text purchased, which allowed for graphics capability, but the text display on even these higher -quality color monitors is relatively quality was not nearly as good, and this was felt by many to be poor when compared to that on the monochromemonitor. a definite disadvantage. If one desired both high -quality text If you really want to go first class with respect to display display and graphics, the only option open was to equip the options, you can outfit your PC with IBM's Enhanced Graphics system with two monitors and two monitor interface cards. Adapter and Display. This adapter is the only unit presently One of the first aftermarket vendors to attempt to remedy sold by IBM that will allow graphics display on the monochrome this situation was Hercules Computer Technology, which pro- monitor. When used with the Enhanced Color Display, the text duced a monochrome monitor interface card that also had the quality is superior to that of the standard IBM color monitor, 01986 RCA Corporation. and higher graphics resolution is possible. Unfortunately, there Final manuscript received January 28. 1986 Reprint RE -31-1-12 is also a scarcity of software that supports this display and card

70 RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 professional -looking results. We present the includedexamples as evidence.

Acknowledgments I wish to thank all those with included examples for their time, patience and help. Because of time limitations, I could not begin to interview everyone from Staff Vice -Presidents down who have made significant productive (and often elegant) use of the Macintosh. A stack of functional and aesthetically pleasing MacDrawingswould simply be overkill. I am sure that I have missed packages and application areas that are significant, but hope that what is included will lead to more exploitation of the machine. In addition to the tools used by the people creating examples, I usedMacPaint toedit icons and captured screen images,MacDrawto integrate and create figures,Mac Writeto write the text(MacSpell+to check it), andPageMakerto lay out and integrate the entire document.

Prior to receiving his MS in Operations Research (with a minor Table II. Comparison of software for the Macintosh. in systems design) from Rutgers University, Don Barton worked ,- for nine years as a field engineer on U.S. Air Force flight 1 -'-' .2 .§- to - sg .... g ._ .m n 'i 111g,I-aen,qg simulators, mostly in Japan. After receiving his degree, he Program 1-1-0 F-.cnun oomp. .5-ggiEComments worked as a hardware design engineer in data communications MacTerrninal x 85VT -100 emulator and computer peripherals, and later he worked for RCA Camden Tekalike x x 250Supports plotters on a distributed computing system. He joined RCA Laboratories VersaTenn X x 100.Better VT 100 & 4014 in 1980, where he developed a testing information system for Multiplan x 110Replaced by Excel VideoDisc research using a database and graphics on an IBM Excel x x X 225More power than Jazz Chart x 75Replaced by Excel mainframe. He joined the Information Systems Planning and OverVue x x 150Fast, easy Computer Services Group in 1983, and now supports scientific Helix x 220Stores pictures computing for RCA Laboratories. His primary interests are MacWrite It 85Easy computer graphics and the use of the computer as a tool for the Word x 115Mote power than Write researcher. Don is a member of ACM and a cofounder and Jars a x x x x 350Does everything easily Chairman of Grafuse. MacDraw x 140Easy, powerful Contact him at: MacDraft x 140Rotates 1 degree RCA Laboratories MacPaint x 85Easy Princeton, N.J. PageMaker x 360Mom power than RSG Tacnet: 226-2995 Ready Set Go x 65Inexpensive ThinkTank x 125l'o organize projects Statview a 100With ANOVA SSO for TekPrint to pan, zoom, and print graphics on the LaserWriter.

Barton: Using the Macintosh as an engineering workstation 69 a FileEdit BlewProcessterirort

HSE

LE !`F c, IMP LANTSIFF USEPHO TO

FEND DIFFt

CERT I

I WRF

Fig. 7. Screen from a custom-made graphical process editor.

Ede Edit Wear Process

ElsE RevertSarre I 1300 SELECT Clear 1200 CWER CLEH 1100 CIFENC T e 1000 m 900 p 800 700 0 Time max Temp 700 Time 0 0000 000000000000 ( Get Ambient )

Fig. 5. Printed -circuit board laid out usingMacCad.

Gate Parasitic Capacitance Fig. 8. Parameter window for a step in the graphical process 0.2 editor. 0.5 to set the last one. The program creates an EDIF (standardized

d format for design data) file, which users can send to a mainframe running on CMS by means of the Kermit file transfer protocol. Users will then be able to select regions for simulation, capturing

(Compute)( Quit )( Help ) data back into the Macintosh for manipulation and/or plotting Overlap Capacitance=3.450E-04 later, including the results in a report. Dr. Amantea has pro- 0.071 Edge Capacitance= 8.677E-05 grammed the same function on an Apollo workstation using Top Capacitance= 1.295E-05 o Capacitance per micron Apollo's Dialog Manager. Since the Dialog Manager functions C) 3dimensional capacitance at a more primitive level than the Macintosh's QuickDraw, the Gate Width= program is larger on the Apollo and is much simpler graphically. Fig. 6. Output of a program designed to calculate capacitive The Macintosh Resource Editor allows one to modify objects fringing capacitance. such as windows, dialog boxes, and icons directly with the mouse, while the user must specify the parameters of such A second example of Dr. Amantea's work is a graphical objects in a text file for the ApolloDialogManager. Expect a process editor under development. In Fig. 7, the program gives paper by Dr. Amantea on his programs. users palettes for objects (process steps), and actions (erase, select, etc.). With the mouse, users can place process step icons in order in the process window. If they double-click on a step Summary icon, the program displays a window showing the default We believe that the Macintosh can serve as a welcome alternative parameters for the step. Users can edit these with the mouse. to traditional personal computers as an engineering workstation. Figure 8 shows a parameter window for a step thatis Its user-friendly graphics interface (developed first for the Lisa graphical. The user draws the "curve" by positioning the mouse at a cost of 200 man-years of programming), combined with at the first data point on the graph and pressing the button, internal, publication -quality laser printing, make it a tool that repeating the process for each subsequent point, double-clicking can get many an engineering job done easily and quickly with

68 RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 'Ink Replenishment System Connection Diagram 100

LedsPhotoTransisto 90 Det ctorArray 80 plArrrnnimControl for TFD and P T array circuit det cts when ink 70 is no longe covering the image plate-s ignaling the replenistc cle. 60 of Ink tray Percent 50

40

Solenoid Actuator 3Vent Refill it Line Solenoid 30 j Vent A to tor Vent Air Line Dispense Vent

10 psi. 20 Air Line 11 Vent 10 Solenoid Ink Valve* ?neut., 0 50 psi. Ink 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 Valve #2 Pneuma,L Particle size 1199Met! ElastonmrMe eringPump Fig. 4.Statistical data in graph form. The data was captured with MacTerminal, pasted intoMultiplanfor manipulation, Note: During initial setup both valves Cartridge and plotted by Chart. are open and ink is fed through the Liner tubing, using a special switch. During for operation valves #1 and #2 are operated Ink with XOR logic. Valve #2 is normally open, C'ntaine technical papers has climbed dramatically (he formerly did his Fig. 2.An example of documentation used for the transfer computation on a mainframe). of bar code technology from the Labs to Video Component and Display Division. John T. Zurich of the Television Research Laboratory uses MacCad(Vamp, Inc.) to lay out non -dense printed circuits. He operates the package as if he were taping the board on a light Line Chart of mR/Hour table, but instead of tape he uses the mouse, instead of the table, 30 the Macintosh screen. While the operation is manual, the ease of change makes it easy to use for small prototype boards. Vamp 25 has announced additional packages for autorouting, schematic

20 capture, surface -mount technology, and circuit simulation. Figure m 5 is the only case in which we have been forced to manually cut

H 15 and paste, sinceMacCadis designed to produce circuit -board layouts and not figures in papers. 10 Dr. Robert Amantea of the Integrated Circuit Research Labora- tory is one of the few people, if not the only person, at RCA Laboratories developing custom programs for the Macintosh. He Observations uses a compiled Pascal. He is interested in using the Macintosh Fig. 3. A sample plot of experimental data using Multiplan, for: Chart, and Statview. 1. Development of programs that are not CPU -or I/O -intensive, and that can benefit from a Mac -like user interface. Dr. Roy Nelson of the Display Systems Materials and Processing 2. A user-friendly frontend to batch programs. Research Laboratory uses a Macintosh withMacTenninalto collect data from a porisimeter, an instrument that measures 3. A terminal connected to a more expensive workstation. particle sizes by mercury intrusion (this is the only installation in He also uses the Macintosh in the more usual way, for word North America with such a device). The instrument is useful for processing, diagraming, etc. measuring the size distribution of fine particles in the dry state, A first example of Dr. Amantea's work is a program designed and can measure particle size and aggregate size. After he to calculate capacitive fringing in an MOS transistor. By filling in captures the data withMacTenninal(the porisimeter thinks it is the blanks for a textbook -like example diagram, the user can sending data to a serial printer), he pastes it intoMultiplanfor a calculate fringing capacitance (see Fig. 6). Help dialogue boxes significant amount of manipulation and then toChartfor plotting explain such things as the theory underlying the calculations. (see Fig. 4). He expects to replaceMultiplanand Chart with This is an example of taking advantage of the Macintosh's user Excelfor this purpose. He also usesStatViewfor statistical interface facilities to create a program tailored to the problem manipulation, MacDraw for data presentations and model work, and that speaks in the Mac's language.This program makes the and MacWriteaugmented withMacSpell+for word processing. Macintosh appear to be a custom calculator designed to solve He says that since he acquired his Macintosh, his output of just this type of problem.

Barton: Using the Macintosh as an engineering workstation 67 enough for ram disk operation in a 512k Macintosh. MacMemory statistics (mean and standard deviation, for instance) and plot Disk lists at only $29.95. experimental data. Switcher (Apple Computer, Inc.) allows you to partition random Dr. Marvin Leedom, Director of the Manufacturing Systems access memory to run more than one program at a time, Research Laboratory uses MacDraw for presentations, etc. He switching between them with a mouse click. It is especially has also programmed the RCA salary guidelines into Excel and convenient for repeated copying and pasting operations between uses it to track the salaries of approximately 150 people. He different kinds of documents (terminal emulation and word had previously done this on an IBM PC using Lotus 1-2-3, and processing or spreadsheet, for instance), or for programs designed on the Macintosh using Jazz. The changes in spreadsheet used to be used together ( VersaTerm and TekPrint, for instance). It have provided faster programming and execution time as well allows what appears to the user as a limited amount of multi- as much greater ease of use. He also tracks capital requirements tasking. and manpower planning for Manufacturing and Materials Dubl-Click (Dubl-Click Software) is a calculator construction Research. kit that allows you to create your own calculator desk accessory (desk accessories are available from within Macintosh programs), Walter Marz of the Advanced Video Systems Research Labora- with choices from a wide variety of mathematical and simple tory has been investigating the possibilities of using the Macintosh statistical functions (as well as business math functions). You as a workstation for the electrical engineer, concentrating on select the keys you want and position them as you want (as if documentation (he field tested MacDraft), and on CAD/CAE. you were drawing the calculator). The tape can go to the printer He has used and recommends the printed circuit layout package or to a disk file if you want. Dr. Robert Amantea has evaluated MacCad as well as the schematic capture package ParaGenesis this product and found that it provides functions missing from (Advanced Engineering Solutions). He plans to link schematic the Macintosh's built-in calculator. capture by the Macintosh into the more powerful Cadnetix workstations. Expect a paper from him on the results of his MacSpell+ (Creighton Development, Inc.) is a spelling checker investigations. that installs in the menu of a word processor (Mac Write or Word) as a desk accessory (so that you can check spelling in the L. Dimarco of the Optoelectronics Research Laboratory uses middle of writing a document), and features a thesaurus, word the Macintosh to collect data from a die attachment evaluator, hyphenation, and the ability to add to the dictionary. It searches which measures thermal resistance characteristics of laser diode for the right spelling phonetically. We used it to spell -check this mounts. He modified a BASIC program written for the HP - paper. Spelling errors are now a thing of the passed. 85A to run on the Macintosh, collecting the data over an RS - 232c data communications link. He (via the clipboard) on to the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet for manip- Languages ulation and graphing. He also uses the Macintosh to produce At this point, most of the major programming languages are reports. available for the Macintosh. Two are in use at RCA Laboratories. Kenneth Hang of the Optical Systems and Display Materials A number of users have used Microsoft BASIC to port simple Research Laboratory uses Mac Write, MacPaint, and MacDraw. programs from other machines to the Macintosh, and all have Figure 2 is an example from transferring bar code technology to reported success. One user uses Softech Microsystems Pascal to the VCDD for processes developed at RCA Laboratories. He program engineering applications in such a way as to take finds himself updating such documentation frequently, and the advantage of the user interface. While the results can be remark- Macintosh makes this easy. He also does research in other able, you should be warned that for the latter, learning time to areas, including thick film multi -layer copper circuits. He finds get started can be months. The Macintosh user interface includes that the Macintosh can speed his preparation for meetings to about 480 ROM calls. We have, and are evaluating Microsoft the point that it is faster to use it than to delegate the job. He is FORTRAN, Aztec C, ExperLisp, and ExperOps-5 (this rule - using MacPascal to learn programming. based expert systems toolisreally somewhere between an applications package and a language). Our natural inclination is Dietrich Meyerhofer of the Materials and Processing Research to suggest that before you write anything for the Macintosh, you Laboratory uses the Macintosh in his research in resists for should see if there is an applications package that will do the job microlithography. He uses Mac Terminal and Tekalike to make for you. (This is wise for any computer, but doubly so for the the Macintosh emulate text and graphics terminals for his CMS Macintosh). If you want to develop a specialized application account, where he is able to run mainframe simulations, viewing whose user interface is of primary importance, the Macintosh text and graphical output on his Macintosh screen. He also uses it is a fine tool, but be prepared to commit a considerable amount for word processing for report preparation, printing the reports of effort to learning how to use it. on the LaserWriter. He has transferred CP/M BASIC programs from an older Apple II into the Macintosh. Dr. James R. Matey of the Materials and Processing Research Macintosh users Laboratory uses Mac Write for Purchase Order templates, letters, Dr. Alvin Goodman of the Integrated Circuit Research Labor- and patent disclosures. He uses MacDraw to sketch experimental atory uses the Macintosh in his research on MOSFETs (Metal apparatus, and for viewgraph presentations. He uses Mac Terminal Oxide Silicon Field -Effect Transistors) and COMFETs (Comple- and VersaTerm to communicate with other computers. He uses mentary Field -Effect Transistors): Mac Write for word processing, Multiplan, Chart and Statview (see Fig. 3) to plot experimental MacDraw for viewgraphs, Multiplan and Chart to calculate data. He also uses Kermit to exchange files with an IBM PC AT.

66 RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 We recommend Ready.SeL Go as an inexpensive way to over- with logarithmic axes (you could take logarithms of the data come the layout limitations of Mac Write. Carol Irwin of Infor- first using the spreadsheet, but it is not the same thing). It has mation Systems Planning and Computer Services at RCA Lab- limited capabilities for annotating plots (which could, of course, oratories uses it to lay out a monthly newsletter. It does not be pasted into MacDraw). It does have more word processing follow the Apple interface guidelines as exactly as some other power than Mac Write. For someone whose requirements do programs do, but once you master moving and resizing blocks not exceed its capabilities, it is a remarkably easy way to make without the Apple top bars and resizing boxes, it is easy to use. use of a Macintosh. I captured the information for the Grafuse You can move and size blocks with the mouse or type actual (RCA Corporate Graphics Users' Group) mailing list (over 250 positions and sizes (to 1/10,000th inch) into a dialog window. people) from a mainframe database (terminal emulation), created Ready.SeL Go's major limitation is speed (you must leave it and a Jazz database, loaded it, created a form for updating informa- enter other programs, such as Mac Write, to copy information to tion (database), and created mailing labels (database and word be pasted). The latest version can import text files directly, but processing) in half a day, all with no previous experience with not graphic ones. Switcher (see Utilities) could provide some Jazz's database functions. help, provided the memory is available to run all those programs simultaneously. Starting and stopping programs does take time. Ready. SeL Go should be fine for the small newsletter or occa- Outline programs sional technical report. ThinkTank 512k(Living Videotext, Inc.) is an outline program PageMaker(Aldus Corp.), a layout program costing several that allows you to create an outline, indenting and un-indenting times as much as Ready.SeLGo, provides comprehensive facilities with the mouse, expanding to view information at lower levels, for laying out documents. I used PageMaker to lay out the draft contracting to hide it. Moving a contracted topic moves indented of this paper, and any deficiencies were a result of human information under it. At first, ThinkTank 512k might seem limitations and the wish to conform to technical report format pleasant, but perhaps not worth its cost. It can, however, store requirements. From within PageMaker you can bring in text an entire Mac Write or MacDraw document, for instance, as a and graphics from external files and place them arbitrarily (this topic. With those capabilities, it starts to look more like an ad is a speed feature as much as a convenience one). You can hoc mixed text and graphics data management system. You can create master pages for numbering, running heads, etc. You can print a table of contents created by ThinkTank 512k and/or crop graphics, edit text with full control over attributes, etc. It the actual complete contents themselves. You can create docu- conforms well to the Apple interface guidelines. ments of this sort in Mac Write (mixed text and graphics, outlined and indented), but you cannot collapse them to examine Spreadsheets /graphics only high-level information. ThinkTank 512k can be of use in organizing projects. Excel (Microsoft Corp.) includes the features of Multiplan and Chart, and builds on them, adding the ability to format the spreadsheet for printing or inclusion in another (bold, etc.), Statistics database functions to sort, select, and report material stored in StatView (BrainPower Inc.) is a statistics program with spread- the spreadsheet, to graph directly from the spreadsheet, and to create macros. While you create macros on a conventional sheet -like tables for data to be analyzed, and graphical as well as personal computer by typing in command sequences, in Excel tabular output. In late 1985, Joseph Blanc and Dr. James R. you turn on a macro recorder and then perform the actions. Matey were kind enough to compare a number of statistics packages for the Macintosh, and StatView proved to be the first These are recorded, and placed in a window of macro commands (which you may editif you want to learn the command choice. It can calculate the usual descriptive statistics and tests, language), and you name the macro. Any time you select the one and two-way analysis of variance, nonparametric statistics named macro (with the mouse) for execution, Excel will repeat and regressions. For diagnostics, it will plot residuals as well as the steps involved. It is as if by simply turning on and off a the regression model. Tables may be pasted from terminal cassette recorder, you could request a computer to watch what emulators, spreadsheets and databases, and graphic output may you did and to write a program to repeat it. We recommend be copied and pasted to MacDraw. We recommend StatView for analyzing experimental data in a Macintosh. Excel for sophisticated spreadsheet users. Much of what engineers used to program in BASIC or FORTRAN (with graphics enhancements) can now be done with Excel. Utilities MacMemory Disk(Assimilation, Inc.) allows you to create Integratedoffice what appears to be a disk in random access memory. RAM can Jazz(Lotus Development Corp.) is a program combining text be accessed much faster than any disk drive, so programs stored terminal emulation, spreadsheet, database (including forms and in ram disk can run faster. Whatever is stored in the ram disk mail merge), graphics, and word processing. Since it is a single disappears when the computer is turned off (or suffers a power program, moving from one function to another is fast and easy. interruption), and data must be copied to a real disk to preserve It does as good a job of adhering to the Apple interface it, but you can control when disk updates take place rather than guidelines as any program we have seen, and as a result, is having the computer do it while you are kept waiting. Mac - exceptionally easy to use, even more so than most Macintosh Terminal, MacDraw, Mac Write and Chart are examples of programs. Its limitations are a result of having to cram all those programs that run much faster in ram disk. RAM dedicated to functions into a single program capable of running on a 512k ram disk is not available for program execution, and programs Macintosh. It does not have macros. You cannot create plots that use much of the 512k RAM (Jazz, for example), don't leave

Barton: Using the Macintosh as an engineering workstation 65 provides easy to use tabs, it will not allow multiple columns of Graphics text, as in a newspaper. Along with this, although it will allow Chart(Microsoft Corp.) was the first graphics package available you to paste a MacDraw or MacPaint graphic in the middle of for the Macintosh. It plots tables (typed in or brought in from text (how many word processors do you know of that permit spreadsheets, terminal emulators, databases, etc.) as line, scatter, integration of text and graphics?), it will not allow you to place bar, etc. It provides logarithmic axes. For our purposes, it has text alongside the figure (only above and below it). It does, of been replaced (along with Multiplan) by Microsoft's Excel. course, allow you to select blocks of text with the mouse for cutting and pasting, allow multiple fonts with attributes, and allow searches and replacements of whole or partial words with Drafting programs or without case sensitivity. Many Macintosh users will need to The drafting programs we describe below have the familiar overcome Mac Write 's limitations, either through the use of a Macintosh interface. more powerful word processor or by means of a page layout (Apple Computer, Inc.) was the first drafting program program. We have taken the latter approach with this paper. MacDraw supplied for the Macintosh. You can draw lines (with or without arrowheads), boxes (with or without rounded corners), circles Word(Microsoft Corp.) is the first word processor providing and ellipses, arcs, polygons and free -form figures, all with select- features omitted from Mac Write. It provides more keyboard - able line widths, line patterns, and (where appropriate) fill oriented commands. It lets you print closer to the margins than patterns. You can determined dimensions of objects to within a Mac Write.Itwill allow multiple columns of text, as in a hundredth of an inch. The maximum multi -page drawing size is newspaper. Along with this, it will not allow you to place text 48X96 inches. MacDraw provides a complete variety of text alongside a figure. For the accomplished typist with a heavy placement and insertion. With the exception of the icons included word processing load, concerned with speed, this is probably (distinguished by their bit -mapped jagged appearance), I could the solution of choice to MacWrite's limitations. You could also have produced this entire paper in MacDraw. Since it produces add a page layout program for even greater capability. objects that are represented internally as a line of width w and pattern p between points (x0, yO) and (xl, yl), for example, the quality of output produced is limited only by the hardware (300 Spreadsheets dots per inch for the Apple LaserWriter, 2500+ dots per inch for Multiplan(Microsoft Corp.) was the first spreadsheet available an Allied Linotype phototypesetter). I produced the figures for for the Macintosh. Users of spreadsheets on other computers this paper using MacDraw, electronically pasting in bit -maps might be surprised by its ability to adjust the width of a column from MacPaint for icons and screen examples. by grabbing the dividing line with the mouse and dragging it to MacDraft(Innovative Data Design, Inc.) is similar to MacDraw, the desired location (who wants to count characters: I want it but provides additional features such as automatic dimensioning that wide!). Many of the things that engineers used to do with lines, the ability to rotate objects at 1° intervals (MacDraw can BASIC or FORTRAN programs can now be done more pro- only rotate objects at 90° intervals), and others aimed at making ductively with a spreadsheet! You can construct formulae with it a more professional two-dimensional drafting program. Our transcendental functions, conditions, etc. You can paste informa- users have reported problems using MacDraft with Switcher (see tion captured from a remote computer as a table by a terminal Utilities), and MacTutor magazine (November 1985) reported emulator into Multiplan. For our purposes, Multiplan has been problems using MacDraft with PageMaker. replaced (along with Chart) by Microsoft's Excel (which combines their functions and adds more in one package). Painting The painting program we describe below has the familiar Macintosh interface. Databases MacPaint(Apple Computer, Inc.) was the first painting program OverVUE(ProVUEDevelopment Corp.) is a database program for the Macintosh. You can paste in tables or text from a written for the Macintosh. While it can draw lines, boxes, etc., terminal emulator or a spreadsheet, for instance (capturing the 72 dots per inch bit -map limits the quality severely if you are information from other computers, when it is available, rather printing on a LaserWriter. We recommend MacPaint only for than typing it in). Known for its speed and ease of learning, those tasks not possible with MacDraw (editing saved example screens, creating bit -map objects, spray painting, etc.), at which OverVUE lets you create tabular and graphical reports. point we recommend copying and pasting those bit -maps into MacDraw for the addition of objects created in MacDraw. Helix(Odesta Corp.) is a relational database program for the Macintosh. You can paste tables, text, objects or bit -maps into Helix. A graphic or even a Mac Write document can be a data Page layout field to be retrieved by a query. (Consider a relational database The layout programs we describe below can place text and of plots of experimental data, which lets you retrieve all the runs graphics in arbitrary positions on a page using the mouse. made before lunch with a query, or of integrated circuit base diagrams, which lets you retrieve the pin -outs of all the 16k Ready.Set.Go(Manhattan Graphics Corp.) is a page layout dynamic RAM chips with an access time less than 50 nanoseconds program for the Macintosh. You can copy blocks of text and with a query). Helix uses icons for everything, including queries graphics into Ready.Set.Go. You can save page layouts (as (multi-user Helix has been announced). Helix appears to require opposed to the contents) so that you can establish a given type more learning than OverVue, but to provide more features. of format for a document, and repeat the look page after page.

64 RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 ulation with programs such as MacWrite as well as tables for transfer to Macintosh spreadsheet, database, or graphics pro- grams. We have sent text to other computers using MacTerminal but not to the IBM mainframe. MacTerminal provides for file transfer to and using the Xmodem protocol, and from other computers in ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) text (files can be pasted in text to other computers, but only a clipboard -full at a time. Its latest version allows the BACKSPACE key to be programmed to be a DELETE key (a menu selection), a convenience for DEC users.

Tekalike (Mesa Graphics) isthe earliest graphics terminal emulator we used on the Macintosh. It emulates the Tektronix 4010, 4012, 4014 and 4016 graphics terminals (a later version we have not yet tested adds VT -100 and VT -640). It also provides the ability to pan and zoom on areas selected by the mouse and to save plots for MacPaint on MacDraw for full 300 dots -per -inch LaserWriter resolution. It was this program that first enabled us to consider the Macintosh as a replacement for graphics terminals. The Macintosh could not only view plots at its 512X342 resolution, but thanks to the pan and zoom, could view parts of plots at full 4014 (4096X3072) resolution, a feature then available only on much more expensive graphics terminals (some other personal computers now have programs for Tektronix 4010/4014 emulation, but the best known to me Start of waveform, magnified at this time zooms in 4X and only provides 1024X768 resolution at zoom; 4010, not 4014 resolution). The plots could also, of course, be printed and stored in on a Macintosh disk for later viewing, avoiding the cost of recreating them. Tekalike also enables emulation of the Tektronix 4662 8 -pen color plotter, Writer printing, either from TekPrint or MacDraw, provides a connecting to low-cost Apple, Hewlett-Packard, and Houston full 300 dots -per -inch, much finer quality than that provided by Instrument plotters for color output (plotting graphics stored on an actual 4014 with attached copier. We captured the following disk, enabling you to have panned and zoomed plots). The wave form plot from Issco's Tellagraf running under CMS on a ability to paste into MacPaint on MacDraw enables you to CISS mainframe (data courtesy of Dr. James Matey of RCA include all sorts of plots from other computers into technical Laboratories), passed it to TekPrint, saved it for MacDraw, reports such as this one, and to edit the plots. where we annotated it, zoomed in with the mouse, saved it again, annotating in MacDraw, naturally, we could annotate more, adding arrows to points of interest, with boxed ex- VersaTerm (Peripherals Computers and Supplies, Inc.) provides planations, etc. text (more complete DEC VT -100 emulation than Tekalike, DG Dasher) and graphics (Tektronix 4014) emulation. It allows the BACKSPACE key to be reprogrammed to be a DELETE Word processors key (a menu selection), a convenience for DEC users. It also The word processors we describe below have the familiar allows the mouse -controlled cursor to transmit appropriate se- Macintosh interface. quences to the remote for either EMA CS or vi editors. It allows whatever appears on the screen to be simultaneously directed Mac Write (Apple Computer, Inc.) was the first word processor into a disk file or to the printer, convenient for capturing long written for the Macintosh (This paragraph was written with passages (text or graphics) from a remote computer. Screens Mac Write). Mac Write is limited in its capabilities, but not in its may be printed at any time. Its Tektronix 4014 emulation ease of use. It appears that Apple concluded they had made a provides simulation of the four sizes of 4014 hardware characters. mistake in providing a comprehensive selection of integrated Remote computer -issued commands to print the Tektronix 4014 software for the Lisa (virtually no one wrote software for the screen do so (on either ImageWriter, the Apple dot-matrix Lisa, since the major functions appeared in the original release of printer, or LaserWriter). It provides file transfer as plain ASCII the Lisa Office System). They did not repeat the mistake with the text, Xmodem and Kermit (the public -domain file transfer pro- Macintosh-features apparently omitted from Apple packages tocol provided on most RCA Laboratories computers). Kermit such as Mac Write, MacPaint, etc. appeared in third -party pack- is available for the Macintosh as a separate public -domain ages. Mac Write permits both mouse -oriented operation and program, but there are obvious advantages to having it built keyboard -oriented operation (COMMAND -b = bold, etc.). into your terminal emulation program. A companion program More keyboard operation could speed things up for accomplished TekPrint (also from Peripherals Computers and Supplies, Inc.) typists oriented toward more traditional word processors. Mac- displays plots saved by VersaTerm and provides panning and Write refuses to let you print farther to the left than the 1 -inch zooming, rotation (vertical or horizonal page), direct printing mark or farther to the right than the 8 -inch mark, even if you are (ImageWriter or LaserWriter), and saving (MacPaint). Laser- printing a horizonal page rather than a vertical one. While it

Barton: Using the Macintosh as an engineering workstation 63 PostScript-words and pictures

When Apple Computer introduced the Lisa and Sample" in 24 -point Helvetica typeface, 50 default Macintosh computers, they not only were selling units up and over on the page. new computing hardware, they were selling a /Helvetica findfont radically different environment in which text and 24 scalefont graphics could be created and edited via a setfont graphical icon -based user interface. With all this 50 50 moveto emphasis placed on graphics, Apple needed a way (Text Sample) show of generating high -quality printed output. One year showpage after the introduction of the Macintosh computer, the Apple LaserWriter was introduced. Apple was one of the first companies to adopt a Text Sample graphic output protocol named PostScript (Adobe Systems, Inc.). PostScript is a programming language that generates text and graphics on a Frequently, other systems store type fonts in bit - printed page. Its programs only work on map form. A separate bit map is required for every "PostScript -equipped" printers. character in every size. Because different printers PostScript is a complete programming language. have varying degrees of resolution, bit -map In addition to text and graphic operators, the encoding of characters is usually optimized for a language offers mathematical functions, string specific output device. manipulation, and file I/O operations. PostScript is In place of bit -map encoding, PostScript "builds" similar to the FORTH language in that it uses the a one -point typefont "template" from a set of notion of a "stack" to pass arguments and data. The mathematical instructions stored in the printer's "stack" is a reserved portion of memory where memory. When a program invokes a particular font items are placed and manipulated. Hewlett-Packard and size, PostScript scales the original one -point calculators operate on a similar principal. template and then stores this scaled image in bit - PostScript offers many data types such as map form in cache memory. This technique allows integers, reals numbers, arrays, and strings. the resolution to be independent of the point size. "Objects" such as dictionaries can also be created Memory resource use is kept to a minimum as well and manipulated on the stack. because only a single template is required for all PostScript programs are readable 7 -bit ASCII text sizes. files. Usually, these programs are generated by a At the present time, the majority of PostScript - given application program running on a computer, equipped printers are 300 -dot -per -inch (dpi) laser such as Mac Write on the Macintosh. However, most printers. Printers that offer resolution between 200 PostScript -equipped printers can operate in a mode and 1000 dpi are considered "near -typeset" quality. where PostScript commands are fed to the printer However, for many printing tasks this resolution is interactively by any host that can create ASCII files. more than adequate. For those jobs requiring higher Variables and procedures can be defined and resolution there are PostScript typesetters with 2540 placed into dictionaries. For example, the following dpi resolution. procedure would define and create a rectangle: Manufacturers supporting the PostScript protocol are Apple Computer, Inc., QMS, Inc., Dataproducts /RECTANGLE Corporation, Prime Computer, and the Allied 10 0 rlineto 5 unitst Linotype Company. Recently, Digital Equipment 0 5 rlineto Corporation announced that they would be using -10 0 rlineto X 10 units the PostScript protocol for certain models of their closepathdef / current XY location laser printer line. This procedure will generate a rectangle that is 10 PostScript has already had an significant impact default units in X and 5 default units in Y. on the printing industry. One of the new "buzz- The operator "rlineto" is short for relative line to, words" in the computing industry is "desktop indicating that the rectangle will be placed relative publishing." This whble new industry is due mostly to the current X,Y location. The "def" operator to the availablity of low-cost laser printing and the places the procedure into a dictionary so that future success of PostScript. instances of rectangle can be created by simply The promise of PostScript is that unlike other calling the procedure name. proprietary graphic protocols, PostScript is truly Much of PostScript's power is in its ability to device -independent. handle textual operations. Text is denoted by any sequence of characters enclosed in parentheses. -James K. Anders The following program creates the text string "Text Missile and Surface Radar Division

62 RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 Word processing Specific programs Word processing programs for the Macintosh create text files The table on the next page shows Macintosh programs we have and can accept text, objects, or bit -maps from the clipboard. tried and found useful.It does not include languages and They can thus include graphics in a text document, although they utilities, described in later sections, but shows applications that will not place text alongside a figure (only above or below it). communicate with each other well and are useful for getting a They allow you to change fonts and their attributes and display job done. It shows the kinds of inputs and outputs possible. the effect on the Macintosh's bit -mapped screen. Arrows pointing to the left show inputs to the program, while ones to the right show outputs. Also shown are generic functions (as covered previously) supported by the particular program.

Terminal emulators

Text Text All of the terminal emulators we describe here have the familiar Macintosh interface with radio buttons, and check boxes to select communications settings such as baud rate, parity, etc. We have successfully used them with our Ungermann-Bass local -area network, and with modems. Tables Tables MacTertninal(Apple Computer, Inc.) is the earliest text terminal ==L, emulator we used on the Macintosh. Since it emulates the DEC word processing : (Digital Equipment Corp.) VT -100 terminal, we have found it :0:: :0:: compatible with our Decmail electronic mail system. It works successfully with the DEC full screen applications we have Objects Objects tried, as well as with line mode applications on a variety of computers. We have also used it successfully with our Data - stream protocol converters for full screen operation on an RCA d, CISS (Computer Information Systems and Services)IBMmain- frame running the CMS operating system in Cherry Hill. We Bitmap Bitmap can capture text from other computers for Macintosh manip-

Table I. Communications among Macintosh software pack- ages. Layout pi Fri]1- n 0 Page layout programs for the Macintosh permit the arbitraryCa!Pow,/ Remote Remote Tear placement of graphics and text on a page. They permit multiple Ptogrem lab graph.. Tables Objects earflap Fucc.ir, columns, text alongside figures, etc. This istrue, complete terminal emulation MacTerminal 4-, 4-,4-, text DEC VT 1 OCI terminal integration of text and graphics. It is generally possible to store Tekalike .4-, text ,DEC VT.100) & graph. page formats as templates, thus creating standard document 4- --4.-111' t Tek 4010'14) terminal Versaterm 4-4.4_ .4_0..4_,__4._f.text MEC VT -100. DG 0200) & types. graphics iTek 4010/14) Heroinel word orccessing MacWrite 4-14-14-4- word processing Word 4-,4-1.4-4- word processing spreadsheet Mufhplan I 4-0. I Isoreadsheet I I I database Text Text OverVue 4-14-1,-,-1 deteoase & grata,. Helix 4-,4-,4-,4-11. database & graph. graph.,

Chan 1411-1110. I.4-11. 1 -0.1 -110.1 grata.. 1 I s r g i , c

MacDraw 4-,4-1,4- drafting Tables MecDratl 4-,4-14- drafting Tables _ I...MIN

MacPamt I layout I I 4- I 1 .4-- I 4-, I painting : 401: !amts 0: 0.. PageMaker .4- 4-4- page layout Ready.SelGo 4-- 4-4- page layout Objects Objects Sbreadst'set ' a, once Excel I 44. 1 -4.1 -0. Ispreadsheet. graohbs, react, I I I ^trictred c....C5

text terminal. spreadsheet. Jazz 4- 4-4-1, -1111.--database. graphics, word processing 2,,,2., Bitmap Bitmap Thinktank 512kI I I 4-, 1 41-1, I 4-0-I 4-1 'outline, including tab & graphic- I&Iistrh

Stareiew j 41-410. 1 .4-111.I statistic' I I -III. i -III. Isoreadsneergraonics

Barton: Using the Macintosh as an engineering workstation 61 Graphics Graphics programs make plots from tables of information. Text Text Painting Paint programs create bit -maps and can accept text, objects, or bit -maps from the clipboard (which they then turn into bit - maps). They are extraordinarily flexible in manipulating graphics Tables Tables information, but very limited in the amount of detail (72 dots per inch) that they can display.

database : co: :0:: :0:: Objects Objects

Text A:1

Bitmap Bitmap

Spreadsheets Spreadsheet programs allow you to manipulate tables of infor- mation, calculating parts from other parts. A surprising amount AN of technical computation can be programmed into spreadsheets. Bitmap

=

Text Drafting Drafting programs create objects and can accept text, objects, or bit -maps from the clipboard (which they then turn into objects). Tables ITables They are less flexible in manipulating graphics information, but limited only by hardware in the amount of detail (300 dots per inch on the LaserWriter) that they can display. To eliminate part of an object (you cannot erase part of an object in a drafting spreadsheet program), you cover the part with an appropriately -shaped white object with a white border. El Text

Text Text I...... t, Tables .b : !b: :0:: :0:: graphics :0:: Objects drafting Objects

Tables Objects III 1/A AM Bitmap Bitmap 0AN Bitmap

60 RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 Text, tables, objects and bit -maps Remote There are four primary types of information passed around and Computer manipulated within a Macintosh: 1. Text: letters, numbers, spaces, punctuation, carriage returns; may include attributes-bold, underline, italics, outline, shadow, superscript, subscript, font, size; attributes may be passed from one program to another or may not; text is painting graphics one-dimensional-first character, next character,. ..,last character. 2. Tables: two-dimensional (rows and columns) of text (usually numbers and labels). ,database 3. Objects: straight lines, circles and ellipses, rectangles, polygons, terminal emulation free -form lines, arcs, etc., with attributes including width and layout pattern for boundary, pattern for interior, and so on. Some programs may stretch, squash, distort, or rotate. An object is an entity, so part of it may not be altered or erased separately. 4. Bit -maps: patterns of dots (at 72 dots per inch in the Macintosh) spreadsheet to produce the appearance of objects. Some programs word processing (MacPaint, for instance) may manipulate individual dots. Fig. 1. The most commonly used paths among different types of application software. Clipboard, notepad, scrapbook There are three primary paths for passing information around within a Macintosh: 1. The clipboard: you cut or copy to and paste from the clipboard; it may contain text, tables, objects, or bit -maps; if they fit, the operating system keeps them in random access memory (RAM), otherwise it keeps them in a clipboard file on disk; each copy or cut replaces the previous contents of the Remote clipboard. Text 2. The notepad: available at any time, even from within a program; will accept up to eight pages of pasted or typed text; the operating system keeps the notepad contents in a disk file; also useful for jotting down notes. Text 3. The scrapbook: available at any time, even from within a Remote program; will accept pasted objects, bit -maps, and text; the Graphics operating system keeps its contents in a disk file. I Tables Software integration terminal emulation Figure 1 shows the most commonly used paths among different =Th. types of application software. Note that some programs include Remote multiple functions (LotusJazzincludes terminal emulation, Text :0:: word processing, spreadsheet, database, and graphing, for in- Objects stance), and others are generically equivalent to one or more of these functions(StatViewuses spreadsheet and graphics functions !i to provide statistical computations and graphs). The following diagrams each show an application in the 0Am middle, the types of inputs common on the left, and the types of outputs common on the right. Except for terminal emulation, the Bitmap inputs on the left can be pasted in from other programs, and the outputs on the right copied to other programs. emulators may allow text and tables to be sent to a remote computer, depending upon the emulator and the computer. Terminal emulation Terminal emulation allows the Macintosh to appear to be a text Databases and/or graphics terminal. Although this allows a Macintosh to Database programs allow you to store information, retrieving be used in place of a terminal, its real value lies in its ability to parts of it based on some selection criteria. The primary method capture information from other computers (and paste it to other of storage is the table, although some databases will even store programs) without entering it into the Mac by hand. Terminal pictures.

Barton: Using the Macintosh as an engineering workstation 59 D.P. Barton

Using the Macintosh as anengineering workstation

It may not be all things to all people, but atRCA Laboratories the Macintosh is an Apple with quite a shine.

Since November 1983, when the first Apple Lisas arrived at 1. A high -resolution (for microcomputers) 512X342 bit-mapped RCA Laboratories, Information Systems Planning andCom- screen; puter Services has had an ongoing evaluationof the window and 2. A graphic input device (the mouse); mouse technology for personalworkstations. After the intro- 3. Operating system commands to allow applications programs duction of the less expensive and more popular Macintosh,focus to communicate with both; shifted in its direction. For some time we have been recom- 4. A high -quality (300 dots per inch) black -and -whitegraphics mending the Macintosh as a low -end graphicsterminal. This laser printer (LaserWriter), available separately. paper describes the Macintosh,its hardware, software, some of its applications at RCA Laboratories, and additionalpossibilities for taking advantage of its capabilities. Software features The Macintosh software has a style unlike that ofconventional microcomputers. Hardware features It is not command -driven (it does not display a promptand The Macintosh has a number of hardware features not common wait for you to tell it what to do). among microcomputers in its price class: Itis not menu -driven, although it has menus (it does not display a list of choices and wait for you to tell it which you want Before automation, engineers and scientists it to do). Abstract: object at described their work graphically, stressing the use ofdiagrams, It works by direct manipulation. You may select an to move an arrow graphs and formulae (with these considered the "meat"of both any time by pointing at it (using the mouse did not technical reports and presentations). While they wouldinclude around the screen) and pressing the mouse button (if you used blackboards want to manipulate that object, point elsewhereand click the text (spoken or written) for guidance, they of and drawing boards far more than typewriters. Engineering button). Any time an object is selected, you may point at one several action categories at the top of the screen and pressthe workstations with high -resolution, bit -mappeddisplays, graphic software automated many mouse button to see a menu ofactions for the category. If you input devices and direct manipulation release the engineering tasks, but at a cost too high to provide every engi- keep the button pressed, point at an action, and the Macintosh, many button, it will take that action against the object selected. neer with one. When Apple introduced and engineers and scientists noticed the presence ofworkstation Since this type of operation is built into the machines, and ease Apple has provided guidelines for how the man-machine inter- attributes, as well as consistent, friendly user interfaces written of integration of programs, all this at prices comparablewith face should appear to the Macintosh user, applications of how for the Macintosh tend to be quite consistent, and as aresult graphics terminals. This article describes examples second Macintoshes require less time to learn. Common operations become engineers and scientists at RCA Laboratories use problem at hand in their work, as well as how they might usethem. nature, and the user can concentrate on the rather than the tool. In addition, Apple has provided standard formats for developers to use for data, making it easy for data to bepassed from one '01986 RCA Corporation. program to another. They have alsoprovided built-in facilities Final manuscript received February 3. 1986 for passing information around. Reprint RE -31-2-11

RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 58 Lightyear SUBJECT:PROCESSOR EVAL VERSION:7 JANUARY 1986

DETAIL EVALUATION: CRITERIA AND RULES SCORE WEIGHT

II AN/ZZZ-77 839 92011 II PROCESSOR BBB 737

SIZE 75 100 80

NUCL HARD. 100 100 100

SECURE OS 100 1001 100

WEIGHT 90 100 90

OS LEVEL 75 75 15

ADA SUPPORT 75 75 75

AVAIL DEV SUPT 75 75 I 75 S/W SUPPORT 75 751 75 MAX. KOPS 15 50 18 11 NUMBER OF PROC 50 50 50 LANGUAGE 50 50 50 11 OS LEVEL 50 5011 0 MEMORY CAP. 8 100 8

I/O CHANNELS 11 1 1011

SECURE OS Panned 11 Passed I II

II

Fig. 6.The major difference between Processor BBB and the AN/ZZZ-77 is the OSlevel (criteria and rule). Processor BBB is ranked over 100 points lower basedon this single factor.

Help is at hand

Whether you need a few facts or a literature search, or you want to know how other engineers hayed solved the same problems you face, your RCA Libraries are ready to help. Ready access to statistical data or research 0 articles is available online at many of RCA's 0 libraries. Online literature searching of hundreds of databases and access to the collections of RCA, public, and academic libraries expand IiIlllllll irri-Trn your information gathering possibilities. rr rr Check with the librarian or information specialist at your location for assistance. Ifyou don't have a library, contact Technical Information Systems, Tacnet: 226-2410, for assistance and information.

Kjellquist: Lightyear-an engineering analysis tool 57 SUBJECT:PROCESSOR EVAL Lightyear VERSION:7 JANUARY 1986 shines. Figure1 shows the summary output of an evaluation, but consider DETAIL EVALUATION: CRITERIA AND RULES SCORE WEIGHT now that a detailed evaluation of Proc- 11 PROCESSOR BBB 7371 9201ill essor BBB is wanted. In a single key stroke a detailed evaluation is displayed - - SIZE 80 100 (Fig. 5). In this figure the horizontal 100 100 bars represent the maximum score for NUCL HARD. any criterion. The darkened portion SECURE OS 100 100 shows the score for this particular candi- WEIGHT __--- 90 100 date. A second question is often asked OS LEVEL 15 75 as to why a particular alternative was 75 75 ranked higher than another. Lightyear ADA SUPPORT addresses this question by "locking" an AVAIL DEV SUPT 75 75 alternative and selecting a second for a S/W SUPPORT 75 75 detailed analysis. Any pair of alterna- tives can be analyzed in this way (Fig. 6). MAX. MOPS 18 50 But what if the score for a particular 50 50 NUMBER OF PROC criterion was changed to a new value- LANGUAGE 50 50 would that have changed that results? OS LEVEL 0 50 With a few simple key strokes any cri- 8 10 terion for any alternative can be MEMORY CAP. changed and the resulting ranking can 1 10 I/O CHANNELS 1 be recalculated. SECURE OS ,PammedI INULLHARD Passed ------r------1-- Jr--- -I Summary The Lightyear decision support pro- r 1 r gram provides a key analysis tool that Fig. 5. The detailed evaluation of any alternative can be displayed with a single keystroke. belongs on the software shelf of any Processor BBB scored 737 out of a possible 920 points. engineering PC workstation. It provides a more timely and consistent approach to tradeoff analyses that are either not done or involve tedious pencil and paper D.T. Kjellquist is Manager, Command Support efforts. Though the example discussed Systems at Communication and Information addresses an engineering application, Systems Division. Mr. Kjellquist joined RCA in 1983, and has been technical director on Lightyear has proven value in many several proposal and study efforts. Most business situations. recently, he has been program manager on the Electronic Warfare Coordination Module (EWCM) program. Mr. Kjellquist has been References involved in PC applications for several years, and is currently supporting a pilot project for I. Bulkeley, D., "The Deciding Factor," PC Prod- office automation in CISD. He is a graduate of ucts (December 1985). the University of Connecticut with BSEE and 2. Hogan, T, "Are the Biggest Sellers the Best?" Busi- MSEE degrees. ness Software(July 1985). PC Mag- Contact him at: 3. Taylor, J., "Lightyear's Ahead of Paper," Communication and Information azine (April 16, 1985). Systems Division Camden, N.J. Tacnet: 222-6359

RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 56 Lightyear SUBJECT:PROCESSOR EVAL Lightyear hardware VERSION:7 JANUARY 1986 requirements: CRITERIA: OS LEVEL SECURE OS

Al 192k of random access memory B3 B2 MS/DOS2.00 or higher BI C2 At least one double -sided floppy CI disk drive NONE A printer is desirable

ALTERNATIVE WORD ALTERNATIVE WORD is expressed in values from Al to Cl AN/XXX-99 NONE AN/YYY-88 NONE

The verbal criteria are used for includ- PROCESSOR AAA 83 PROCESSOR BBB I C2 ing this factor in the model. Lightyear PROCESSOR CCC Al PROCESSOR DDD NONE comes preconfigured with several verbal AN/ZZZ-77 Al PROCESSOR EEE I Al criteria categories such as quality, yes/ no, frequency, and risk. Each of these PROCESSOR FFF NONE PROCESSOR GGG i NONE can be used to describe a particular cri- PROCESSOR HHH B3 PROCESSOR III NONE terion. In addition, a vocabulary may be easily customized for such factorsas security. In any of these cases the weights assigned to each verbal criterion Fig. 3. The operating system security level is a custom verbal criterionbased on DoD are under control of the user and may be security standards. The most desirable value (Al) is indicated withan asterisk in the upper rapidly tailored. right corner. Once the weights are assigned, how- ever, the user of the model is unaware of Lightyeer SUBJECT:PROCESSOR EVAL their values. Only the appropriate VERSION:7 JANUARY 1986 vocabulary selections are shown during RULE NAME RULE an evaluation session. Figure 3 illus- SECURE OS SECURE OS MUST BE EQUAL TO Yes (ELIMINATION RULE) trates the verbal criteria. II The third type of criterion uses a NUCL HARD NUCL HARD. MUST BE EQUAL TO Yes graphical representation in Lightyear (ELIMINATION RULE) and provides an effective method to LANGUAGE ADA SUPPORT SHOULD BE EQUAL TO Yea II (WEIGHT 50) deal with subject criteria that cannot II OS LEVEL OS LEVEL SHOULD BE GREATER THAN BI easily be expressed in words or with II numerical values. Often an evaluator (WEIGHT 50) II S/W SUPPORT IF ADA SUPPORT EQUAL TO Yee can determine that one alternative is THEN AVAIL DEV SUPT SHOULD BE EQUAL TO Yee better than another, but has difficulty in (WEIGHT . 75) translating these feelings into concrete values. For graphical criteria Lightyear presents a bar with an "X" located on the line. The evaluator simply has to move the X along the line from most Fig. 4. Design considerations concerning the valueor relationship of design criteria may be desirable to least. Lightyear automati- expressed as rules and evaluated in a Lightyear model. cally computes the relative position of the X, translates the position to a score, eration. A weighted rule is one that has a construction of these rules. The user is and computes a weighted result. The numerical score or weight associated not required to remember any of the example analysis did not use any graph- with it.If an alternative meets a syntax for the rules. All the possibilities ical criteria. weighted rule requirement, additional are displayed as menu options during The ability to create and evaluate points are added to its respective score. each stage of the rule building process, rules in a weighted -criteria model is the In addition, these two types of rules may and the user simply makes selections. final step in the model creation, andone be either simple or compound (if -then). Once the alternatives, criteria, and of the most powerful and useful capa- A simple rule (elimination or weighted) rules have been entered into the Light- bilities of Lightyear. In general, a rule is addresses the requirement for a single year program the model is ready for a statement of the relationship of the criterion. A compound rule addresses a evaluation. Models can be evaluated in values of one or two criteria in a model. requirement for a criterion "if" a sec- three ways; criteria only, rules only, or There are two types of rules that may be ond criterion meets a specific condition. criteria and rules. The first two provide written for a Lightyear model; elimina- Examples of each of these types of a method for evaluating portions of the tion or weighted. The elimination rules rules are shown in Fig. 4. Of particular total model. The last (criteria and rules) are those rules that represent pass/fail note in the use of Lightyear is the sim- is the final goal. It is in this final stage of criteria for an alternative under consid- plicity built into the program for the model evaluation that Lightyear really

Kjellquist: Lightyear-an engineering analysis tool 55 Table I. Evaluation criteria are listed with their modes (numerical, verbal) and their assigned constructed, accurate model. In addi- weights (0-100). tion to simply deciding which criteria to SUBJECT:PROCESSOR EVAL use, their relative importance (weight) Lightyear VERSION:7 JANUARY 1986 must be estimated and their type CRITERIA MODEWEIGHT CRITERIA MODE WEIGHT (numerical, verbal, etc.) must be speci-

50 MEMORYCAP. N i 10 MAX. KOPS li fied.

II 10 SIZE N 100 The processor evaluation used 11 I/O CHANNELS il numerical, verbal, and graphical criteria NUCL HARD. V 100 SECUREOS V 100 ;1 II as a basis. They are listed in Table I. OS LEVEL V 75 NUMBEROF PROC N 50 II The most common criterion for engi-

ADA SUPPORT V 75 WEIGHT V 100 ii neering evaluations is numerical data. !! Such factors as size, weight, processor 75 AVAIL DEV SUPT I V I II speed, memory speed, and available II growth are expressed in quantitative L terms.Lightyearaccepts numerical cri- teria by defining the most desirable value and least desirable value and lin- early scaling values in between. The SUBJECT:PROCESSOR EVAL most desirable value is given a maxi- VERSION:7 JANUARY 1986 Lightyear mum score (maximum weight assigned 0 to the criteria) and least desirable the VALUE RANGE CRITERIA: SIZE II 1 minimum (0). li MOST DESIRABLE: 0 Figure 2 shows the numerical criteria n LEAST DESIRABLE: 100 used for processor size in inches of rack ALTERNATIVE VALUE height for each alternative. ALTERNATIVE VALUE to use verbal AN/YYY-88 80 The ability ofLightyear AN/XXX-99 50 criteria is one of its most powerful fea- PROCESSOR BBB 20 PROCESSOR AAA 20 tures. One particularly useful aspect of 40 PROCESSOR CCC 50 PROCESSOR DDD the verbal criteria is the ability to create 80 nonlinear evaluation factors. For exam- AN/ZZZ-77 25 PROCESSOR EEE GGG 20 ple, consider the situation where such a PROCESSOR FFF 20 factor as equipment weight is being used 12 PROCESSOR HHH 25 III as a criterion. Normally this type of fac- tor would be expressed numerically, with values ranging from heaviest to

li lightest in linear progression. However,

II I there are cases when this approach dis- Fig. 2. Size is a numerical criterion expressed in vertical inches of rack space, from 0 to 100. torts the appropriate model. This kind of case can occur if only the extremes of weight are important. In our example, Ada programming support was desir- hand, systems engineering turned to computer weights between 100 and 200 able, and light weight and small size Lightyearfor assistance in organizing lb are considered equally acceptable. were important because this was an air- the analysis and selection of the best Weights above 200 lb are increasingly borne application. As with most com- candidate. undesirable. Weights below 100 lb are puter applications, maximum through- Creating a model starts with defining nice but should not control the model. put and memory capacity were an the alternatives to be analyzed. For our With a verbal criterion this condition advantage. Finally, the equipment had example of processor evaluation, a large can be handled quite easily, as shown to operate in a military airborne envi- number of computer manufacturers below: ronment, with consideration given to were solicited for prospective hardware. nuclear effects. In addition to determin- The field was initially narrowed to Verbal criteria Weight ing requirements, engineering collected approximately12models.These Under 100 lb 100 data on potential equipment candidates. remaining alternatives were entered into 100 to 200 lb 90 The candidates included a large variety theLightyearprogram by selecting 200 to 350 lb 50 of computers ranging from multiple alternatives from the main menu and 350 to 500 lb 20 parallel microprocessors to large mini- listing the name of each model in turn. Over 500 lb 0 computers. Computers in government The names may be up to 15 characters in The more common use of a verbal crite- inventory as well as those commercially length. The next step in using the rion is for the scoring of design factors available were included. Even with Lightyearprogram is the selection of the that can not readily be expressed in some culling of the potential candidates, criteria to be used. This portion of the terms of numerical quantities. Com- more than a dozen remained for analy- model construction is the most time- mon examples of this are quality, effec- sis. consuming; not because of the Light- tiveness, and other factors involving a With these basic requirements (and year program but because ofthe specialized vocabulary. In our example others) and the list of candidates in thought that must go into a well - the security level of the operating system

RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 54 D.T. Kjellquist

Lightyear an engineering analysis tool

Lightyear is a tool for the most common type of systems engineering analysis-the weighted -criteria alternative -selection analysis.

Allsystems engineering involves the key output froma Lightyearanalysis of primary importance to the customer analysis of design alternatives and selec- several candidate computers. was the selection of comprehensive tion of the optimum design solution. analyses and clear and complete sup- Examples of such analyses include the porting rationale. A team of approxi- selection of computers, peripheral An example mately ten engineers performed the equipment, and software. The listis A recent contract will illustrate theanalyses. An example of the type of endless. In a large system, the number power and usefulness ofLightyear.The tradeoff performed during the contract of analyses and alternatives requiring contract required that the RCA Com- was the selection of the primary com- evaluation may number in the hun- munication and Information Systems puter used for controlling the system. dreds. A PC workstation provides an Division (CISD) study design alterna- From the guidance provided by the cus- excellent basis for supporting the myr- tives for an advanced airborne com- tomer and standard military specifica- iad system tradeoffs, when coupled with munications system. Little guidance was tions, basic requirements were deter- appropriate software. provided by the customer except for mined. For example, the system had to Lightyear,a product of Thoughtware overall requirements for the system. Of support a B1 computer security level, Inc., is a software package that provides an effective tool to aid engineers in anal- Lightyear SUBJECT:PROCESSOREVAL ysis of design alternatives. With a VERSION:7 JANUARY1986 superbly engineered man -machine inter- RANK SUMMARY EVALUATION: CRITERIAAND RULES SCORE, 1 AN/222-77 839 1 face and a singular focus on a weighted- II criteria analysis,Lightyear isa unique 2 PROCESSORAAA 83811

;1 engineering tool. It is clear thatLight- 3 PROCESSORHHH 7431 yearwas developed with a rare insight II 4 PROCESSORBBB into user needs. Figure 1 illustrates the II !! 5 PROCESSORCCC 610!

6 PROCESSORIII 587 Abstract: One of the newest uses for II 7 PROCESSOREEE the PCisin the area of decision 4611 support.Lightyearis a program based 8 AN/XXX-99 3891 on the weighted -criteria method for 9 PROCESSORDDD 3761 ranking decision alternatives. The it 10 PROCESSORGGG program has wide engineering 3741 11 PROCESSORFFF application for tradeoff analyses. Its 370 1 12 AN/YYY-88 advantages include ease of operation 1919 and the ability to use non -numeric evaluation criteria. r--- ii Lightyear is a trademark of LIGHTYEAR, Inc.

POSSIBLE . 920 n1986RCA Corporation. Final manuscript received January 21, 1986 Fig. 1. Even alternatives that fail elimination rules (lighter bars) are ranked in thesummary Reprint RE -31-2-10 evaluation output.

RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 53 Box (a 10 -Mb cartridge data storage sys- F.F. Lazarus joined RCA in 1955. Since Wiliam T. Kelley is an Administrator, then, he has participated in many RCA Engineering Project Management at CISD. tem), a 360 kb floppy disk drive, and a operations. Currently, as a staff engineer, He joined RCA in 1950. He has held a modem. The software is PMT, dBASE he is designing computer applications to variety of manufacturing, engineering, III, and Relay communications soft- enhance the productivity of CISD Product program management, business analysis, ware (published by VM Personal Com- Engineering. He holds a BSEE from CUNY and administrative positions. He is and a MSEE from FIT. His technical currently focusing on improving project puting). The processing sequence interests are in the field of computer planning. (shown in Fig. 1) is: application engineering. Contact him at: Contact him at: Communication and Information Systems 1. Create an ASCII export file for each Communication and Information Systems Division related PMW project file (PMW Division Camden, N.J. operation). Camden, N.J. Tacnet: 222-2421 2. Process PMW export file(s) with Tacnet: 222-2079 customized dBASE III program. This creates a data file of informa- tion required to set up a PAC IIIpro- ject (dBASE III operation). 3. Generate local reports using the combined capability of PMW and make or break any new systems A combination of seminars by an out- dBASE III for audit prior to upload approach to project planning and man- side consultant, in-house hands-on to the mainframe (dBASE III opera- agement. An assessment of the general training with PC software, and lecture tion). level of expertise of the planned user sessions and workshops aimed at the 4. Transfer processed dBASE III/ community in both basic project man- mainframe system were used. The PMW file(s) to a mainframe file agement theory and computer literacy is courses were open to all technical man- agers. Easy access to terminals and PCs (Relay/modem operation). essential before setting up such pro- grams. The more experienced members is another key factor in the acceptance 5. Run PAC III (IBM mainframe oper- of automated project management. ation using either a terminal or a PC of a user group may have a good practi- cal grasp of project management tech- The era of automated project man- as a terminal). niques but only minimal acquaintance agement is here. Those individuals who The input requirements of PAC III with computer -assisted planning. Entry- are equipped to use automated systems include resource (primarily people rates) level technical personnel, on the other as part of their management techniques and actual cost data. Both types of data hand, will characteristically be strong in will have a competitive edge. The key is reside in routine CISD operating sys- the computer area and have little back- attitude and adaptability-the manager tems. These sources are tapped to pro- ground in project management. This who is waiting for the perfect system will vide continually -updated data to PAC diversity makes a user training program still be waiting years from now. Those III on a periodic (monthly) basis. an essential part of an automated pro- resourceful individuals who can take ject management implementation plan. advantage of the best elements of a com- A major training investment was bination of systems to attain a marriage In general made by CISD to bring all technical of strengths will make significant contri- Considerations of the man/machine managers up to a level of understanding butions to successful project manage- interface are probably the single most that is essential for successful introduc- ment at RCA. important parts of a system. They can tion of automated project management.

RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 52 quickly evaluated. PMW has becomean accepted standard for planning and controlling engineering projects within Translate CISD. Project Plan Modules Internal PMW Data Process Files into Created with Files to Fixed Length PAC III Format using dBase III Database The ABT attitude toward customer PMW and IBM PC ASCII Records using relations and philosophy of keeping PMW Export Routine Management Software their programs abreast of PC technol- ogy has strengthened user confidence in their product. They have also beenvery Prepare Audit receptive to requests for PMW feature using PMW and dBase III enhancement and minor operational modifications. ABT's future plans for expanding the utility of PMW track well with RCA needs Process Files with Transfer Formatted forcontinually Project improving resource and project man- PAC III Project Files to Main Frame Performance Management System using Relay agement efficiency. on the Main Frame Communications Software Reports Following a survey of mainframe sys- tems, PAC III by AGS Management Systems, Inc. was chosen for evaluation of a mainframe project management software program for overall project Fig. 1. Relationship between the PC and mainframe systems. and resource integration. It is a typical, versatile mainframe program that is capable of processing and analyzing a system data input requirements is essen- description field, and if present, sub- large database, and it generates both tial. A few examples of differences that stitute an asterisk. tabular and graphic management had to be resolved to accomplish the 4. Work days: PMW allows three digits reports. This includes calculation and PMW to PAC III transfer were: for work days. PAC III allows two presentation of financial data and the 1. Task ID: PMW uses a five -digit digits for either work days or work capability of "earned value" reporting. numerical scheme assigned inter- weeks. CISD's experimentation has been lim- nally by the program, outside ofuser Solution: Code dBASE III to trans- ited to two specific program manage- control. PAC III uses a four- late any work day durations of more ment software packages. However, the character alphanumeric ID, user than 99 to work weeks. general scheme of uploading data from entered. 5. Task description: PMW allows 60 a PC system could be adapted to many Solution: Translate the PMW five characters as a task description. PAC combinations of PC and mainframe numeric digits to three alphanumeric III has a maximum of 22 characters. software. The prime requirement is that characters,usingatranslation Solution: Edit PMW files to abbrevi- the PC system have the capability of algorithm. The fourth PAC III char- creating "export" files. Then a com- ate task descriptions. Code dBASE acter position was reserved for the III transfer program to truncate any mercially available, programmable assignment of an alphanumeric pre- database system such as dBASE III description longer than 22 charac- fix, unique to each file transferred. ters. (published by Ashton-Tate) can be used This avoids the danger of duplicate 6. Task/phase hierarchy: PMW has to translate the data to a form compati- task IDs. a ble with the mainframe project manage- four -tiered hierarchy-project/ ment program requirements. 2. Logic network connections: PMW phase/activity/task. PAC III uses A translation program has been writ- allows greater than 60 dependencies. three tiers-project/phase/activity. PAC III has a limit of 10 dependen- ten that facilitates electronic transfer of Solution: Edit PMW files to transfer data from PMW to PAC III. This is a cies per input record, and an abso- meaningful phase information to the major breakthrough that will allow lute limit of 14 per task. activity level. Code dBASE III trans- exploitation of the strongest elements of Solution: Edit PMW files by putting fer program to eliminate phase data. both systems in preparing integrated in dummy tasks as collection points project plans. Figure 1 shows the rela- for every multiple of 10 dependen- tionship between the PC and mainframe cies. Put error trapping code in the System operation dBASE III translation program to systems. The system for transfer of project plan- Establishing the degree of compati- stop processing if the limit of 10 dependencies is violated. ning data from PMW to PAC III is a bility between the PC and mainframe is multiphase process. An IBM PC is used key to preparing an interface program. 3. Privileged characters: PAC III uses with well -established, commercially- the left parenthesis at at the begin- available software. Use of available PC ning of a task description to indicate System differences database management and communica- that the record is a dependency tions programs as building blocks mini- Detailed analysis of the specific form record. mizes the custom programming task. and content of the PC export file and Solution: Code dBASE III to test for The PC is configured with 640 kb of absolute knowledge of the mainframe a leading left parenthesis in the task memory, an IOmega Corp. Bernoulli

Lazarus/Kelley: Automated project management with PCs and a mainframe 51 F.F. LazarusW.T. Kelley

Automated project management with PCs and a mainframe

PCs can't do the job alone, and mainframes can be unfriendly. Put the two together with the right software, and project management stops being the chore it once was.

RCA's Communication and Informa- ity, and large-scale multiproject integra- and a mainframe system for data inte- tion Systems Division (CISD) designs tion were prime requirements. The facil- gration appeared to be the right answer. and builds communications and infor- ity to allow for personal and private An implementation team was estab- mation processing systems for myriad analysis during the conceptual phases of lished to design and install such a hybrid government agencies. Typically, hun- planning a project was also high on the system. PC software was used for initial dreds of contracts, ranging in value priority list of desired features. The planning and optimization of project from $100,000 to over $100,000,000, often overlooked importance of the modules, a PC database system was are in process concurrently. The desire man/machine interface was given used to customize and upload data, and for improved scheduling and resource major consideration in the rating the mainframe system was used for final management focused attention on the scheme devised for evaluation of project processing and reporting. The resulting need for state-of-the-art automated pro- management systems. combination of resources embodies the ject management systems. Review of the capabilities of both per- strength of both PC and mainframe sys- A system specification was written sonal computer -(PC) -based and large tems while avoiding the weaknesses that for an automated planning system that mainframe project management soft- lead to non -acceptance by the user com- would improve the management effi- ware systems showed that, when used munity. ciency while meeting the stringent alone,neitherthe PC northe After a literature search for suitable reporting and control requirements of mainframe -type system could meet the PC systems, several copies of Program RCA/CISD customers. Among other total requirements for operation within ManagerWorkbench (PMW) by requirements, the ease of data entry, a large and diverse business and cultural Applied Business Technology Corpora- interactive on -screen planning capabil- environment. tion (ABT) were purchased for evalua- The better PC packages offer excel- tion. The ease of use, innovative screen lent screen interactive facilities, with graphics, and the live interaction fea- Abstract:CISD wrote a system varying degrees of reporting and analy- tures of the program made it a good specification for an automated sis capability. However, PC systems are candidate for consideration. In particu- planning system that would improve limited when it comes to handling inte- lar, the speed of the in -memory proces- the management efficiency while gration of resource data and subsequent sing keeps pace with the user's thought meeting the stringent reporting and rescheduling of 100,000 -plus tasks process without the delays characteristic control requirements of customers. across multiple projects. Repeated of "batch" -oriented systems. Among other requirements, the ease of attempts to stretch PC -based systems to During the first year of availability, data entry, interactive on -screen plan multiple large projects were only many first -level engineering managers planning capability, and large-scale partially successful. have adopted PMW as a prime manage- multiproject integration were prime Mainframe planning systems are well ment tool. The use of PMW has spread requirements. This article discusses the suited to "crunching" masses of data through the engineering organization system tested at CISD. It uses PCs as and providing good multiproject analy- due to user enthusiasm as opposed to frontend devices and a mainframe for sis. However, the data input require- management edict. During a PMW ses- data "crunching." The software is also ments are characteristically "unfriend- sion, the manager is in intimate and discussed. ly" to the point of hostility to the casual dynamic contact with his project. The computer user. drudgery of using paper, pencil, and ©1986 RCA Corporation. The concept of using a PC system as a Final manuscript received December 12, 1985 eraser is truly eliminated, and the Reprint RE -31-2-9 frontend planning and data entry device impact of alternate scenarios can be

50 RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 expertise yielding the foundation of the Digicube. OIGICUBE GRAPHICAL PROGRAMMING ENVIRONMENT

Cursorposition:It" 1023, Y= 0 References INDOW MONITOR LIVE FREEZE LEVEL ADJ 1. Oppenheim, Alan V. and Schafer, Ronald W., Dig-

ital Signal Processing, Prentice -Hall Inc., Englewood INPUT 1111 lllllll 1111 1 FIELD I I 1 1 VIDEO Cliffs, New Jersey, 1975. .1101111 2. Strolle, C.H., Smith, T.R., Reitmeier, G.A., 16 . 1 2 FIELDS 2 FIELDS CHROMA Borchardt, R.P., "Digital Video Pror"sing Facility with Motion Sequence Capability," International 64 : 1 SPLIT 4 F IFI tr- 4 FIELDS I Hi Conference on Consumer Electronics, Digest of HUE Technical Papers, pp. 178-179, June 1985.

3. Grogono, Peter, Programming in PASCAL (Revised DATA TRANSFER COMMANDS Edition), Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading, Massachusetts, 1980. 4. Apollo Computer General Purpose Input/Output WRITE '1111111111111 READ (GPIO) User's Guide, Apollo Computer Inc., 1983. NTSC_2 5. Archer, David E. and McLean, Richard H., "Digital NTSC_3 Time -Base Correction for Video Signal Processing," NTSC_1 SMPTE Digital Video, March 1984, pp. 69-73. RED _1 r r GRE_1 FILE 6. Lowry, John D. and Kupnicki, Richard, "Digital PATTERN BLU_1 Processing in the DPS-1," SMPTE Digital Video, March 1979, pp. 43-63. 7. Grob, Bernard Basic Television Principles and Fig. 6. Illustration of the graphical control environment for the Digicube. Servicing, McGraw Hill Book Company, New York, New York, 1975. Kirk A. Lawgraduated from Purdue 8. "The Logic Simulator," IDEA System User's Man- University,earning a BS in Electrical ual, Mentor Graphics Corporation, 1984. Engineering in 1981 and an MS in 9. Pritchard, D.H., "A CCD Comb Filter for Color Electrical Engineering in 1983. Receiver Picture Enhancement," RCA Review, 41, During the summer of 1981, at RCA No. 1, p. 3, March 1980. Consumer Electronics Division, Mr. Law 10. Law, K.A. and Bernard, F.S., "An Engineering worked on redesigning preamplifier Workstation and Video Frame -Storage Peripheral circuitry for infrared remote control for Simulating Digital TV Signal Processing," RCA receiving. After receiving his MS degree, Review, Vol. 47, No. 1, March 1986. he joined RCA's rotation program, which involved an assignment at Advanced Technology Laboratories. There he worked on the definition of processing throughput benchmarking criteria for a Multibus is a registered trademark of INTEL DSP parallel processing simulation Corporation. program. He was then assigned to the DOMAIN is a trademark of Apollo Computer Inc. Digital Signal Processing Research group at RCA Laboratories, where he helped to AEGIS is a trademark of Apollo Computer Inc. develop simulation models for digital TV. UNIX is a trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories. In 1983, Mr. Law joined this group as an Ethernet is a trademark of Digital Equipment Associate Member of the Technical Staff. Law (seated) and Bernard. Corporation. He was promoted to Member, Technical VAX is a trademark of Digital Equipment Staff, in 1984. He has been working on the Corporation. development of digital TV features by from the Georgia Institute of Technology in VT100 is a trademark of DigitalEquipment using software simulation techniques. Mr. 1984. Corporation. Law has five joint patents pending and is a Mr. Bernard joined RCA Laboratories in member of IEEE and Eta Kappa Nu. 1984 as an Associate Member of the Digilink is a product of Fortel Corporation. Contact him at: Technical Staff in the Digital Signal RCA Laboratories Processing Research group. Prior to Princeton, N.J. joining the Laboratories, Mr. Bernard also Tacnet: 226-2475 worked on the initial details of interfacing the Fortel Digicube system to the MENTOR engineering workstation. Mr. Bernard holds one U.S. patent, and is a Francis S. Bernard earned a BS degree in member of IEEE and Audio Engineering Electrical Engineering from Rutgers Society. University in 1982. He was then awarded Contact him at: an RCA Graduate Engineering for RCA Laboratories Minorities (GEM) fellowship and earned Princeton, N.J. an MS degree in Electrical Engineering Tacnet: 226-2304

Law/Bernard: Simulation of digital TV signal process vith an engineering workstation 49 A brief description of a digital television receiver The block diagram for a typical TV system is shown in the ANTENNA accompanying figure. The dashed line represents the block RF TUNING for which the main article is CIRCUITRY concerned. This block diagram would be - representative of an analog or PICTURE RED LUMINANCE AND digital TV. In the case of DTV, the IF CHROMINANCE AMPLIFIER location of the analog -to -digital SEPARATION TO GREEN PICTURE AND VIDEO RED, GREEN, AND TUBE (A/D) converter might be at the DETECTOR BLUE PRIMARY IBLUE output of the picture IF amplifier. COLORS The input to the TV scanning synchronization circuits could be analog or digital. The digital -to - analog (D/A) conversion is COMPOSITE TV SCANNING assumed to be located at the VIDEO iSYNCHRONIZING SIGNAL output of the luminance (luma) CIRCUITS DEFLECTION SIGNALS and chrominance (chroma) separation circuit. Therefore, there will be a D/A for each Block diagram of a typical TV system. output R, G, and B. For the purpose of this article it is assumed that the sampling synchronizing circuitry. that of the active video scene frequency of the A/D converter is Therefore, input video to the only. This consists of the part of 14.32 MHz, or four times the Digicube is analyzed and the video line after the sync and 3.58 -MHz color subcarrier, and stripped of its horizontal burst and between the the sample phasing of the A/D synchronizing (sync) signal and occurrences of the vertical converter is such that the its color burst reference signal of synchronization (vertical sync) quadrature components I and Q 3.58 MHz so that new generated periods. The simulation program of the chroma signal are horizontal sync and color burst can take this into account. extracted from the composite signals can be put in their In a DTV, the actual separation video signal (CVS). places. These new signals of the luma and chroma signals The Fortel Digicube performs generated by the Digicube will be can be performed using various the A/D conversion, initial free from the nonstandard processing schemes. The storage of video, and D/A deviations in horizontal line literatures discusses the visual conversion operations. The frequency experienced in such improvements noted through the Multibus interface between the signals as video output from a use of line -comb filtering, which Digicube and an EWS or DSP video tape recorder (VTR). is filtering of the CVS in the unit allows for data transfer into Because of this stripping of the vertical resolution direction, over and out of the Apollo DOMAIN horizontal sync and burst, the the standard practice of System. The Digicube employs video data we can access from luminance and chrominance the use of video frame the memory of the Digicube is separation. with the Digicube using various user- which allows the user to view the input their guidance in the development of the friendly features. These communication video according to the chosen time base video functional modeling system. Special programs have included control through corrector/frame synchronizer mode; thanks are given to Stanley Knight, Jon menus consisting of textual prompting and "FREEZE," the number of fields to dig- Clemens, David Holmes, Jack Fuhrer, even high -resolution graphics symbols that itize; "LEVEL?ADJ," which allows various Thomas Bolger, Robert Dawson, and Larry represent command choices. These graphics level adjustments for the incoming video Kratzer for their continued support and symbols can be selected via a graphic to the Digicube; and "DATA TRANSFER enthusiasm. Others lending their time, cursor (using a mouse, for instance). Figure COMMANDS," the data transfer choices efforts, and expertise include Herbert 6 is an EWS screen hardcopy illustrating between the EWS and the Digicube. Taylor, John Lee, and Eric Batterman. the Digicube's graphical programming Also, we would like to thank Danny Chin environment. Shown are the symbols for for providing the basis for the graphical Acknowledgments the various function choices: "WINDOW," programming environment. the digitizing window size; "MONITOR," We would like to acknowledge those who Appreciation is extended to Fortel Cor- the viewing choice at the monitor; "LIVE," have given us their support and given poration for providing their engineering

RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 48 Mentor Quicksim

Mentor Quicksim allows the changing input states. This understands. Examples of some verification of the functionality of application program is not, Mentor primitives include: designs produced by the other however, a worst -case timing Simple logic gates: INVERTOR, Mentor applications programs analyzer. This is performed by AND, OR, NOT -OR, that yield schematic capture of another Mentor Graphics EXCLUSIVE -OR, and circuits as well as symbol applications program called EXCLUSIVE -NOT -OR gates; creation for these circuits. The TVER, or timing verifier. The Memory devices: RAM, ROM, creation of symbols for these applications program Quicksim, and PLA; circuits allows for the inclusion is driven by events that are made Registers and latches. of previous designs in other up of transitions or changes in When Quicksim attempts to circuit schematics. Quicksim is a logic state on a net that occur evaluate the inputs to an element nine -state, event -driven through time. At the invocation of in a circuit schematic so as to simulator designed specifically the Quicksim program, no values determine if an output is to be for MOS, TTL, and ECL logic. exist on any of the circuit's nets. generated, it references a There are several features of the As the circuit is simulated, events property of the element known as Mentor Quicksim that tend to are scheduled and Quicksim MODEL. If the MODEL property maximize its performance. Three then propagates the state of this element corresponds to a of these are: (1) Quicksim's changes through all the nets Mentor -defined primitive, like one oscilloscope -type logic level connected to this circuit. Any of those listed above, it refers to tracing of network data line (net) changed inputs on what are its own built-in functional activity; (2) its interactive control termed "primitives" or behavior description when determining an allowing the user the choice of language models (BLMs) are output value from the input signals to monitor, list or trace evaluated to see if any changes stimuli. If Quicksim does not find how the circuit is to be are occurring at their outputs. If correspondence between the stimulated, and any probes or any outputs of the elements are MODEL property found and its breakpoints to be set; and (3) the changing, then more events are list of possible primitives, it looks possibility of saving the circuit's scheduled. at the underlying schematic input stimuli, history, and the The term primitive, used above, sheet or sheets of that element particular state of the simulation. refers to Mentor's use of until it finds a set of modeling Quicksim is a fairly efficient "modeling primitives" or built-in primitives by which it can simulator because it only simulation models whose func- determine the part's functional examines components with tional behavior Quicksim behavior.

In the functional modeling of a video 5, along with the partitioning of the incom- 262 instead of 262.5. This causes the video processing system, such as the DTV, it is ing reduced active video area fields within to be rewritten over the same spacial loca- desirable to observe the effects of motion the main NTSC memory block of the tions on the display monitor. The monitor's on the signal processing methods chosen. Digicube. vertical scanning height is then decreased The Digicube's windowing mode provides In the display of TV video image data, to half its standard height. This method a means to store long sequential sequences the conventional method is a 525 -video implies being able to simulate the display of video. In windowing mode the Digicube line2:1interlacing format.' Another of a noninterlaced format for only half of is able to store a portion of each field of method suggested for the display of TV the original image. Through software, for the incoming video in the NTSC main signal data uses a 525 -line non -interlace example, to generate a field -progressive memory block. This main memory block format. This reduces the visual artifact scan simulation, one would write a line of is capable of storing up to four full video known as line -flicker and raster line video data from field 1 followed by a line fields (each full video field being 768 pixels structure. of video data from field 2 into the output by 240 video lines). The window sizes The Digicube allows one to display in field to be displayed. Obviously, the output available allow the storage of up to 16 either the 525 -video line 2:1 interlace field becomes full at the point halfway fields (384 pixels by 120 video lines per format or to create the impression of a through fields 1 and 2. The resulting image field) or 64 fields (192 pixels by 60 video 525 -video line non -interlaced format. This is half the size of the original. Pertinent lines per field) of incoming video. For feature allows the subjective evaluation of information characteristic of the display example, a reduced picture area (window), both display formats. The latter display format chosen can be discerned without which contains 1/4 of the maximum num- format is achievable through the use of additional hardware. ber of video lines (height) and 1/4 of the various processing techniques such as line- In summary, the Digicube has become maximum number of video pixels (width) or field -progressive scanning. a very useful and versatile peripheral for of each field is stored rather than a full Non -interlaced displays can be achieved the investigation of video signal process- field of video. through the display of a single field of ing problems. Also, because of the periph- An illustration of the various window video data where the number of horizontal eral interface and graphics capabilities of sizes (1:1, 4:1, and 16:1) is given in Fig. line synchronization pulses is forced to be the EWS, we are able to communicate

Law/Bernard: Simulation of digital TV signal processing with an engineering workstation 47 FRONT PANEL

DIGITIZED VIDEO PIXEL CLK & SYNC SIGNAL

INPUT/OUTPUT AUX VIDEO IN INTERFACE/ BOARD ADDRESSES DATA IN GENLOCK IN) REAR PANEL AND CLOCKS BOARD (R/D & D/A) CONTROL MEMORY VIDEO OUT BOARD DIGILINK BOARD rDATA OUT

FROM DOMAIN -Ow NETWORK MULTIBUS MULTIBUS PARALLEL READ ,WRITE ADAPTER DATA INTERFACE ADAPTER TO BOARD SERIAL COMMUNICATION LINK DOMAIN NETWORK DIGILINK APOLLO CABINET DIGICUBE CABINET

Fig. 4.Digicube block diagram. of storing four video fields. The four blocks are denoted as NTSC, R, G, and B. They A. Illustration of the possible window sizes: are used as follows. When the Digicube is used as a viewing device for RGB data, NORMAL 4:1 16:1 the R, G, and B main memory blocks are 16 4 used. An incoming video sequence, which 3 isin an NTSC composite video signal

2 into the NTSC memory when requested. If the user has an NTSC CVS stored on the EWS and 2 desires to view the video data on the Digicube, he or she would transfer this video data into the NTSC main memory block. When the video data is read from the NTSC video memory block a color B. Illustration of the field sequence and partitioning for single channel's four field memory burst reference signal is added to the signal for the different window sizes: along with the horizontal sync signal, and

4 other associated chroma processing is per-

I4 formed before the data is displayed. Note 3 that the designation of the video memory 3 2 16 blocks as NTSC, R, G, and B is to signify 2 2 615 15 that the R, G, and B memory blocks do

5 not perform any insertion of color burst 14 reference or associated chroma processing, 9 13 but do insert the required horizontal sync timing signals. The Digicube samples the incoming CVS at the sample positions corresponding Fig. 5.Relationship of window size and memory storage partitioning. to the chroma quadrature positions of I and Q. This convention is assumed for and routes this information to the Digi- tains the A/D and the D/A converters the display of composite video placed in cube's control board for subsequent execu- along with circuitry that performs video the NTSC memory block also. Thus, if tion. The read/write adapter board permits signal conditioning. The front panel offers one loads the NTSC memory block with direct memory accessing of the Digicube's manual control of various functions and composite video, it will assume that the video storage memory to allow transfer of displays the Digicube's status. samples are located at the quadrature posi- data to and from the EWS. The Multibus The video data is stored in a memory tions of I and Q. If the data to be viewed adapter board is located in one of the composed of an array of 64k dynamic was sampled differently from this conven- EWS Multibus card cage slots. As shown RAMs (DRAMs). There are actually four tion, one will see a chroma hue error in in the figure, the input/output board con - blocks of main memory, each one capable the displayed video signal.

46 RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 per color. This yields over 16 million possible colors. EWS This latter feature is used by the authors GATEWAY and allows the viewing of decoded EWS composite video pictures (RGB) using

data digitized by the Fortel Digicube 0 EWS and subsequent processing by the func- tional modeling software emulating a digital TV. DOMAIN SYSTEM LOCAL AREA NETWORK DOMAIN SYSTEM 3. The DOMAIN network-The DO- LOCAL AREA NETWORK MAIN network is a high-speed, token- passing local -area network that gives each user a dedicated computational EWS node based on a 32 -bit computer archi- tecture. This network uses a 12 mega- EWS bit -per -second token passing ring imple- mented with coaxial cable. Apollo MAINFRAME claims that a network is maintainable even with nodes separated by as much as 1000 meters (over 1/2 mile). This GATEWAY token passing protocol insures that all EWS workstations and DOMAIN server pro- cessor units (basically workstations with no display hardware that can be used Fig. 3. Illustration of a possible DOMAINnetworking scheme. to run non -viewable processes to service peripherals) on the network have guar- MAIN server processor units contain Mul- anteed access to the network, and allows ning on an EWS can now access and tibus Interfacing hardware. Apollo gives manipulate this digitized NTSC video data. a large number of workstations to share the user the capability of defining the a single network without collision detec- For example, the results could be decoded tion schemes. peripheral interfacing environment through using a DTV simulation program, and the the use of general-purpose input/output resulting RGB components could be trans- By the end of 1986 there will be approxi- (GPIO) software.' ferred back into the RGB memories of mately 50 nodes (EWSs and DOMAIN Figure 3 is an illustration of two DO- the Digicube for viewing. The video stored server processing units) at RCA Labora- MAIN local -area networks, one with three in the RGB memories will then be read tories, and about 50 elsewhere in the cor- and the other with four engineering work- out at a rate of 14.32 MHz, converted to poration. The total amount of disk space stations. These two local -area networks an analog signal, and displayed in one of is expected to be around ten gigabytes. are linked by a communications gateway. the window size formats on a display Since the DOMAIN system appears to all The drawing also shows a gateway to a monitor. Because the Digicube is a frame users as a single file structure, and even mainframe. synchronizer/time base corrector (FS/ though the actual data may be physically It must be pointed out that one of the TBC),54 non-standard signals from a video- located on various system nodes, the disk advantages that we saw in using this par- tape recorder (VTR) or videodisk player resources are available to all users in the ticular workstation was that in addition to could be captured for analysis also. network. the offerings discussed above, it allows for The Digicube's windowing option allows Gateways allow access to other DO- straightforward interfacing of user -defined a reduced area of the active video field to MAIN local -area networks, to remote peripherals. In our case this was the Fortel be digitized and stored. This enables longer mainframes and superminicomputers, and Digicube digital frame store device. time sequences of video storage for the to public long -haul packet -switching (X.25) same amount of the Digicube's memory. networks. Communication with IBM sys- Video frame storage device Thus, one can digitize a video sequence of tems is supported by gateway software up to one second in duration. NTSC de- that emulates several RJE (Remote Job We chose the Fortel Digicube as our work- coding algorithms can use this feature to Entry) subsystems-IBM's HASP and the station video multiframe storage device. show (and allow the study of) motion standard 2780 and 3780 environments. This system is useful for subjectively testing artifacts due to temporal type processing An Ethernet gateway provides DOMAIN digital signal processing algorithms that such as frame combing and frame recursive system users shared access to Ethernet operate on NTSC video pictures. This filtering. transport facilities. The TCP/IP (Trans- frame store is built around a Fortel frame The Digicube allows freeze -field, freeze- mission Control Protocol/Internetworking synchronizer. It is capable of capturing up frame, hue, chroma, setup, and video levels Protocol) provides easy access to DEC to 64 fields of video, and the user can to be altered under remote control via the VAXs and other systems. choose from three digitizing window size Fortel Digilink serial communication link. All DOMAIN system workstations and formats. Once this video data has been This is shown in Fig. 4 in an illustration servers have RS -232C ports and provide captured the digitized video can be accessed of the main blocks of the Digicube. The for VT100 terminal emulation. In addition, by any node on the DOMAIN network Digilink interface interprets commands some models of the EWS and all DO- via the Multibus interface. Software run- from the EWS (via the Multibus interface)

Law/Bernard: Simulation of digital TV signal processing with an engineering workstation 45 A functional software simulation scheme for digital television The simulation of a digital signal variation testing. The (interactive simulator-see the processing (DSP) system can mathematical expression level of sidebar on Mentor Quicksim) take many forms. Mentor simulation can be done using applications program. software packages allow a higher -level programming BLMs can be used with other designer to simulate digital languages such as Pascal, elements whose functional circuits in such a way as to Fortran, or C. At this level, blocks description is defined by a set of extract the timing and logical of programming code that logical primitives. Because the correctness of the circuit design. correspond to blocks of logic BLM also operates in a timing - With a good understanding of the circuitry can be denoted and controlled environment, timing DSP algorithm being implemented optimized with special attention and logical verification of the in simulated hardware compo- given to such effects as finite system can be obtained using nents, a designer can relate the word length (FWL) processing. Quicksim. This BLM capability logical correctness to the Mentor allows functional becomes advantageous when particulars of the algorithm. For representations of logic-gate- algorithms require complex logic complex algorithms, however, interfaceable circuit elements circuitry to implement. One the implementation in logic using Pascal. These elements advantage is the reduction of the circuitry becomes so compli- are referred to as behavior time required for total system cated that extracting algorithm language models (BLMs). simulation. Another is the particulars becomes a burden- Through the use of BLMs a capability to provide designers some task at the logic gate level. designer can model various with a means of testing the Simulating the DSP algorithm functions in Pascal and have algorithmic equivalence of their while still at the mathematical these functions be executable in logical primitive -derived circuits expression level offers easier an event -controlled environment against a verified functional modification and parameter known as Mentor Quicksim6 description, the BLM.

processing terminology. In the mid -1960s tem architecture provides the user with more alternatives became available as com- a computer workstation (node) inte- r DISPLAY puter technology grew. These alternatives grated into a transparent local area MONITOR (NTSC & RGB) included time-sharing and dedicated mini- network. Each EWS features a 32 -bit computers. Some pitfalls of the two com- processor. There are two operating en- puting schemes were limited performance vironments: AEGIS and AUX (AUX NTSC VECTORSCOPE due to shared computing power, delays is Apollo's implementation of UNIX due to time-sharing, and lack of readily software). 000 000 000 000 WAVEFORM MONITOR available program, file, and peripheral The operating system of the Apollo sharing in minicomputers. VIDEO SIGNAL computer workstation used by the GENERATOR Apollo Computer (the computing hard- authors was AEGIS. Apollo makes the IF-100000 0 00 0' ware used by Mentor) developed the point that the software engineering OFF -THE -AIR TUNER DOMAINoperating system, which com- results and/or application packages of oorionoop00000l VIDEO SIGNAL SWITCHER bines the favorable aspects of the comput- one operating system are compatible ing schemes mentioned above. There are with the other. All Apollo system soft- three basic principles behind the DOMAIN ware runs under either operating system, U U system architecture: and in fact AEGIS and AUX could be 1. Mainframe -style dedicated computing, run concurrently in different processes. Fig. 2.Illustration of VFMS component which entails virtual memory, large 2. High -resolution graphics-TheDO- rack used by the authors. address space, and an assortment of MAINworkstations employ high -res- software. olution, bit -mapped, raster graphics features in actual televisions. The off -the -2. Tightly integrated high -resolution graph- technology. Resolution ranges from air tuner allows for the digitizing of live ics features. 1024 X800 (monochromatic or color) video signals, and the video signal switcher 3. A distributed system linked by a high- to 1024 X 1024 (color). The presence is used for routing the choice of input speed local -area network. This offers of a dedicated graphics processor allows video to the Digicube. users the responsiveness of a single - for the display of graphical information user system with the centralized file such as fast vector generation, area fills, access of a time-sharing system. and bit block transfers. On some Apollo The Mentor engineering workstations, one can purchase extra workstation These principles are illustrated by Apollo display memory that allows viewing of In the early 1960s, data processing meant in the following manner: pictures using red, green, and blue dealing with large mainframes in batch 1. Operating system-The DOMAIN sys- (RGB) data with eight bits of resolution

44 RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 on a monitor, or it can be routed to typical video analysis tools such as a wave- form monitor and/or vectorscope. DISPLAY One could use the high -resolution dis- MONITOR play capabilities of the EWS to view the L J processed video data. The EWS allows 8 - EQUIPMENT RACK bit -resolution red, green, and blue signal

components to be viewed on its high - [17 0 1 1 resolution monitor. Also, the digital data can be plotted in the form of a waveform VIDEO TRANSFER TO/FROM FORTEL analyzer curve. Because of the high -resolu- DIGICUBE 0 000 0 tion graphics available on the EWS, a INPUT E00000000 VIDEO user could generate other graphical repre- SIGNALS sentations of the video data (multidimen- sional plotting). COMPUTER DISPLAY

Via the EWS network gateways, an INPUT FROM FORTEL interface to other computer systems is APOLLO DIGICUBE NETWORK possible. One such system offering some MULTI - similar video signal processing modeling FRAME MENTOR - capabilities is the Digital Video Facility STORE GRAPHICS/ APOLLO U U (DVF)2 at RCA Laboratories. The ability ENGINEERING OUTPUT TO to transfer video data between the DVF WORKSTATION APOLLO and VFMS implies that one can process NETWORK or view the information that has been digitized on either system. Since both sys- tems have the ability to digitize a video

signal, the versatility of each is enhanced IEEE MULTIBUS INTERFACE by their interaction. The VFMS is different from the DVF Fig.1. Configuration of a video functional modeling system (VFMS). in the sense that the former offers a designer a dedicated desktop computer, while the cussed later, and will center around the and user -defined peripherals (such as Fortel latter is composed of a time-shared com- actual features of the Apollo Computer Digicube) through its Multibus Interface. puter system with a user's display room. EWS. The DVF does allow for processing of the The sidebar contains a brief discussion video data from remote terminals and in of Behavior Language Models (BLMs). Component options for a VFMS batch mode, but the viewing must be BLMs are a feature of the Mentor Graphics Here we will briefly describe the compo- done in the display room. The high -resolu- software logic simulator which gives anents that made up our video functional tion graphics features of the workstation user the ability to model complex logic modeling system (VFMS). Figure 1 shows are more flexible than those offered by circuitry through a descriptive algorithma basic VFMS, and Fig. 2 shows some the DVF. One advantage of the DVF is written in Pascal,. These BLMs can beadditional components in a rack configu- its video storage capacity. It can store a used in circuits containing other BLMs orration. These components were found to longer video time sequence than the VFMS. formal logic elements. An example of a be useful in the analysis of both the video Since data transfer between the two systems BLM's value becomes evident when one input and output signals used in functional exists, it is possible to digitize a long video desires to include intensive logic devicessimulations. The monitor is capable of time sequence on the DVF and transfer it such as microprocessors in the circuit de-displaying both NTSC composite as well to the VFMS for processing. The VFMS sign. If this logic element is not present in as RGB-format signals. For the purpose could be used to view parts of this digitized the library of components available to the of analyzing DTV results as if from an sequence or parts of the processed se- designer, he/she can model the functional actual TV, one might also want a monitor quence. For viewing the total sequence description of the device in a Pascal struc- with a picture tube characteristic of a the transfer of this data back to the DVF ture instead of in its logic gate equivalent. possible DTV product. The Fortel Digicube would be required. The basic simulation system to be dis- is capable of outputting data in NTSC The EWS that was used as the hub for cussed herein is illustrated in Fig. 1. In it composite or in the RGB format. the development of this functional simula- there are references to an Apollo Network. The vectorscope and waveform monitor tion environment is the Mentor Graphics The Apollo Computer System allows for shown in the figure are standard video Workstation. The Mentor Graphics EWS database sharing among other nodes (or measurement tools and have been quite is composed of an Apollo Computer engi- EWS) by placing the nodes in a rings useful in video signal analysis and char- neering workstation combined with Mentor architecture referred to as the Apolloacterization. The video signal generator Graphics software. DOMAIN (Distributed Operating Multi - allows standard test signals to be digitized Note that the majority of illustrations Access Interactive Network) System. The by the Digicube for use as input to a and original text entry of this paper where Apollo is able to communicate with periph- simulation. This has proven effective for done using Mentor Graphics software tools. eral devices such as high -resolution printers comparing the performance of simulated Highlights of the workstation will be dis- and other plotting devices, tape drives, DTV features with the performance of

Law/Bernard: Simulation of digital TV signal processing with an engineering workstation 43 K.A. LawF.S. Bernard

Simulation of digital TV signal processing with an engineering workstation

In this article, which is a shortened version of one that will appear in the March issue of RCA Review, the authors propose a technique for modeling and evaluating digital TV signal processing schemes at the algorithmic level, rather than at the complex logic circuit level.

Abstract:This paper describes a video Much attention hasbeen focused on the schemes, finite word length effects in digital functional modeling system (VFMS) applications of engineering workstations filtering,'etc. As one might expect, be- developed to simulate digital video signal (EWS) to integrated circuit (IC) and/or cause of time deadlines on product designs, processing. The VFMS comprises a hardware logic design. In some application some algorithms may be overlooked be- Mentor Graphics engineering workstation, software packages the intent is to give cause of hardware breadboarding time and a video data multiframe storage device, designers a way to enter schematics, verify complexity. These overlooked algorithms and software generated by the authors. logic, verify timing, and document results. may actually offer better performance for The VFMS functions as a node in a This paper will discuss a scenario for mod- the implementation of a specific feature. networking system that permits communi- eling and testing digital video processing Suffice it to say that software functional cation with other engineering work- systems at the algorithmic level as opposed modeling has allowed the evaluation of stations and mainframes. Software to dealing with the details of such a system many approaches and their perturbations developed by the authors for use with this in the form of very complex logic circuitry. for DTV and its many features. system is briefly described A digital This paper will also describe how input In order to evaluate the effects of DTV television chrominance/luminance data for an algorithm is obtained through features on true video information, it was processing system is presented as an the use of hardware interfaced to the EWS. necessary to capture and display video example of a typical modeling system. The The need for video processing functional signals. This need to perform data capture storage/playback device in the system modeling was seen in the development of through digitization from signal sources permits digital frame or multiframe digital television (DTV). In particular, the such as signal generators and off -the -air storage. It includes means to synchronize number of digital signal processing features programs and eventual display of processed the incoming video signal, digitally sample that the design engineers want to evaluate results was met by a multiframe storage this information, and store the data on a for this product makes a functional simu- device-the Fortel Digicube. The combina- disk file located in the engineering lation tool a necessity. The functional tion of the EWS, multiframe storage de- workstation. The data is processed with a models of many of the DTV features have vice, and associated software will be re- user -developed functional modeling been or are being simulated, and have ferred to as the video functional modeling program of a digital video processor, and greatly reduced the amount of time that system, or VFMS. the results are sent back to the frame would have been needed for initial eval- The multiframe storage device will dig- store for viewing and subjective uation of the feature. Note that once an itize video at the rate of 14.32 MHz (four evaluation. This system concept could actual feature algorithm has been identified, times the NTSC color subcarrier frequency) easily be used in the development of a without the functional simulation capabil- and store it internally until transfer to the speech and/or music processing system, ity, the building of these features on bread- EWS. After the data has been processed as well as for a digital image processing boards would have been required. It could by the functional modeling software,it system. take days or months instead of hours or can be analyzed by the user in one of days to implement such features as lumi- several ways. The processed video could be transferred back to the Digicube, which ©1986 RCA Corporation. nance/chrominance decoding schemes, Final manuscript received February 4, 1986 automatic horizontal luminance peaking can convert the digital data back to an Reprint RE -31-2-8 schemes, luminance vertical detail peaking analog signal and allow it to be viewed

42 RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 As a graphics emulator Reflection 3 has allowed almost all of our two -terminal workstations to be converted to single IBM PC workstations. When the 2623 is used to preview graphics for final out- put on a plotter, the terminal can be replaced with this emulator; however, if a 2623 is being used for final output from a remote mainframe, the resolu- tion of the PC monitor or of the print- out may not be high enough to suit the needs of the application. Figure 6 shows a graphic image displayed on a standard HP 2623A terminal. The quality of this image can be compared with that of the Authors, left to right: Miller Renfro, Kunz. same image produced by Reflection 3 on various IBM PC displays. In Fig. 7 the Peter J. Kunz received the BSME with a minor testing and include development of display tube image is reproduced on a standard IBM in Materials Science from the University of YAMMING systems, laboratory test equipment PC color display. In Fig. 8 the image is Connecticut in 1979. He joined RCA in 1979 and and the associated data analysis systems, shown on an IBM monochrome display his initial work centered on machine design of picture tube setup equipment for the customer, with a Hercules driver board, and in production equipment for the electron gun, and support for production testing. He has including cathode problems and the quick -heat represented Applications Engineering on the Fig. 9 the image is shown on an bimetal cathode process. He received his first VCAD Task Force since its inception in 1983. Enhanced Graphics Display. Both the patent in 1983 and has several patents pending. Contact him at: monochrome and the EGAD displays In 1983, Mr. Kunz was promoted to Member, Video Component and Display Division produce image quality similar to the HP Technical Staff and joined the VCAD project. In Lancaster, Pa. terminal. The resolution of these moni- this capacity, he was responsible for Tacnet: 227-6450 implementation and support of the CADAM tors when used with Reflection 3 is listed computer -aided design system including G. Mike Renfro is the Manager of Applications in Table I. training, database management, finite -element Engineering at VCDD in Lancaster, Pa. He modeling, productivity measurement, and earned the BS, MS and PhD in Physics from the Advantages: systems support. In March 1986, Mr. Kunz University of Oklahoma. He is a member of became leader of the VCAD group. Sigma Pi Sigma and Phi Beta Kappa. He came 1. Ability to display HP graphics on an Contact him at: to RCA in 1980 as a Member of the Technical Video Component and Display Division Staff in the Tube Development department of IBM personal computer. Lancaster, Pa. VCDD. His initial work involved electron Tacnet: 227-6492 trajectory studies for the COTY picture tube 2. Much more terminal memory than project. Between 1983 and 1985 he served as 2623. Richard H. Miller received a BSEE from Lehigh leader of the deflection components group of University in 1978. He joined the RCA Product Design. During that time he also Disadvantages: Engineering Rotational Program in 1978 and represented Product Design on the VCAD task accepted a permanent assignment with force. His current interests include the 1. None of the supported monitors is Lancaster Applications Engineering. His initial development and implementation of a work involved automated testing equipment for computer -integrated manufacturing strategy for pixel -for -pixel compatible with the picture tubes and equipment support for the Division. 2623, which causes some aliasing in YAMMED entertainment product for the Contact him at: the display. European market. In 1982 he was promoted to Video Component and Display Division Leader, Technical Staff of Test Methods and Lancaster, Pa. 2. Printout is not high resolution. Systems in Applications. His current Tacnet: 227.6131 responsibilities center around picture tube Reflection 3 requires an IBM PC, PC XT, or PC AT with at least 256k of Conclusion References RAM. At least one floppy disk drive is Despite the fact that IBM entered into 1. J.C. Miller, "VCAD, an engineering productivity required as well as a serial port for asyn- the engineering graphics arena rather strategy," RCA Engineer, 29-3, pp. 4-9 (May/June 1984). chronous communication. Version 2.0 late by most standards, VCDD has suc- 2. J.C. Miller, W.T. Kelley, "Personal computers, an or higher of DOS is needed. There are cessfully achieved a marked increase in engineering productivity tool," RCA Engineer, 29- also versions of Reflection 3 available designanddraftingproductivity 3, pp. 10-14 (May/June 1984). for the AT&T personal computer and through the use of IBM products. We 3. J.C. Miller, P.J. Kunz, "CADAM, an engineering have avoided some of the potential productivity tool," RCA Engineer, 29-3, pp. 15-19 the HP Vectra personal computer, (May/June 1984). although we have not tested these. problems with this decision by choosing 4. T.V. Hoffmann, "Graphic Enhancement," PC Reflection 3 is a new product and is in not to write our own graphics software. Tech Journal, 3, pp. 58-71 (April 1985). the process of being enhanced. The We have made great strides in engineer- 5. K. Koessel, D. DiNucci, "Clearly Resolved," PC main enhancements being pursued are ing automation by simply using com- World, pp. 256-261 (June 1985). 6. D. McCune, "The Myth of the Virtual Device," PC support of color graphics on the mercially available software. In its 24 World, pp. 178-187 (April 1985). Enhanced Display, support of plotters months of operation, the VCAD engi- 7. Reflection 3, copyright 1985 by Walker, Richer and attached to the PC, and higher resolu- neering computer system has become an Quinn, Inc., Seattle, Wash. tion for graphics printouts. integral part of our Division.

Kunz/M iI ler/Ren f ro: IBM graphics workstations at Video Component and Display Division 41 1111.1111111111111111111111_ 4. Preset function keys for initial val- Table I. Monitor resolution. ues. 5. File transfer with HP 3000 system. Graphics Text 6. Optional hard disk backup program Pixel Count Horizontal Vertical to HP 3000 system. Columns Rows LinesChar LinesChar Disadvantages:

HP 2623 512 x 390 39 73 51 55 1. Not all screen attributes are sup- Standard Color 640 x 200 33 74 53 40 ported (e.g., underline and inverse Graphics features simultaneously) 42. Edit functions must be relearned Enhanced 640 x 350 43 74 74 43 Graphics Adapter (e.g. insert line, delete line, etc.). 3. Only one line of user key labels avail- Hercules Board 720 x 348 38 74 53 58 able with 24- line screen (two lines available with enhanced graphics adaptor).

A CADAM lookalike from ADAGE Itwould be desirable to have a Table II. Feature comparison of IBM and ADAGE workstations. standalone graphics workstation capable of running CAE/CAD/CAM FEATURE IBM ADAGE software without the need for a host 5080 6080 computer. Such a workstation should be fast enough to provide Refresh Rate 60 Hz 60 Hz sub -second response time for CAD/ Non -Interlaced Non -Interlaced CAM software. To conform to the VCAD philosophy of integration, a Resolution 1024 x 1024 1024 x 1024 trained CADAM user should be able to use the software on this worksta- Pixel Writing Rate 100 nanosec 50 nanosec tion without additional training. Such a device could be used to Lightpen No No provide CAD/CAM capabilities at a remote site without the added cost Data Tablet Yes Yes of high-speed data communication lines. It could also be used locally to Transformation Dials Yes Yes increase the number of users with- out increasing the load on the host. Element Highlighting Changes color Intensifies element For this purpose we evaluated a CADAM look -alike product from Number of Terminals 1 1 ADAGE.. The name of this product per Display Controller is CADRA, and we found it to be almost exactly like 2-D CADAM in Data TransferRates 2 MBPS 3 MBPS speed and function. To the user, CADRA presents menu screens PRANCE Compatible Yes Yes that are very similar to CADAM and so fulfills the requirement for no CBDS Compatible Yes Yes additional user training. Despite this fact, however, the internal software IBM 327X Compatible Yes Yes and file formats are not CADAM. The unit is able to perform data Coax/Microwave/Fiber- Yes/Yes/Yes/Yes Yes/Yes/Yes/Yes transfers with a host -based CADAM optics/Telephone system via CADAM's geometry interface module. This information was compiled from vendor data sheets and from CADCORRES Since CADRA has the ability to PONDENCE (CADCOR, Inc.) Vol 1.2, p. 8, Nov./Dec. 1984. perform data transfer over low speed phone lines, it is potentially a data locally on diskettes. Our only with all future releases of CADAM. key product for the support of reservation is our uncertainty about Table II gives a feature comparison remote sites. It also has local E -size whether the third party CADRA between the IBM and ADAGE work- pen plotter capability and can store software will remain compatible stations.

40 RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar / Apr 1986 Apparently, few software vendors 11111I 1.41.414 11111111 have elected to follow the Graphics Ker- nel Standard in supporting the high - Emission Worm u p resolution displays. None of the soft- 204 90 CM MOM 91A MOUNT ware tested at VCDD would run on the 9 Ef - 6.40v *KG 2Z Professional Display after being confi- G1 - -151v gured for the Enhanced Display. This 6 02 455v probably means that these programs : COE2 R 4&&. access the EGAD adapter directly rather - C.0E2 - El 462v G 470v than as a virtual device through calls to COE2 the GKS. The high -resolution features ~6 of the Enhanced and the Professional s displays are not accessible from BASIC 3.0, which is supplied with the personal 0 4 computer; however, they are accessible through IBM's Professional Fortran. At the fall meeting of the CADAM E3 L.J User's Exchange in Chicago, CADAM, 2 Inc. announced that early in 1986 they would market a 2-D version of 1 CADAM that will run on the IBM PC AT. This CAD/CAM software will be 0 able to take advantage of the high reso- 10 15 20 30 lution and multiple color capabilities of Time (seconds) the Professional Graphics Display. A version of this software-called Micro- Fig. 8. A graphics image produced by Reflection 3 on an IBM PC with a monochrome display CADAM-has been available in Japan and Hercules card. for some time. In VCDD we see this product as a potential solution for our need to support CADAM at remote sites.

HP graphics terminal emulation on the Ef - IBM PC C1 = -

gO2 - 45 Not all users of IBM PCs work strictly : CCE2 = 456v with IBM PC graphics or IBM main- 7 -GOE2 = fl 4Pi2v frame graphics. Within VCDD there are COE2 = G475v a number of IBM PC users who need to be able to display graphics intended for E Hewlett-Packardterminals.Until recently, these users had workstations consisting of two terminals; an IBM PC and an HP 2623 or 2393 graphics termi- nal. During the Fall of 1985 the solution to this graphics problem became available. Walker, Richer, and Quinn, a software firm in Seattle that had been selling a PC software package that emulates the worlds)2 HP 2622/4 alphanumeric terminal, introducedReflection3, an HP 2623 graphics terminal emulator for the PC.' Fig. 9. A graphics image produced by Reflection3 on an IBM PC with Enhanced Graphics This package will permit the IBM PC, Adapter and Display. PC XT, or PC AT to display graphics The disadvantages listed can cause PC memory. 640k PC memory gives that were intended for the HP 2623 ter- more than 2000 lines of terminal minal. problems in certain applications; how- As an alphanumerics emulator, ever, in general, they do not cause any memory. Reflection 3is highly compatible with serious limitations. 2. Provides spooled localprintouts software written for Hewlett-Packard using the PC printer. terminals. No bugs have been uncov- Advantages: 3. Easy storage of ASCII data to PC ered in the emulator to date at VCDD. 1. Terminal memory is limited only by disk.

Kunz/Miller/Renfro: IBM graphics workstations at Video Component and Display Division 39 play (EGAD). This display produces alphanumeric characters in an 8 x 14 dot matrix rather than the 8 x 8 dot matrix of the standard color display. Its Ef = - 5.46v resolution is sufficient to present rea- G1 - -151v sonably crisp characters in 80 -column C2 455v COE2 R 466v by 25 -line format. In addition, it can C0E2 13 462v support 16 colors with a graphics resolu- COE2 C 476v tion of 640 x 350 pixels compared to only two colors at 640 x 200 pixel reso- lution for the standard color display. In order to support the full 16 colors the EGAD must be fitted with an optional Graphics Memory Expansion Card and have a total of 128k of display mem- ory.°' In 1985 we decided that all IBM PC ATs purchased would have en- hanced displays installed. Most third party software vendors were somewhat slow in supporting the EGAD; however, by about the third quarter of 1985 many of the major ven- Fig. 6.A sample graphics image on a Hewlett-Packard 2623A terminal. dors had drivers available. Software that does not explicitly support the EGAD board can still be run because the board is capable of emulating the standard color display driver. DIP switches accessible through an opening at the rear of the card are used to select the desired display mode.

Professional graphics display Also in late 1984, the Professional Graphics Adapter and Display were announced. It can support 245 simulta- neous colors from a palette of 4096. It has a graphics resolution of 640 x 480 pixels and uses an 8 x 16 dot matrix for characters. The Professional Graphics Adapter automatically emulates the standard color display without the need to set DIP switches. It is switched into high resolution mode via software. Few application programs are available to date that take advantage of the capabili- ties of this display, despite the fact that it Fig. 7. A graphics image produced by Reflection 3 on an IBM PC with standard color display has been on the market for over a year. Both the Enhanced and the Profes- sional displays were intended to be quality graphics requiring a wider range graphics support this dual monitor con- addressed as "virtual devices" by appli- of colors, Video Show was selected. It figuration. The tables of numeric infor- cations software. IBM markets a devel- also supports the dual monitor worksta- mation being analyzed are presented on opment package for programmers wish- tions, but provides a special piece of the monochrome display, and the ing to write applications for these hardware to drive the color monitor. graphic summary of this information is displays. The Graphics Kernel System This driver allows up to 1000 different simultaneously presented on the color (GKS) provides a large set of graphics colors to be displayed on a standard display. subroutines callable from high-level lan- color monitor. guages such as Pascal and Fortran. GKS Color is also needed to distinguish takes care of accessing the device drivers information contained in very dense Enhanced graphics display required to execute the desired graphics engineering graphics. Engineers quickly Late in 1984 IBM announced the commands on most popular periph- discovered that both Lotus and Stat- Enhanced Graphics Adapter and Dis- erals.6

38 RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 little firsthand experience with writing host graphics programs. However, for those who must write their own graphics CADS 2.S: OUTPUT 01$PLANVCAD 10-70t4-86 16,05,00 /11, mt. OvIIIISC/III S oill.114. ?. 9041-e1 O "rs III applications, IBM has designed their I 11,1L.A.1111.0 If It.Y Y= 5080 workstation to be compatible with the Programmer's Hierarchical Interac- tive Graphics Standard (PHIGS). PHIGS is a proposed standard for 3-D graphics programming. It allows the applications programmer to interface with the peripheral graphics device through high-level commands without the need to provide a customized device driver. It is only necessary to list the wide range of application software that is supported to see the impact that this sin- gle workstation has on the engineering community. Of course, the main design tool used at VCDD is CADAM. The value of CADAM has been dramati- cally demonstrated by the fact that in only 24 months of operation we have achieved a 5:1 increase in drafting productivity-surpassing our original goal. In addition to this productivity gain, CADAM has enabled us to model our production equipment to a level not previously attainable. Figure 3 shows an isometric view of a picture tube, con- veyor, and carrier assembly. It repre- sents a section of a large assembly draw- Fig. 5. False -color contour plot of a picture tube mask- frame assembly. Colors represent z- ing showing an automated work cell. axis displacements of the assembly resulting from a given thermal distribution. See the color The CADAM information panel is visi- photograph on the back cover ble at the top of the screen, and the task menu is visible at the bottom. Isometrics well. Other applications covered by PCs would be heavily used for manipu- of this complexity could not be feasibly CADAM arenumericalcontrol lation of alphanumeric data, and that attempted by manual methods. machining, 3-D wire frame models, sur- the standard color monitors available in We have extended our use of the sys- faces, solids, 3-D piping, and facilities 1983 did not have adequate resolution tem to include the area of finite element design and management. The Standard to justify their cost for this purpose. modeling with other software products Library has proven to increase drawing Therefore, we decided to purchase such as CAEDS and ANSYS. Figure 4 speed, accuracy and uniformity. We are mostly monochrome displays and to shows a 3-D wire frame model of a 26V moving toward the increased use of add Hercules cards for those users need- COTY picture tube. This model was macros for parametric design. Other ing monochrome graphics capabilities. constructed using CAEDS. Models such advanced features available include hid- As the number of PCs increased, as this can be overlayed with informa- den line removal, silhouettes, kine- however, it became clear that users need tion about material properties and matics, and shading. a facility for producing high quality pre- external forces, and then submitted to a sentation graphics on their PCs and that finiteelement solver-such as color capabilities were necessary. Each ANSYS-for analysis. Figure 5 is a Personal computer graphics engineering department was provided CAEDS display of the results of such an with one personal computer having analysis. It shows a false -color contour both a monochrome and a color moni- plot of a picture tube mask -frame Monochrome and color displays tor as well as a multi -pen plotter. Copies assembly. The colors represent the The VCAD philosophy of purchasing of Graph Writer were provided with this amount of displacement along the z-axis rather than writing graphics software workstation. Graph Writer has the abil- that this mask will experience under a applies to personal computers as well as ity to support two monitors simultane- given set of thermal conditions. to the mainframe. PC graphics pack- ously. As the user constructs his graphic PRANCE, a printed circuit board ages in use in VCDD include Lotus 1-2-3, image, the alphanumeric information design module, is being installed to Statgraphics, Graph Writer; Chart Mas- and system commands are displayed on replace our Applicon system. PRANCE ter; Sign Master, Reflection 3 and Video the monochrome screen while the will be used for schematic capture of Show. Before our initial purchases we graphic image being constructed can be machine control ladder diagrams as came to the conclusion that most of our viewed on the color screen. For high

Kunz/Miller/Renfro: IBM graphics workstations at Video Component and DisplayDivision 37 Another major difference between the 3250 and 5080 workstations is in the terminal controller. In the 5080 system, each display has its own controller with a 32k buffer, so flicker is eliminated. In addition, the 5085 display controller can be configured in a variety of ways to meet the needs of the user and the appli- cations. Installable features include expansion video pixel memory for up to 256 colors, local memory of up to 1.1 megabytes, clipping and transforma- tion cards for fast local display proces- sing, 3270 emulation to allow the graph- ics terminal to operate as an alphanu- meric terminal, RS- 232C to support locally attached pen plotters, and dials to control local zoom, pan, and rotate. The device can also perform as a remote node with a V.35 attachment; however, due to the high information content of video images, rapid data communica- tion speeds are required. The minimum communication rate recommended for remote operation is 56 kbps. This wide range of options would seem to complicate the system design Fig. 3.Complex CADAM isometric. This is a portion of a large assembly drawing of an problems, but instead it is the key to the automated work cell. Isometrics of this complexity cannot feasibly be constructed by manual workstation's versatility and future methods. See the color photograph on the back cover. growth. A diskette drive in the 5085 unit provides a means to configure the work- station and to collect error statistics. GAMS 2.S. HOWLcalualomACAS le-TATiqa I5I32t20 The terminal controller is attached by coax to the IBM 5088 channel controller up to three miles away, or alternatively, clOISPLAY_OPTIOAS L-LIMILOMAIIIMG.MOSE the 5085s can be daisy -chained to that C-coorromus_roult..ma .S.ATITy_SuS same length with up to sixteen terminals LA-LASSILIPS in the string. sv-sma P -Immarm_or_couoil The 5088 is channel -attached to the ST -STATUS SSA-SMAGi_mOSPASE CPU and comes in three models. There SGA-SGSTCH_GPOUP.AME are two locally attached models capable i-SACKSPOCt of supporting 16 terminals or 32 termi- ,-A AIM MIGAu GLOSAL NEM nals and a remote model with the V.35 communication option. The remote option allows the configuration of a sin- gle remote 5085 or a remote cluster of up to 16 terminals. The controller has a dual address range to accommodate the graphics devices, and it acts like a 3274 to handle the 3270 addresses. This allows a single controller to contain 64 system addresses. I/O contention can occur on a heavily populated 5088 even though the CPU -to -5088 data exchange rate is 2.5 Mbps and the 5088 -to -5085 OBUICT NEMO rate is 2.0 Mbps. z x

Graphics software Fig. 4. 3-D wire frame model of a 26VCOTYpicture tube. This model was constructed using CAEDS software. CAEDS serves as a pre- and post -processor for finite element solvers such As a result of our decision to purchase as ANSYS. See the color photograph on the back cover. as much software as possible, we have

36 RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 chrome, local vs. host transformations, controller. Two such clusters of three are available in a 50 -Hz monochrome and data transfer rates are all important connected to a single IBM 3258 channel model or a 60 -Hz color version. We have considerations. However, we were will- controller by coaxial cable at a distance found that the majority of our users ing to sacrifice, if necessary, some spe- of 1000 feet. Finally, the 3258 controller who perform standard 2-D drafting cific features in order to achieve a high is channel- attached to the CPU. tasks prefer the monochrome monitor level of integration. A key factor in At each 3251 workstation the user has for this purpose. This choice allows us building an integrated system, one that a program function keyboard, an alpha- to pay less for the display, use less CPU is easily overlooked in the quest for ever numeric keyboard, and a light pen to resource per terminal, and support more powerful features, is whether the interact with the display. The display has more devices. graphics software driving the device will excellent resolution but is prone to present a consistent user interface for a flicker due to the I/O contention caused wide variety of solver algorithms. The by having three displays on the same user should not have to learn many dif- controller and a 16k limitation on dis- ferent sets of commands and menus in play buffer size. Despite the flicker order to use different tools such as 2-D problem, many users prefer to use these drafting, 3-D drafting, FEM, electrical devices because they believe the interac- design, etc. It should be easy to use any tive response achievable from a light pen of the devices on the system to retrieve is faster than that of the 5080 tablet. graphics data without learning a com- pletely new set of commands and inter- faces. This allows the managers, engi- IBM 5080 terminals neers, and designers to concentrate on their task rather than on operating the The remaining 29 terminals are 5081 dis- computer. By adhering to these princi- plays. The configuration is similar to the ples, VCAD has been responsible for a 3250 model, but with many additional marked improvement in the communi- features (see Figs. 1 and 2.). The cation of engineering information and CADAM software is capable of han- for an 80 -percent decrease in the time dling any of the many hardware config- required to produce an engineering urations available, even interchanging drawing. the devices across controllers if neces- Our selection of graphics worksta- sary. The major difference is that the tions was artificially limited by our deci- 5081 is a non -interlaced raster refresh Fig. 1. IBM 5080 graphics workstation sion to purchase an integrated system. device rather than a vector device. It is configuration. Although several IBM plug -compatible devices existed on the market, we ini- tially chose the IBM 3250 as our graph- ics terminal. This decision gave us a sin- gle vendor to rely on for both software and hardware, and opened the door to other goals as well. These workstations filled our needs for fast response time, significant increases in productivity, and the ability to access a wide range of soft- ware tools from a single terminal. As is common in the rapidly changing com- puter market, the 3250 terminal became obsolete within the first year of the VCAD project with the announcement of the IBM 5080 workstations. All sub- sequent purchases consisted of 5080 devices.

IBM 3250 terminals Currently, two families of terminals are supported by CADAM. The original system was configured with six IBM 3251 terminals, which are monochrome and use vector display technology. Three terminals are attached to a single Fig. 2. IBM 5080 graphics workstation. The workstation consists of a 5081 CRT display, a IBM 3255 terminal controller. These ter- typewriter keyboard (left), a cursor tablet (center), a lighted function key pad (right), and a minals must be within fifty feet of the 5085 graphics processor (right, on the floor).

Kunz/Miller/Renfro: IBM graphics workstations at Video Component and Display Division 35 P.J. KunzR.H. MillerG.M. Renfro

IBM graphics workstations at Video Component and Display Division

In 1983 there was a graphics revolution at VCDD. They decided they wanted to encourage engineers and designers to concentrate on the product rather than on the computer, so they developed the VCAD system.

In1983 a graphics revolution started in not only host -based graphics, but also a brought to each user the graphics skills the Video Component and Display Divi- large number of personal computers necessary to successfully improve pro- sion. An IBM computer system running linked by a local area network. The net- ductivity. CADAM software was installed to pro- work serves the role of hardware inte- vide CAE/CAD/CAM graphics tools grator, allowing existing minicomputer to the engineering community. Thissystems as well as different types of Host graphics computer system became known by the microcomputers to successfully com- acronym VCAD-video computer - municate. Details of the VCAD system aided design. The primary goals of architecture and implementation philos- System configuration VCAD were to increase engineering and ophy were published in a series of artic- The VCAD host is an IBM 4381-02 with design productivity and to integrate les in the May/June 1984 issue of RCA 16 megabytes of real memory, 12 I/O existing engineering hardware and soft- Engineer.i." channels, and a processing speed of 2.7 ware within the division. To achieve From the beginning IBM was selected MIPS. This very stable CPU runs 24 these goals the VCAD system included as the prime vendor of hardware and hours a day, seven days a week. Periph- software. At the time many engineers erals consist of 10 gigabytes of fixed disk did not consider IBM to be a leader in Abstract:There are many types of storage, two tape drives, two 3274 ter- graphics workstations available to theCAD/CAM graphics. Nevertheless, minal controllers, HYDRA protocol they offered a proven mainframe -based engineering community, and because converters, and 5088 graphic worksta- there are so many choices, most system, a long-term strategy for engi- tion controllers. As many as 166 users engineering organizations eventually neering automation, and the range of can be locally attached to the system. Of find themselves with several different products necessary to achieve the this 166, up to 35 can be 3250 or 5080 systems that are not compatible. In desired integration. This integrated graphics workstations. An IBM 3725 1983 the Video Component and approach allowed us to build a system communications controller was recently Display Division adopted a divisional that is reliable, has fast response times, added to allow data communications to strategy for future purchases of supports a large number of users, and is the corporate computer center. CAE/CAD/CAM tools. This article easily taught to new users. From the beginning our intention was describes our experience with IBM The initial target for design automa- to purchase as much engineering soft- workstations in engineering. Two tion was the equipment development ware as possible and to avoid writing generations of graphics are discussed, organization. This department contains custom routines. We wanted to encour- and four PC displays available from our largest number of designers and age our engineers and designers to con- IBM are compared. We are successfully draftsmen. The ease with which this sys- centrate on the product rather than on using the IBM PC as a graphics tem could be expanded allowed us to the computer. We chose CADAM for terminal communicating with a start simple and to rapidly expand into design and drafting, CAEDS as a pre - Hewlett-Packard host. product design, adding tools such as and post -processor for finite element finite -element modeling (FEM), 3-D analysis, and PRANCE for printed cir- design, and printed circuit board design. cuit board design. Solids and NC machining modules are ©1986 RCA Corporation. There are several key elements in Final manuscript received January 20, 1986 also available from CADAM, Inc. An selecting a graphics workstation. Dis- Reprint RE -31-2-7 organized and intense training program play size, resolution, color vs. mono-

34 RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 the analytical equations to accommo- Table I. Current library of simulation programs. date changing hardware configurations. Program Configuration for which designed By running on our own PC instead of a MCS/MO/ Identical groups of identical units-e.g., 2G8X6. Any spare can be mainframe, we have kept costs low. switched to replace any active in the same group. Along the way, we have certainly dem- MCSIM02 2G11X8 with special switching restriction: all 3 units at the same end. onstrated that there is a place for the PC MCSIM03 2G11X8 with special switching restriction: any 3 of 5 at the same end. in hardware reliability calculations. We MCSIM04 Groups of identical units, but the groups need not be of the same length. also found we had to sacrifice speed for MCSIM05 Two sets of different units, connected in series and switchable. lower costs. A simulation run of 10,000 MCSIM06 All the units in any one group have the same failure rate, but different simulated missions used to take a few groups may have different rates, and the groups may be of different lengths. minutes (elapsed time, not CPU time) MCSIM07 Two sets of units, connected in series and switchable. The units in each on the mainframe; on the PC, it can set need not be identical. take eight hours. However, once the PC MCSIM08 Two sets of units, connected in series, and switchable according to a has been purchased, whatever use you defined pattern. Each set consists of identical units. make of it is free. The combination of MCSIM09 Identical groups of identical units, but some channels are premium, and an owned PC, the APL programming some are pre-emptable. language, and graphics hardware and MCSIM10 One ring -redundant group of identical units. software has proved to be extreme- MCSIM11 Identical groups of identical units, but the failure rate varies with time. ly cost-effective for RCA Astro- MCSIM12 One broken -ring -redundant group of identical units. MCSIM13 Identical groups of identical units, but with a spare satellite to be Electronics. launched when any group runs out of spares. MCSIM14 Identical groups of identical units, but with a spare satellite to be launched at a preset time. References MCSIM15 Identical groups of identical units. Any spare can be switched to replace any active in the same group, but there is a prescribed sequence for 1. Solomon, J.G., "APL and engineering productiv- using the spares, and the program keeps track of the switching history of ity,"RCA Engineer,Vol. 28, No. I (Jan./Feb. each channel. 1983). MCSIM16 Groups of identical units, but the groups need not be of the same length. Under specified conditions, a spare can be switched to replace a failed unit in another group.

Solomon: Spacecraft reliability predictions by computer simulation 33 The Statgraphics package

Plot of 1286X4 Plot of Z268X4116

1.1 0.14

0.11 0.9 0.08

0.7 (X 1000) 0.05 (X 1000)

0 0.02 0.5 -0.01

0.3 -0.04

YExas Fig. 1 Fig. 2

Plot of 5266X4M6 Plot of 72880416

Avarantawair 40111000.41111"ftlimay-----0.4.-.-- -14132F414.1111.1004rirdr

0.02 0.11 -0.02 AilikItiftt 0.08 -0.06 0.05

-0.1 (X 1000) (01000) \AIL77 Ath 0.02 -0.14 0 -0.01 -0.18 41111 411-0.1iLIL- 4 -0.22 ilkar#441 irlr- -0.04

0 r. 8 2 4, 6 8 JO 12 I° e YEARS YE,4ao Fig. 3 Fig. 4

In probing the "anomaly" men- graphics is written in APL, which year mission. SFAIL, the failure rate tioned in the accompanying article, makes it even more convenient to for standbys, is 0.1 x AFAIL, the I generated an enormous amount of use with our library of programs. failure -rate for actives. AFAIL data. Many people have noted that Statgraphics is menu -driven, is very ranges from 1000 to 10,000 FITS it is difficult to read tables of num- easy to use, and does not require (failures in 1070 hours). The other bers and comprehend their any knowledge of APL. It is availa- three graphs show the difference in significance -and it is. On the other ble from Statistical Graphics Com- survival probability P8(2G8X4)- hand, I was most reluctant to plot pany, 2 Wall Street, Princeton, NJ P6(2G8X6), for each year of a several dozen graphs, each of 08540, or from STSC Inc., 2115 E. twelve-year mission, and the same which had 120 points. It so hap- Jefferson St., Rockville, MD 20852. range of AFAIL. Figure 2 shows the pened, however, that Reliability In order to run Statgraphics, you difference when SFAIL is Engineering bought a graphics must have the APL interpreter 0.1 x AFAIL. Figure 3 shows the package and a color monitor -and, APL*PLUS, which is available from difference when SFAIL= AFAI L. later, a five -pen plotter. The graphics STSC at the above address. Figure 4 shows the difference when package is called Statgraphics, and The accompanying contour SFAIL = 0. As explained in the was written by Dr. Neil Polhemus, graphs, drawn by Statgraphics, use article, when SFAIL = AFAIL, there then of Princeton University. As its as data the probability of survival of is no penalty for the "pseudo - name implies, it is actually a statisti- eight groups, generated by spares" in 2G8X6, and P8(2G8X6) cal and graphics package -and a MCSIM01 under different assump- remains higher than P8(2G8X4) for very powerful one. It is also tions. Figure 1 shows the probability all values of AFAIL. When inexpensive -even though we have of survival of eight groups in a SFAIL = 0, the penalty is used only about ten percent of its 2G8X4 configuration. This probabil- maximized -over the course of the capability, we have more than got- ity is denoted P6(2G8X4), and is mission, P8(2G8X6) drops below ten our money's worth from it. Stat- shown over each year of a twelve - P8(2G8x4), and remains below.

32 RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 OuADRATURE 2G8X4 configuration to have eight DROP -IN POWER POWER amplifiers operating. Each group must CIRCULATOR SPLITTER SPLITTER have four amplifiers operating. If one FLC- 30MA 4-I FLC-02WF FLC- 08MA FLC-I5MA POWER group loses five of its eight amplifiers, COMBINER it doesn't matter how many amplifiers RF in the other group are capable of OUTPUT operating-the total number of amplifi- SMA ers actually operating for both groups CONN will be less than eight. On the other hand, the 2G8X6 configuration has the flexibility that one group can lose as many as six of its eight amplifiers, and the configuration will still have eight amplifiers operating until the other group has lost three of its eight. This was RF INPUT not exactly obvious-although itis SMA OUTPUT CONN now. HFET- 2201 iCIRCULATOR THICK -FILM CIRCULATOR One way of looking at the 2G8X6 BIAS configuration is that it has two extra NETWORK DC-81AS SUPPORT DROP -IN INTERFACE FLC -15MA "pseudo -spares" in each group, as com- LUGS pared with the 2G8X4 configuration. CIRCULATOR PLUG However, these "pseudo -spares" are Solid state power amplifier. really in use, and therefore they will fail at the active rate, rather than at the (lower) standby rate. One would expect, tions for different kinds of configura- scope of the current library of simula- then, that 2G8X4 would "catch up" tions, it became necessary for us to write tion programs, Table I shows the list of with 2G8X6 over the course of a long more simulation programs. These pro- programs and the configurations they mission-especially if the failure rate is grams had the same basic structure, but were designed to handle. high. And so it was: If the failure -rate reflected the different selection rules or was as high as 7000 FITS (failures in one different linkages of the different con- billion hours), the cross -over point was figurations. Some of the changes were Conclusion reached about eight years into a mis- minor, but some were drastic. Even so, Our experience has shown that reliabil- sion. After that, P8(2G8X6)- the prob- making the changes usually required ity calculations can be done using ability of survival of 8 channels in a only a minimal effort, because all the Monte Carlo simulations instead of 2G8X6 configuration-was less than programs are designed and imple- analytical solutions. Also, it is easier to P8(2G8X4), and decreased more rapidly mented in APL. To give an idea of the change the simulation programs than with time than did P8(2G8X4). This effect was even more pronounced with higher failure rates. In our simulation runs, we usually assume that the failure rate for standby States Air Force. He first joined RCA in 1959, amplifiers is 0.1 times the failure rate for working on BMEWS at the Missile and Surface operating amplifiers; that is, the shelf Radar Division. He was awarded the MA degree life is ten times as long as the operating in Physics from Temple University in 1963. After life. If the explanation suggested above two years of research in high-energy physics at the University of Pennsylvania, he returned to is correct, changing this ratio should RCA in 1966, joining the Systems Programming significantly change the relationship group of the Information Systems Division in between the calculated reliabilities. In Cherry Hill, where he participated in the particular, if the failure -rate is the same implementation of the FORTRAN compiler for for standbys as for actives, then there is RCAs Spectra series of computers. Mr. Solomon became an independent no penalty for having the pseudo - software consultant in 1971. He joined the spares, and 2G8X6 should maintain the Systems Engineering group of Government higher reliability for the entire mission. Communications Systems in March 1982, and On the other hand, if the failure rate for worked in digital signal processing, propagation of measurement errors, and network standbys is 0, then the penalty for hav- vulnerability. In 1983 he transferred to ing the pseudo -spares is maximized. Astro-Electronics, where he has worked in One can predict that the crossover effect hardware reliability predictions, orbital would be even more pronounced. As the rendezvous, satellite eclipses, and space -based radar. graphs in the sidebar show, all these pre- Contact him at: dictions were verified. Josef G. Solomon was awarded a BS degree RCA Astro-Electronics Divison As the design groups at Astro- in Mathematics from the University of Princeton, N.J. Electronics requested reliability predic- Oklahoma while on active duty with the United Tacnet: 229.2185

Solomon: Spacecraft reliability predictions by computer simulation 31 group, groups with different numbers of amplifiers, groups composed of dif- ferent types of amplifiers, etc. To respond to these new challenges, new simulation programs were designed and implemented. At present, the simula- tion library contains over a dozen pro- grams, each designed to handle a differ- ent type of hardware configuration. As the "traffic" became quite heavy, the cost of running these programs on a mainframe became prohibitive. We therefore purchased a PC (and then sev- eral more), and have been running the library on PCs for the past two and a half years. In addition, we have pur- chased a graphics package, and we can now plot graphs of the results from indi- vidual simulation runs, or contour graphs from a collection of runs.

PCor mainframe? Traveling wave tube amplifier. The specific event that triggered the decison to purchase a PC instead of con- tinuing to rent time on the in-house replace the failed unit. The program Apple BASIC, and simulation runs had mainframe arose from an apparent kept a cumulative total of how many been made on the consultant's com- "anomaly" in our simulation results. amplifiers were still operating at the end puter. The size of the configuration was Comparing the results for two different of each year of each mission. Dividing built into the program. This meant that hardware configurations showed that that set of numbers by the total number several lines of the program had to be program predicted a of missions gave the fraction of missions changed each time the program was run. lower reliability for the configuration in which that many amplifiers sur- Also, the consultant had not supplied that seemingly should have had a higher vived-and, hence, the probability of any program documentation. Finally, reliability. Attempts to resolve the survival. These probabilities were then the program did not work on the Apple anomaly consumed a great amount of compared with probabilities generated computers at Astro-Electronics, and money on the mainframe, and yet it was by solving the coupled differential equa- making it work was my first assign- essential to resolve it, because the relia- tions. ment. In order to be able to debug the bility numbers generated by the simula- This comparison showed that the program, it was first necessary to under- tion programs are a critically important Monte Carlo simulation method gave stand it. Because APL is the language I input in the design process. If those essentially the same answers as the exact prefer, my explanatory notes (to myself) numbers are wrong, we have to know it analytical solution. Our experience has on the program were written in APL. now, and correct them. So we continued shown that simulation is indeed faster The interesting result of this effortwas on our new PC, and resolved the prob- and cheaper than the analytical solu- that, by the time I understood the lem. Here is a description of the prob- tion. In addition, using simulation BASIC program, a replacement APL lem and its resolution. makes it much easier to accomodate program had thus been brought into If you compare reliabilities for a con- changes in the hardware configuration. existence. Results obtained from the figuration described as 2G8X6 and one new APL program agreed closely with described as 2G8X4, which configura- Rewriting the program in API results previously obtained from the tion has the higher probability that eight BASIC program-keeping in mind that amplifiers will still be operating after, The original program was written for the results will never agree precisely, say, 10 years? It certainly seems that the the Reliability Engineering group by an because of the statistical nature of the 2G8X4 configuration, which has four outside consultant who had departed Monte Carlo method. spares in each group, should have a before my arrival on the scene. It was The fact that the operational program higher reliability than the 2G8X6, which designed for a configuration in which was in APL, rather than BASIC or has only two spares in each group-and any spare could be switched to replace some other conventional language, con- yet 2G8X6 consistently came out higher any failed active amplifier in the same ferred unanticipated benefits almost than 2G8X4. Does one increase reliabil- group; it was not possible to switch immediately. Very soon after the dem- ity by decreasing the number of spares? amplifiers from one group to another. onstrated success of that program, we Varying the parameters at our disposal Any configuration with those character- were confronted with configurations began to show a pattern, and the answer istics could be simulated by that pro- that the program could not handle: dif- emerged. The apparent anomaly arises gram. The program was written in ferent switching restrictions within a because there is only one way for the

30 RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 J.G. Solomon

Spacecraft reliability predictions by computer simulation

Satellite hardware reliability simulations are being run onPCs at Astro-Electronics, and the payoffs are reduced costsand increased flexibility.

The Reliability Engineering Depart- the great cost of a failed mission, RCA ment at Astro-Electronics is charged wants to build in "enough" redun- with the responsibility for predicting the dancy. But because of the great cost of reliability and survival probability, of putting any weight into space, it is also complex satellite hardware. It is essen- important not to build in more redun- tial to know the probability of survival dancy than is necessary to meet the mis- of electronic circuits over the entire life- sion reliability specifications. For a time of a satellite. This information is given set of performance criteria, then, then used, for example, in deciding how the problem is to calculate how much much redundancy to build into a partic- redundancy should be employed. In the ular section of the circuitry. Because of context of this paper, however, the prob- lem is a different one. Solving the set of coupled differential equations used to The equations used for Abstract: determine the reliability of electronic determining the reliabililty of satellite electronic circuits are a set of coupled circuits can be very expensive in both time and money. Accordingly, we had to differential equations, and solving find an alternative method of determin- them can be very expensive in both ing the reliability of complex systems Solid state power amplifier. time and money. Accordingly, one that is faster and cheaper than direct engineers at Astro-Electronics wrote a solution of the differential equations, Monte Carlo simulation program in and acceptably accurate. Inasmuch as tronically separated. Each group con- APL for a particular electronic circuit our attention had already been drawn to tained the same total number of amplifi- and switching configuration. Very soon computer simulation methods, our ers, the same number of active ampli- after the demonstrated success of that problem was even more specific: Can fiers, and (of course) the same number program, configurations were designed computer -simulation satisfy the above of spares. A typical configuration might that the program could not handle. To criteria? be described as "2G11X8", meaning respond to these new challenges, new that there are two groups in the configu- simulation programs were designed and ration, and that each group has 11 implemented. As the "traffic" became Monte Carlo simulation amplifiers, of which eight are active. quite heavy, the cost of running these Given the failure rate for active amplifi- programs on a mainframe became A Monte Carlo simulation program was written for a particular-and particu- ers and the failure rate for spares, the prohibitive. Therefore, several PCs larly simple-electronic circuit and program simulated a large number of were purchased, and the library of missions in which amplifiers failed at programs has been running on them switching configuration. The results agreed closely with results obtained by random times in accordance with those for two and a half years. "brute -force" methods. The configura- failure rates. When an active amplifier tion was an array of identical traveling - failed, the program attempted to find an ©1986 RCA Corporation. wave -tube amplifiers, arranged into available spare in the same group; if Final manuscript received January 3, 1986 Reprint RE -31-2-6 groups that were physically and elec- there was one, it was switched in to

29 RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 RCA Astro-Electronics must determine the reliability and survival probability of complex hardware to be installed on satellites. The equations used to predict the reliability of electronic circuits area set of coupled differential equations, and quite heavy, the cost of running these solving them can be very expensive in programs on a mainframe became both time and money. Accordingly, a prohibitive. We therefore purchased a PC Monte Carlo simulation program was (and then several more) and have been written for a particular electronic circuit running the library on PCs for the past and switching configuration. The two and a half years. In addition, we have program was written in APL, of course.' purchased a graphics package, and we The results agreed closely with results can now plot graphs of the results of obtained by "brute -force" methods. Very individual simulation runs, or contour soon after the demonstrated success of graphs from a collection of runs. that program, we were confronted with Our experience has shown that configurations that the program could reliability predictions can be done using not handle. To respond to these new Monte Carlo simulations instead of challenges, new simulation programs analytical solutions. Also, it is easier to were designed and implemented. At change the simulation programs than present, the simulation library contains the analytical equations to over a dozen programs, each designed to accommodate changing hardware handle a different type of hardware configurations. By running the programs configuration. As the "traffic" became on our own PC instead of a mainframe, we have kept costs low. Along the way, we have certainly demonstrated that there is a place for APL and the PC in predictions of hardware reliability.

28 designer the capability to place and Tom Marett an Associate Member, Technical Staff in the Television Research Laboratory at route circuit components using a rela- RCA Laboratories. He previously worked in the tively inexpensive personal computer. Picture Tube Systems Research Laboratory at The ability to use any path width and RCA Laboratories, and in the Technology polygon shape, to combine paths and Transfer Laboratory, Magnetic Deflection Group, Lancaster, Pa. His professional interests polygons to make cells, and then to include rf, magnets, CAD and CAM. He has a combine cells to make circuits reduces BS from Spring Garden College, Philadelphia, the layout time and the time it takes to Pa. redo circuits. Once you find that the Contact him at: first board isn't quite what you wanted, RCA Laboratories Princeton, N.J. the task of changing the circuit is simple. Tacnet: 226-2278 Figure 3 was drawn by Robert M. Evans of the Signal Conversion Group at RCA Laboratories. Bob has had no real pre- vious experience with circuit board lay- out systems other than a graphics rout- ing he wrote for our HP 1000. He was able to pick up the system after a few \ hours work with me, and over the past three months developed this working board.

Acknowledgments tion group at Missile and Surface Radar Laboratories for first teaching me the 1 wish to acknowledge the assistance of Division for giving us a demonstration Applicon 4000 system, and then inter- Sue Handman of CISS in Cherry Hill of PERSONAL870, and for his help in facing it with the PERSONAL870; and for the help she has given our group in ordering the hardware needed; Phil Ed Cuomo and Greg Zak, Process Tech- evaluating CAD packages, and for find- Deem of the New Product Laboratories nology, RCA Laboratories for their help ing this one. I would also like to thank for his assistance in getting us started with PREP on the Cherry Hill CMS Bernie Wiegand of the Design Automa- with the software; Bill Kimble of RCA system.

Trademarks The following is a list of trademarks used in MacProject is a trademark of Apple Computer, Wordperfect is a trademark of SSISoftware this issue of the RCA Engineer. Not shown are Inc. Harvard Total Project Manager is a Trademark those trademarks that are properly cited within LaserWriter is a trademark of Apple Computer, of Harvard Software, Inc. articles. Inc. dBase III is a trademark of Ashton-Tate VAX is a trademark of Digital Equipment MacTerminal is a trademark of Apple Computer, PDP-11 is a trademark of the Digital Equipment Corporation Inc. Corporation MicroVAX I is a trademark of Digital Equip- MacWrite is a trademark of Apple Computer, PDP-8 is a trademark of the Digital Equipment ment Corporation Inc. Corporation DECmate is a trademark of Digital Equipment MacPaint is a trademark of Apple Computer, CADAM is a trademark of International Busi- Corporation Inc. ness Machines, Inc. DATAIRIEVE is a trademark of Digital Equip- Imagewriter is a trademark of Apple Computer, CAEDS is a trademark of International Business ment Corporation Inc. Machines, Inc. IBM PC is a trademark of International Business Intel is a registered trademark of Intel PRANCE is a trademark of Automates Systems, Machines Corporation Corporation Inc. IBM PC AT is a trademark of International Supercomp-Twenty is a registered trademark of Statgraphics is a trademark of the Statistical Business Machines Corporation Access Technology, Inc. Graphics Corp. IBM PC XT is a trademark of International Jazz is a Trademark of Lotus Development Graphwriter is a trademark of Graphic Com- Business Machines Corporation Corporation munications, Inc. Apple isa registered trademark of Apple Lotus 1-2-3 is a registered trademark of Lotus Chart -Master is a trademark of Decision Computer, Inc. Development Corporation Resources, Inc. Macintosh is a trademark of Apple Computer, Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Sign -Master is a trademark of Decision Inc. Corporation Resources, Inc. Lisa is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. ANSYS is a trademark of Swanson Analysis 2DOMAIN is a trademark of Apollo Computer, Inc. MacDraw is a trademark of Apple Computer, Systems, Inc. Inc. Ethernet is a trademark of the Calma Company

27 Marett: Analog printed -circuit board design using an IBM PC AT to another. This allows many designers The second method uses a Gerber to work on individual circuits and then plotter driven by software on CMS, and assemble the pieces into one working gives us 1000 dots -per -inch accuracy. file for a final board. This software, called PREP, creates a standard Gerber -formatted tape from plot files created by PERSONAL870 Board design software. Our group is using two sets of the soft- The third method is to transfer the ware, one on an IBM PC AT and one on drawing file from the IBM PC AT to an an IBM PC XT. The PC is not perma- Applicon system. We use the Applicon nently changed, so it can still be used for 4000 system in the Microwave Technol- other tasks (writing this paper, for ogy Center at RCA Laboratories, which example). The sidebar on this page lists also has a resolution of 1000 dots -per - the hardware requirements for PER inch. Software has been written to check Three methods are used for creating for design problems in drawing files PC Boards from the drawing files in our such as unclosed polygons. It highlights IBM PC AT The first two methods use problem areas so they can be moved off the IBM mainframe in Cherry Hill to the side of the page, corrected, and (CMS). The first of these gives us fast moved back in place. turnaround time because it produces an Most components used in our group immediate print on a thermal printer. are surface -mount, so we create cells Resolution is low, 300 dots -per -inch, consisting of polygons or pads for and we have a size limit of 3.5 inches by attachment to the board. One such cell Fig. 1. Example of a component cell. 3.5 inches with this method. is shown in Fig. 1. Active devices used at 40 MHz and up do not normally have standard packages, so we create what- ever pad configuration is needed for the individual device. These cells are put together to make developmental circuits like the one in Fig. 2. Figure 3 is an example of a complete circuit that was recently developed.

Conclusion Thepowerful(yetinexpensive) computer -aided design software used by the Signal Conversion Group at RCA Laboratories gives the analog circuit

The following is a list of the hardware necessary to run PERSONAL870:

Fig. 2. Developmental circuit drawn using cells. 1.1BMPCAT orXT (or compatible)

2.At least 640k of memory

Iltl 3. Two serial ports 1#1:r!41:54

. Mee ; 4. Printer port

IaJ I eaVid.747..iltis.;01 5. Display controller

6. Display (color or monochrome, high -resolution preferable)

7. Pen tablet Fig. 3. Completed circuit.

26 RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 T Marett

Analog printed -circuit board design using an IBM PC AT

A group at RCA Laboratories has found a software package that is specifically intended for the computer -aided design of analog printed -circuit boards.

Digital printed -circuit board design set. This signal amplification and con- in mils or millimeters. This software is systems, with their elaborate schematic version must be done in a small area free also used by New Product Laboratories capture, placement, and routing rou- from interaction with the rest of the TV in Indianapolis and Missile and Surface tines, are of no real use to the analog set. The placement of the individual Radar Division in Moorestown, which circuit designer without heavy modifica- components of the tuner is critical. Lead makes it possible to transfer drawing tion of the algorithms controlling the length of components such as capaci- files to and from these locations. If you placement of components. tors, inductors, resistors, and active are familiar with these systems you will Analog circuits used in television tun- devices will determine the frequency be able to use this software with little ers, for example, operate at frequencies response of the overall tuner. Extra lead assistance. I am familiar with the Appli- above 40 MHz with low-level signals. length will also act as an antenna, radi- con 4000 system, and was able to use These circuits amplify and change the ating unwanted signals throughout the PERSONAL870 system after a few frequency of the incoming signals so TV set. The exact placement of each hours of reviewing documentation that they may be displayed by the TV component so as to minimize lead obtained with the software. Three other length and unwanted radiated signals people in the group have picked up the between circuits is left up to the designer. Abstract: use of the system in a short period of Analog circuits operating at The actual width and length of each time. frequencies above 40 MHz cannot take trace, the shape of the pads connecting Most of the commands of PER- advantage of the elaborate placement the components to the board, and any and routing routines that have been SONAL870 are the same as those used ground plane used in and around the by the Applicon software. Commands developed for low -frequency circuitry. circuit will determine the characteristics The powerful and expensive are communicated to the computer by of the tuner as much as the components pen strokes or with a pen table. We have printed -circuit board design packages themselves. added the IBM PC AT function keys to that need a medium to large computer The Computer -aided design software supplement the pen strokes and tablet are therefore wasted, since the design used by the Signal Conversion Group at menus. The user sets up an account with demands all of the circuit designer's RCA Laboratories is a simple two- a start file consisting of personalized attention. The placement of each dimensional system capable of describ- pen stroke commands, menu, and com- component and the routing of each ing multilayer printed -circuit boards mand set. There is also a definitions sec- path between components is critical to with any shape polygons and paths on tion that has a group of cells used to the performance of the circuit. The each layer. It also can output to several create a new board. These cells are Computer -aided design software used types of high -resolution printer/plotters capacitors, resistors, inductors, active by the Signal Conversion Group at for fabrication of the board. devices, and combinations of cells that RCA Laboratories allows the designer The software used by the Signal Con- have been drawn to the correct physical the freedom of individually placing the version Group at RCA Laboratories is size. A group of cells making up a work- components while operating with an called PERSONAL870, and can be pur- ing circuit can also be set up as a cell. IBM PC A7; keeping the cost of the chased from Automated Images Inc., This is how most of our circuits are system down below $20,000. This Woburn, Ma. PERSONA L870 emu- developed-small sections are made, software will also run in an IBM PC lates the Applicon 870 and the Applicon and thecellsare then connected XT and many IBM compatibles. 4000 2-D printed -circuit board layout together.Individualcells,whole systems. The limits for the physical size libraries, whole drawings, pen stroke ©1986 RCA Corporation. Final manuscript received January 27, 1986 of the boards are the same as those for libraries, and individual or whole com- Reprint RE -31-2-5 the Applicon systems, and you can work mands can be copied from one drawing

Marett: Analog printed -circuit board design using an IBM PC AT 25 5. RADC Thermal Guide for Reliability Engineers, RADC TR-82-122, June 6.Yeh, L.T., "CHIC-Convective Heat Transfer," RCA Corporation, Govern- 1982. ment Communications Systems, Camden, N.J. September 1984.

He has developed a front -ended computer -aided design general purpose heat -transfer program for use on the RCA CISD Auto-trol engineering workstation to allow interactive graphics for 3-D model generation and transient thermal analysis. Mr. Miller is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, American Physical Society, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, American Nuclear Society, and Tau Beta Pi and Pi Tau Sigma Honor Societies. Mr. Miller was a Raytheon Fellow from 1966 to 1967 while attending MIT and has been elected to Who's Who in Frontiers of Science and Technology for the past two years. He has numerous technical publications in Computational Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer, and is a registered Professional Engineer in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Contact him at: Communication & Systems Division Camden, N.J. Tacnet: 222-4896 Authors, left to right: Piazza, Miller, Butt, Hoke. Frank M. Piazza, Software Engineer, Design Automation, is currently pursuing a BS in Computer Science at Rutgers University. Mr. Piazza Stephen Butt, Manager, Mechanical Computer -Aided Design (MCAD), came to RCA CISD in 1982, joining Engineering Computer -Aided Design. joined RCA in April, 1984. He worked in Hardware Integration and Design Mr. Piazza is responsible for CAD/CAM integration and software Automation before joining the MCAD group. He received his BSE in 1976 development supporting automation. from the University of Pennsylvania (Bio-Engineering), a BSME from Contact him at: Drexel University in 1982, and an MSME from Drexel University in 1984. Communication & Systems Division Contact him at: Camden, N.J. Communication & Systems Division Tacnet: 222-4851 Camden, N.J. Tacnet: 222-2415 David N. Hoke is Senior Member, Engineering Staff, Design Automation. He received a BS in Industrial Management from Georgia Institute of Harvey R Miller received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from Technology. He joined RCA CISD in 1984, and has been responsible for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, an MS in Mechanical Engineering from the CAD/CAM integration effort within engineering and specifically for Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a M. Phil in Plasma Physics from initiating the cable harness automation effort. Mr. Hoke is also an Columbia University, and will complete his PhD in Applied Physics from associate member of the IEEE. Columbia University in the spring of 1986. He joined RCA Government Contact him at: Communications Systems in 1984 as a Senior Member of the Communication & Systems Division Engineering Staff. Mr. Miller has been responsible for computer -aided Camden, N.J. thermal design involving computational heat transfer and fluiddynamics. Tacnet: 222-4610

24 RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 Design Hardware Released Conceptual Design 8 Detail Drawings Specification Design Drawings

NC Programs & Cut Metal 1 1 Previous Cable Harness Engineering Concepts Design Finite Element Analysis Assembly Instructions

Tool 8. Fixture Historical 4 Design Database

Fig.6. The information flow in the mechanical design process. Each transition represented different utilization of the CAD database.

Software to aid in the automation of cable harness design (a) has been developed and implemented on the Auto-Trol CAD system. This software interfaces with Auto-Trol's CAD sys- tem, which allows the design of a 3-D assembly. The model of the assembly sets the stage for the automation of cable har- ness manufacture. The designer can readily see possible paths or positive routes for the main trunk of the cable harness, and then constructs these paths via the Auto-Trol CAD system within the 3-D model illustrated in Fig. 5a. At this point, the designer executes the option for "visual inspection," and the cable harness bundle is formed and displayed as shown in Figs. 5b and 5c. Here each signal is routed between connector pins as well as the wire radii accumulated for cable bundling. Next, the "report generator" option may be selected in order to calculate lengths, resistances, and weight for each wire. Further development is required for the implementation of the flattening of the 3-D model for manufacturing and for the assessment of connector and tooling data.

(b) Conclusion To realize the benefits of a CAD system, information must be available from all the areas that would normally interface with the using activity (Fig. 6). At CISD, the original pur- chase of mechanical design CAD equipment was imple- mented in a Design Engineering/Drafting group. As our system evolved, we soon realized that in addition to creating production hardware drawings in an efficient manner, the system enhances communication between various depart- ments involved in the mechanical design process. By using a shared 3-D database, we are eliminating the regeneration of geometric data, which reduces the possibility of error and therefore improves the design cycle. This approach will improve RCA's competitive position in the communications (c) and information systems field. Fig. 5. The designer constructs cable harness routes through the 3-D model (a), then forms and displays the cable harness (b and c). References

1.Miller, H.P. and Wolfe, D.B., "Computer Aided Thermal Analysis and Design locally on a floppy disc and transferred to the VAX 11/750 of Complex Electronics Equipment," ASME paper 85 -DE -E-1. where it will be accessible to those users specified and con- 2. MIL-HDBK-217, "The Reliability Stress and Failure Data for Electronic trolled by Engineering Documentation. In addition, software Equipment," U.S. Department of Defense. 3. "SINDA-Systems Improved Numerical Differencing Analyzer," National was completed for the transfer and reformatting of these Aeronautics and Space Administration, Houston, Tex., 1980. same files for manufacturing engineering, where editing may 4.Weiss, M.E, MOTHA-"Moorestown Flow and Thermal Analyzer," RCA take place. This information may then be used by the factory Corporation, Missile and Surface Radar Division, Moorestown, N.J., October in the manufacture of the cable harness. 1982.

Butt/Miller/Hoke/Piazza: Comprehensive application of a CAD/CAM system to mechanical design 23 metal chassis designs are generally folded box structures with numerous cut-outs for connectors, purchased electrical com- ponents, and assorted mechanical mounting hardware. Man- ufacturing engineers can use the flat pattern software to generate a flat pattern layout of a part simply by indicating where the bend lines are and entering the bend radius and material thickness. This layout is generated with all of the cut-outs in their proper locations. The punching software can then be used to create a command file to drive an NC punch to "knock out" the part. Time is saved by eliminating redun- dancy (the manual entry of geometry from drawings) and reducing chances for error. In the "cast chassis" area of design, tooling changes are expensive, and extensive checking is needed to eliminate design mistakes. With the NC software, there is a relatively short turnaround time for mechanical fit verification model production. Here, an NC programmer can generate toolpaths in an interactive session on the CAD workstation (using the part that is already in the database) in one tenth the time of manual toolpath programming methods. This proce- Fig. 4. An iso-stress plot from a finite -element model of a dure can also be applied when schedule crunches on a pro- structure. gram cannot tolerate the long lead times involved in the purchase of castings. another graphics input system. There is also a wide range of Process and assembly engineers also benefit from the automatic mesh generation routines embedded in the soft- design information in a CAD database. In our assembly ware that provide such features as linear or controlled loga- area, process engineers routinely make copies of production rithmic volume fills of elements between defined surfaces. drawings, cut and paste parts of these drawings and add text All of these features provide the ability to create a complex to direct the assembly operation. Redisplay and formatting finite -element model for input to ANSYS. functions that exist in the CAD software are already tailored With the model complete in Series 7000, a menu is selected to accomplish this easily. to produce a finite -element file. This file is converted into ANSYS format using an ANSYS module (AUX15), and the engineer enters ANSYS with an intact geometry model. Once Cable harness in ANSYS, the stress -behavior environment must be speci- The cable harness design process is labor intensive, complex, fied. The type of analysis is chosen (static, modal, linear and detailed. It is for this reason that CISD has pursued this dynamic, etc.); the applied forces, pressures or constraints CAD application. are entered; and any physical or material properties associ- In the past the electrical engineer, with the assistance of a ated with the elements are specified. The ANSYS solution mechanical engineer, produced a sketch that defined critical phase is then executed and produces superimposed displace- paths for the cable bundles and connector locations. This ment plots, color stress contour plots (Fig. 4), and tabulated sketch was then delivered to drafting, which produced a wire displacements and stresses (at numbered nodes and ele- list for the pin connections and a detailed schematic. All cable ments). Sorts can be done to list critical values exceeded in the harness pin connections and cable routing information were model. With this tool an engineer can "tweak" a design to then manually typed and reviewed by engineering for accu- achieve optimum behavior and raise the level of confidence racy. The schematics were distributed to manufacturing engi- by subjecting more designs to a greater detail level of analysis neering along with a wire connection list. Here the flat pat- in a shorter period of time. tern is developed. In some cases this is accomplished by fitting the cable harness to the rack cabinet. This process is labor intensive and would best be solved through engineering Manufacturing applications via a CAD system rather than through manufacturing by The next phase in the development of mechanical designs is hand. to have the parts fabricated and assembled. Again, the 3-D After manually reformatting all of the above information, database can be used by a number of manufacturing engi- it was then sent to MIS to be entered into their materials neering functions. For fabricated parts, the CAD software inventory system and a final hardcopy was returned for use contains modules for flat pattern and punching as well as NC by manufacturing engineering. The process described was machining. lengthy and, because of human intervention, the error rate was high. Numerical control We first concentrated our efforts on establishing a link between engineering and manufacturing. This became possi- The majority of the hardware designed and manufactured at ble with the installation of the Ungermann-Bass local area CISD is for the packaging of electronic communications network. Also, software was designed to assist the draftsman equipment. The types of packaging fall into two categories; in entering the wire connection list and formatting the infor- sheet metal chassis and machined casting housings. The sheet mation for the customer. Upon completion, the list is stored

22 RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 (b)

(c) Fig. 3. (a) Shows the wireframe outline of a fiber-optic transceiver; (b) is a preliminary RC thermal model of 3-D internal grid conduction; (c) is an evolved RC thermal model of 3-D conduction including the transceiver lid and base coldplate; and (d) is the complete RC thermal model (d) of a fiber-optic transceiver.

CHTC convection resistors (for convection in fluids that mal model can be readily observed. Note that heat - dissipating electronic components were carefully distributed are not presently in PROPTY); in three separate circuit modules. Figure 3c illustrates the 6. "Nodal" calculation of free and forced convection from thermal model evolved one step further, accounting for con- respective grid nodes to ambient nodes, and internal con- duction to the transceiver lid and to a base coldplate. Figure vection; 3d shows the complete RC thermal model including the 7. "Nodal" calculation of direct radiation from respective effects of internal and external convection, ambient radia- grid nodes to ambient nodes, and re -radiation to adjacent tion, and the use of special thermal resistors accounting for grid nodes. perpendicular conduction (through several different materi- als) and lateral boundary conduction from the coldplate to The operation of GCSMOTHA involves: the chassis. 1. Construction of a physical model in 3-D (so-called "wire - The fiber-optic transceiver model was successfully run frame"); with GCSMOTHA, and a design change was modeled and analyzed within hours using this CISD CAD tool on an Auto- 2. Execution of the Finite -Element Modeler for creating Trol engineering workstation. It should be noted that the nodes and elements; complete thermal model used over 200 nodes and approxi- 3. Response to menu -driven screen prompts for creating the mately 700 thermal resistors. The GCSMOTHA input data input data file in Auto-Trol's graphics system Series 7000; file was created by direct console prompting within one hour. 4. Running GCSMOTHA using the graphics -generated data It is expected that this CISD CAD tool will yield both much file; higher resolution RC thermal models, when deemed neces- 5. Providing transient and steady-state temperature output sary, and significantly reduce thermal design turnaround in matrix format. time.

A thermal problem recently solved by GCSMOTHA involved a high -resolution discretization of a fiber-optic Structural analysis-ANSYS transceiver. Figure 3a illustrates the wireframe of the pro- The other area of engineering concern in mechanical design is posed package design. A wireframe is first constructed so that of structural integrity. At CISD we have ANYSYS (a that all surfaces are visible for executing the Finite -Element widely used finite element and model solver) input capability Modeler. The thermal model is constructed employing the from any of the designs created on the CAD workstation. In vitally important techniques of "color coding" and level an interactive session, an engineer can create a mesh model management, so that resistor elements corresponding to vari- from existing geometry using a wide variety of ANSYS- ous modes of heat transfer can be effectively differentiated. supported elements (2 -node beams, 4 -node plates, 8 -node Figure 3b shows the FEM-constructed thermal model that isoparametric solids, etc.). By working in the environment of accounts for 3-D internal conduction on the grid surfaces. the Series 7000 software, the engineer has a greater number of The linear conduction coupling in this high -resolution ther- graphics tools at his disposal and doesn't need to learn

Butt/Miller/Hoke/Piazza: Comprehensive application of a CAD/CAM system to mechanical design 21 electronic components increases approximately exponen- tially as a function of increasing temperature. The designer of an electronics assembly is typically faced with the problem of maintaining a semiconductor junction temperature below 125°C. In fiber optics applications, light emitting diodes should not exceed 64°C for proper operation. Hence, the need for CAD for thermal modeling and analysis becomes apparent. Many computer programs such as NASA's SINDA (Sys- tems Improved Numerical Differencing Analyzer)' and industry codes such as MOTHA (Moorestown Flow and Thermal Analyzer)° are presently available for general- purpose heat transfer analysis. Although these programs are fast and accurate, they do require extensive thermal modeling and very carefully prepared data input files for the effective use of the respective computer codes. The RADC Thermal Guide for Reliability Engineers' estimates that a heat transfer specialist with at least five years of experience would need one week to perform one 20 -node model of a printed board, and (a) two weeks for a 70 -node model, using a general-purpose heat transfer program. CISD has developed GCSMOTHA, a FORTRAN pro- gram with a user-friendly, menu -driven front end, which has a 3-D graphics modeling capability for a complex electronics package thermal analysis. The Auto-Trol mechanical design CAD system, on which GCSMOTHA is currently operating, first discretizes the physical model using the Series 7000 Finite -Element Modeler (FEM). It then performs the neces- sary data extraction by utilizing Auto-Trol's Applications Interface (AI) fortran programs for generating user-friendly command instructions. Data input is fast and reliable, and is done by responding to screen prompts and by interrogating the FEM-constructed thermal mode. The input data file is automatically created by the CISD-developed AI programs for running GCSMOTHA in the operating system. Both transient and steady-state heat transfer solutions are used for temperature predictions. GCSMOTHA uses the (b) lumped -parameter explicit finite -difference network solution in MOTHA for thermal predictions. In addition, GCSMO- THA dynamically couples MOTHA to CHTC (convective heat transfer),6 a CISD FORTRAN program for performing convective heat transfer calculations; PROPTY, a CISD FORTRAN program that is a resident library of 12 common fluid coolant properties; MATPROP, a resident library of materials properties; VIEW, a resident library of radiation view factors; and applications interface (AI) FORTRAN programs for creating user-friendly, menu -driven data entry and thermal model network data extraction. GCSMOTHA features include: 1. 3-D thermal modeling using the Auto-trol Finite -Element Modeler for creating nodes (temperatures) and elements (thermal resistors); 2. Transient thermal analysis using MOTHA's explicit finite difference equation algorithm; 3. Multiple grids (or meshes), currently up to 25; (c) Fig. 2. Detailed design progression: (a) shows the de- 4. Linear conduction coupling between adjacent grids; signer's layout (note the utility of color part definition); (b) shows a part "cut" from the layout; and (c) shows a page 5. Special thermal resistors accounting for contact resist- of the fully dimensioned product drawing. ance, perpendicular conduction (in depth), and non -

20 RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 (a) (b)

(c) (d) Fig.1. An example of conceptual model evolution: (a) surfaces defined for shading; and (c) and (d) show different represents a wire frame outline of the design; (b) shows views of the shaped solid. pulled from the layout. Here again, the detailer has a head generate a parts list, and then have keypunch personnel pre- start in preparing a fully dimensioned drawing. pare the information with the proper database coding. This is It is in this detailing phase that many tailored time -saving a rigorous, redundant process prone to error. We have devel- applications programs can be developed. The tedious, repeti- oped an applications program that allows our designers to tious tasks such as dimensioning, adding fabrication, mate- enter their parts list information into a text file while they are rial and finish notes, generating schedules and formatting a working on their drawing. With this file on the system, it is drawing can be automated. This automation not only saves possible to convert it to a form that is compatible with our time in the design process, but allows the designer to concen- parts list system on the IBM and transfer it directly to that trate his effort on fit and functionality problems. This results system. This represents increased efficiency in the flow of in a more productive, challenging work atmosphere. information. For example, we have developed a drawing note and mate- rial note program that has frequently -used embedded notes. If a designer wishes to choose a material, he can "page" Engineering analysis through a list of standard materials by their commercial des- Concurrent with the design of hardware, engineers are con- ignations, make a selection, and the proper Federal Specifi- cerned about the structural integrity and the thermal impact cation for the material will be placed on the drawing. This of their designs. Again, with the hardware in a 3-D database, ensures that the manufacturing community will receive draw- engineers can spend their time performing analyses of parts ings that call out a standard set of materials across diverse and systems of parts rather than entering the geometry. The programs (a purchasing advantage), and that typographical CAD software that we use has a finite -element mesh genera- and numerical transposition errors will be virtually elimi- tion module. With this capability, an engineer can quickly nated. Applying this philosophy to numerous in-house pro- and easily prepare a finite -element model of the existing gram tools has benefited our design process. design and pass this model into one of the finite -difference or Another area where these savings have been demonstrated finite -element solution programs. is in parts list documentation. At CISD we employ a CRP (Configuration Records Processing) system that is an accu- Thermal analysis-GCSMOTHA mulated parts list database on an IBM mainframe. This sys- tem allows users to sort, by a variety of methods, the parts One of the most frequent causes of electronic component and documents that make-up any particular program. The failures in complex electronics equipment is heat.' An exami- standard method of input to such a system is to manually nation of MIL-HDBK-2172 indicates that the failure rate for

Butt/Miller/Hoke/Piazza: Comprehensive application of a CAD/CAM system to mechanical design 19 S.W. Butt H.P. MillerD.N. HokeF Piazza

Comprehensive application ofa CAD/CAM system to mechanical design

RCA integrates CAD/CAM into all phases of the mechanical design process.

The benefitsof CAD/CAM in the mechanical design proc- Parts lists transferred to a centralized database ess can best be seen when the system is tailored to the design Machining, fabrication, and assembly data flow process in a particular industry. At RCA's Communica- Libraries of repetitive or evolving hardware for use in tion and Information Systems Division an abundance of future designs. programs are developmental, short production, or large- scale systems -integration projects requiring design of a wide This requires the use of a functionally versatile 3-D graphics variety of hardware. Whereas many industries look at CAD/ package (Auto-trol Technology's Series 7000), and the devel- CAM as an efficiency tool in the design of a family of high- opment of custom software tailored to the design flow. volume production products, at CISD we are attempting to automate the process flow of mechanical design to minimize duplicated efforts, improve overall productivity, and reduce Conceptual design development schedules. The first step in mechanical product design is to consider the This comprehensive approach includes: design parameters as determined from a specification of per- Preliminary marketing modeling using surface -shaded formance and to generate a conceptual design. This design is wire frames generally the joint effort of engineers and marketing people Design layout of a product assembly from the preliminary who must communicate to the customer the proposed aes- design thetics of the product in addition to its functionality. This Structural and thermal analysis when deemed necessary on process can be quite evolutionary and often many design this design concepts are generated. In a non -CAD environment the rate at which alternative concepts can be generated is dependent Production drawings of parts "cut" from the layout on the rate at which artists and designers can manually pro- duce sketches. Abstract: At RCA's Communication and Information Figure 1 shows a case where 3-D modeling can be Systems Division, a CAD/CAM system is being integrated employed to develop a geometric model and easily show into many phases of the mechanical design process. Starting different views and color combinations of the proposed with conceptual design, the 3-D database created can be product. This allows the proposal team to visualize alterna- used to start design layouts, generate detail drawings, tives and make decisions on form and aesthetics prior to perform engineering analysis, pass parts list information to model making. a centralized database, and generate machining, fabrication, and assembly information for manufacturing. This is made Hardware design possible by tailoring a versatile graphics software package (Auto-trol Technology's Series 7000) to meet the particular Once the appropriate model has been chosen and it is time to needs of the communications industry. The benefits of this start the actual design, the engineer or designer already has a approach are twofold: much redundancy of effort is configuration with which to work. The detailed design has a eliminated, and better communications are established "head -start." The design layout may now progress with the between various design disciplines. designer working in a 3-D frame of reference to best see the

©1986 RCA Corporation. relationship and fit of the assembled parts. Figure 2 shows Final manuscript received January 3, 1986 one such layout that was generated from a conceptual sketch. Reprint RE -31-2-4 This shows the ease with which individual part details may be

18 RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank the fol- lowing people for their help with this article: J.E. Greenup, T.A. Arsenault, M.F. Greene, W.B. Bradbury, R.L. Pre- noveau, R.S. Joress, and P. Berrett.

VAX is a trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation MicroVAX I is a trademark of Digital Equip- ment Corporation DECmate is a trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation DATATRIEVE is a trademark of Digital Equip- ment Corporation IBM PC is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation IBM PC AT is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation IBM PC XT is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation Apple isa registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. Macintosh is a trademark of Apple Computer, Fred Voto is a Senior Administrator in ASD's Morton D. Stern joined RCA Automated Operations Control Department, where he is Systems Division in 1966. As Manager, Program Inc. responsible for cost control and cost proposal Control and Pricing, Mr. Stern is responsible for Lisa is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. preparation. He received a BS degree in the management of two departments at ASD: MacDraw is a trademark of Apple Computer, Finance from Boston College, and an MBA from Program Administration and Control, and Cost the Boston College School of Management. Analysis and Pricing. He was a charter member Inc. Since joining RCA in 1975, Mr. Voto has of the Committee that developed the Program MacProject is a trademark of Apple Computer, pioneered the use of interactive computers for Manager's Guide. He received his BS degree in Inc. cost estimating, using Data General and VAX Engineering Management from Norwich Basic. Over the next couple of years, Mr. Voto University in 1961, and did his MBA studies at LaserWriter is a trademark of Apple Computer, used Data General's C-350 to eliminate the University of Rochester. After college, he Inc. keypunched cards for DEPICT applications by was on active duty with the U.S. Army Signal Corps Procurement Agency, where he was a MacTerminal is a trademark of Apple Computer, writing various data entry screens and programs in Cobol to create electronic card Project Manager. He spent several years with Inc. images. He has also initiated other business General Dynamics/Electronics Division as MacWrite is a trademark of Apple Computer, applications in Supercomp-Twenty and Business Supervisor for the F-111 ATE program, Inc. DATATRIEVE. In his current assignment in and was a Senior Value Engineer for Bell supporting the Avionics group, Fred is using the Aerosystems prior to joining RCA. Mr. Stern has MacPaint is a trademark of Apple Computer, Macintosh PC for a variety of cost reporting and been an active instructor in the RCA After Hours Inc. cost analysis applications. Training Program, and was a member of the Evening Division Faculty at Northeastern Imagewriter is a trademark of Apple Computer, Contact him at: Automated Systems Division University for several years. Inc. Burlington, Mass. Contact him at: Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Tacnet: 326.3305 Automated Systems Division Corporation Burlington, Mass. Tacnet: 326.5050 Supercomp-Twenty is a registered trademark of Arms Technology, Inc. Jazz is a Trademark of Lotus Development Corporation Lotus 1-2-3 is a registered trademark of Lotus Development Corporation Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation

Stern/Voto: Personal computers in the engineering workplace 17 RCA ATS/AV PLANNING 35FT. VAN PRODUCTIONSCHEDULE AS OF 21 OCT 85

MUG JUL 1985 AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC 1986 JAN ACTIVITY FEB WEEK 28 4 II 18 25 I 8 15 22 29 6 13 ENDING 20 27 3 10 17 24 I 8 15 22 29 5 12 19 26 2 9 INSTALL FOLD ROOF

INSTALL DOORS

INSTALL SEALS INSTALL A/C'S Wir INSTALL POWER ENTRY PANELS

RAIN TEST Yar BUILD ELEC. PANELS 7 .-- WIRE/CHECK-OUT ELEC. PANEL FOAM VAN V V INSTALL AIR DUCT V INSTALL INTERIOR PANELS V INSTALL WIRING/LIGHTS S77 I INSTALL FLOORS V

PAINT VAN INTERIOR I

FINISH VAN INTERIOR

INSTALL FLOOR MATERIAL ',,,/ IL. INSTALL ELEC. PANELS t "HOT- CHECKOUT VAN ELEC. 7 V FINISH VAN EXTERIOR V 1 I PAINT VAN EXTERIOR I

FINISH WORK WI DRY - RUN ELEC. ATP V4 7 I CONDUCT ATP V 7 I DELIVER TO RCA

Fig. 5. With PCs, production schedules can be produced quickly and inexpensively. This production schedule sample was developed on a Macintosh PC.

has also advanced, allowing efficient flowcharts, and work breakdown struc- One such system is the Intel 310, a multi- communication between dissimilar tures are just some of the outputs of this user system based on the Intel 80286 hardware, and the creation of software "electronic pencil." Managers can now processor. The Intel 310 can be confi- for all types of hardware. Two factors look at various product alternatives and gured with the only currently available have contributed most to improving examine each until the most suitable Ethernet transport control software office automation at ASD: the efficient candidate is developed. that is approved by the International distribution of equipment and software, Examining alternate approaches to Standards Organization (ISO). An and extensive hands-on training with an evolving system can be very time- IR&D project, looking forward to the live applications. consuming and costly. For this reason, ATE and test architectures of the future, design tradeoffs must be measured and is making use of networking technology Management use of PCs limited in scope. With the ease and fea- to create systems that are "infinitely" tures of a system like the Macintosh, the Division management has also bene- expandable, and that can communicate system designer has more freedom to be with a wide variety of other communica- fited from the use of PCs. For example, creative and can readily examine "what during the infancy stage of product tions systems. The 310 System will be if" solutions to a problem. This ability used, like the IBM PC, as a surrogate development, various designs are iter- to examine more alternatives will ulti- ated and reiterated as product require- system controller. Since its network soft- mately result in the definition of a bet- ware will be known working, it will ments are refined. Because engineering ter, higher -quality system and a higher data is stored on the PC in a graphic anchor the process of bringing up all degree of confidence that the evolved other systems and attaching them suc- format, presentation material, such as system is the best one. viewgraphs, can be quickly and inex- cessfully to the network. And, having pensively produced for management the only ISO -standard software pack- reviews. Functional block diagrams, Looking ahead age available, it will give ASD a leg up in conceptual schematics, organizational the race for the ATE architecture of the In looking to the future, we find uses of next decade. charts, software module breakouts, the PC -like system as a laboratory aid.

16 RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 with an impressive and meaningful

demonstration. BATTERY

ENGINE 6 CYLINDER Preparing illustrations with the PC A further PC application is in engineer- ing design. The design process involves BATTERY SIGNAL FROM the creation of many technical illustra- WAVEFORM PRESSURE TRANSDUCER tions that may be changed several times IN EACH CYLINDER as the design evolves. GRAPHICS In the past, all illustrations were pro- PRINTER duced by the Technical Publications Department. The results often exceeded GRAPHICS ST / PC the level of quality required for internal DISPLAY ICE TRIGGER engineering use, and the normal proces- SIGNAL sing time required to produce these illus- trations tended to slow down the itera- Fig. 4. Personal computers are appropriate as portable, low-cost field data aquisition sys- tive design process. Now, engineers tems. In this system, all components were purchased commercially, including the data have begun using an Apple Macintosh acquisition software. This significantly reduced costs for the STE-ICE Data Collection Sys- PC 512 for their design tasks. Analysis tem. of results showed that by using the Mac- intosh in engineering, the cost per illus- consuming manual schedule updates. In megabyte of standard memory, and the tration was considerably reduced. From addition to reducing overall labor, this support of respected names in the soft- March through September 1985, Vehicle technique has also lowered the cost of ware and peripheral industry, the Mac- Electronic Systems Engineering pro- updates by over one third. Another big intosh has grown into a system that duced 1600 engineering drawings on the plus has been the exceptional quality of offers untold dividends in even its sim- Macintosh, resulting in a well -illustrated output. With a standard printer, sched- plest configuration. system. By facilitating the iterative ules are suitable for viewgraphs; with a design process, a higher quality design laser printer, schedules are nearly book Office automation with PCs has been possible. quality. Other business applications using the The evolution of office automation has PC are increasing daily. The Cost Anal- stemmed largely from the desire to Program administration and control ysis and Pricing Group usesIBMPCs to become less dependent on the main- The Apple Macintosh has helped ASD rapidly update cost proposals. By using frame while still having it available for standardize scheduling in all of its Pro- electronic spreadsheets that facilitate data access. The minicomputer was gram Management Offices (PMOs). revisions and updates for such common thought to be a good solution to this This has improved the quality of output things as rate changes, this group has problem, and quickly became a way of and reduced the cost of monthly sched- been able to handle an increase in work- life here at Automated Systems Divi- ule updates. Figure 5 is a typical exam- load of forty percent with essentially the sion. However, new problems soon ple of a production schedule developed same resources. emerged in using this equipment. Mini- on a Macintosh by the Avionics Plan- The administrative community relies computers became overloaded with ning Group. heavily upon the need to produce accu- users and various business software In the past, schedules were hand - rate, constantly revised and updated applicationssufferedfrompoor generated in draft. Once agreed upon, spreadsheets for internal and customer response times. This pointed clearly to the schedules were manually converted consumption. Because of the dynamic the need for smaller, self-contained to master vellum, a labor-intensive proc- nature of these spreadsheets, their utility units. Personal computers became a ess that involved hand taping letters, is greatly enhanced in a PC environ- very attractive option for this particular symbols and bars. This was followed by ment. Frequent and rapid spreadsheet application. a quality check prior to reproduction modification can be accomplished with For most of our day-to-day business and distribution. extreme ease using the Macintosh sys- applications, PCs provide virtually the Today, standard templates and sym- tem and its mouse and pull -down menu same results as software loaded on a bology are stored in the Macintosh's features. Final output can be rapidly mini or mainframe for a lot less power memory. A project planner can now produced on hard copy, using either the and far fewer dollars. The PC can access create the schedule by moving a mouse, ImageWriter or LaserWriter printer, a distant mainframe via modem, access using eitherMacDrawand/orMacPro- depending upon output quality require- and download the required source data, jectsoftware. Additional savings occur ments. and reconfigure the data as desired during the program evolution since all The Macintosh has become a true without fear of destroying it. changes can be entered directly onto the business machine at ASD. With over Over the past few years, office auto- screen. The Macintosh system allows 500 pieces of retail software, eight mation has accelerated, with users for rapid resequencing and redrawing, major hard disk systems, telecommuni- exchanging ideas, resources and, most thus eliminating the tedious and time - cations, high quality printing, half a especially, learning skills. Technology

Stern/Voto: Personal computers in the engineering workplace 15 The personal side of the PC

1985 was a banner year for the diagrams for schedule visibility and upon the results of his or her own acquisition and use of PCs in Engi- critical path; high -quality presenta- thinking. This fast responsiveness is neering at ASD. The currently most tion material (in a short amount of an important reason why the Mac is popular PC choice of ASD engi- time); technical illustrations (use of fun to use and a morale booster neers is the Apple Macintosh (Mac). the Mac was found to be about four among engineers. Engineers prefer the Mac over its times less expensive than previous The bottom line for engineering closest competitor, the IBM PC, by a manual means); specifications, test managers is a good one- quality ratio greater than 2:1. Our most plans, and status reports (using improvements, cost savings, and numerous PC in Engineering is still MacWrite); viewgraphs, block dia- cost avoidance as a result of using the DECmate, which is used for grams, and work breakdown struc- the Macs. I've been told by several word processing by most of the tures (MacDraw); free -form graph- managers that on a recent proposal secretaries. ics (MacPaint); and project and effort, the Mac in combination with It is not difficult to understand budget planning (using MacProject, a LaserWriter printer was indispen- why engineers prefer the Mac. It is Jazz and Microsoft's Excel). sable; without it, timely response to easy to learn to use in a short time PCs are used in both a stand- the customer would have been due to such features as icons, pull alone mode and interfaced to our impossible. down menus, and the mouse. Thus, Ethernet/DECnet system in order to At ASD, a number of engineers an engineer who has no prior expe- communicate with our installed have bought Macs (mostly the "Fat rience on the Mac can become base of engineering VAX systems. Mac" with 512K of memory) for productive in a matter of hours- We have used both terminal emula- home use. With a Mac of one's own, not days, weeks, or months. No tors (such as Mac Terminal) and the there is a tendency to take more training is necessary on the Mac; communications feature of Lotus work home than would otherwise be just turn it on and start getting famil- Jazz to transfer files from the Macs the case. iar with the interaction of the mouse to our VAXs and vice versa. Based upon our experience with and the user. Before long, the user Engineers I have talked to are PCs so far-quality improvements, has the hang of using the mouse excited about the Mac's capabili- and hours and dollars saved/ and clicking on the menu bar and ties, so much so that demand for avoided-I would have to say that the fun of using the Mac begins. To Macs far exceeds current supply. the PC is turning out to be a good some, this may appear to be a Engineering managers report that investment for ASD. contradiction-implying that work Macs already acquired are receiv- can be fun-but this is the feed- ing heavy use. They facilitate the -Dr Vaughn Grace back from Mac users. creative process such that an engi- PCs are used to create PERT neer can quickly see and improve

filteringroutines.The command the engine simultaneously in real time and high-speed data communication. processor/expert system is written in and stored on disk, along with the bat- One of the many tasks of the Vetronics Pascal, which includes the detection tery cranking waveform and several crew station core processor is to control algorithms. Basic expert system technol- parameters from the STE/ICE. The this communication, allowing a crew ogy is used to determine the rules for data is then analyzed to determine the member to select from the various chan- fault detection. compression balance of the engine and nels. to calculate several internal constants to During the initial bus testing and inte- Field data collection with the PC be placed in STE/ICE memory. The sys- gration, in preparation for the prelimi- tem implementation is shown in Fig. 4. nary design review, not enough core In a unique engineering application, an processor boards existed to support the IBM PC is used in conjunction with an PCs and Vetronics testing broadband bus demonstration. In the internal combustion engine test set interest of time, IBM PCs were used (STE- ICE) for field data collection and Another application of the IBM PC in to simulate the Vetronics Computer development. The PC collects dynamic engineering addressed a crucial compo- Resources Subsystem. The I/O and cylinder pressure data and electrical nent of the Vetronics crew station. graphic capabilities of the IBM PC waveforms from an operating internal Vetronics involves heavy automation of hardware and software allowed for an combustion engine. The cylinder pres- complex military vehicles using a broad- easy implementation of a high -quality sure is collected from each cylinder in band bus for interstation audio/video simulation and provided our customers

14 RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 bearing that has a small spall on one of ON/OFF SWITCH its races, as shown in Fig. 1. During the 'CIRCUIT BREAKER' VIDEO early stages of failure, the spall is small 11011. 15 A DISPLAY

REMOTE and will not immediately jeopardize the 2 1/2 TON TRANSMISSION bearing's functionality. If undetected, CONTROL the spall will grow in size until the bear- ing fails completely, possibly endanger- PRINTER ing the operation of the entire machine. SLIDING SHELF FOR KEYBOARD WHEN USED Even during the very early stages of fail- MICRO LAISER COMPUTER ure, the bearing assembly will emit BEAM bursts of energy at a repetition rate LASER ELECTRONICS equal to that at which the balls encoun- POWER SUPPLY ter the small spall. These bursts of energy cause the machine elements to vibrate at specific frequencies and, if isolated from the other concurrent SPARES/STORAGE machine vibrations, the failing bearing can be detected and identified at a very early stage. The vibration signal levels associated Fig. 2. A laser velocimeter works with a PC to detect transmission vibration signals. The PC with the failing bearing at this early provides a user-friendly interface to the test system while handling system control, data stage of failure are, however, typically acquisition, and display functions. 30 to 50 dB below the background machine vibration levels. Until recently, this has prevented the early detection of most minor bearing faults. However, the advent of small, powerful com- puters such as the IBM PC AT and the HYDRAULIC commercial availability of signal proces- PUMP MOTOR (_TRANSMISSION sing software have greatly simplified the LOAD GRAPHICS implementation of complex vibrational DISPLAY analysis techniques. LASER BEAM Many of the processing techniques SPEEO SPEED SENSOR SENSOR

used in detecting bearing faults are also C 1

common to modern spread -spectrum LASER radar signal processing. As in radar pro- VELOCIMETER cessing, the fault signature is masked in

noise from various sources including A-0 clutter and synchronous and asynchron- CONVERTER IBM PC AT - PRINTER/PLOTTER ous noise from mechanical sources. a. DIGITAL Unfortunately, unlike radar signal pro- CIRCUITRY cessing, no transmitted reference signal is available. Many classical digital signal REMOTE processing techniques similar to fre- KEYBOARD quency filtering, pulse width identifica- CONTROL tion,demodulation, and time -to - frequency domain transformation are Fig. 3. Fault detection hardware includes an IBM PC AT. The PC's architecture allows easy used. integration of custom peripherals, a powerful microcomputer and a large existing software All of these special signal processing base. techniques require considerable sophis- ticatedcomputationalcapabilities out physically contacting the transmis- play, storage, and hardcopy output of which, until recently, were not available sion (see Fig. 2). signals, variables, and test parameters. in portable equipment. The vibration signal, along with input The fault detection software is run as and output shaft rotational position commands under the standard disk information from the transmission, is operating system. The signal processing sent to the PC. Functionally the hard-core programs are purchased from an Fault detection using the PC ware consists of an IBM PC AT with outside vendor and modified for the Engineers at ASD have found the PC to graphics display, printer/plotter, and specific application, thus allowing a sig- be a helpful tool for fault detection in analog to digital (A/D) converter and nificantly reduced programming task. truck transmission and transfer assem- sensors, as shown in the block diagram Processing features that require opti- blies. In this system, a laser velocimeter in Fig. 3. System capabilities make full mized coding are written in Macro is used to detect vibration signals with- use of the PC's features including dis- Assembler, which includes A/D and

Stern/Voto: Personal computers in the engineering workplace 13 M.D. SternF.A. Voto

Personal computers in theengineering workplace The innovator amongstus

At Automated Systems Division, nobody questions the -why" of PCs-they want to know when they will have more.

As the PCbecomes more and more of minals, 10 IBM PCs, and 28 Apple The PC has been used to help develop a an "external brain," a subtle change is Macintosh PCs. technique for non -intrusively assessing beginning to emerge, with greater We are all familiar with the burgeon- the condition of rotating machinery emphasis being placed on quality. We ing use of digital logic and circuitry in components through vibrational energy can now differentiate between what we implementing algorithms in operational signal processing. This technique is not have to learn and what we simply want equipment. Special signal processing dependent upon trending analysis, and to access. As the pocket calculator techniques are incorporated into reliable can be implemented in inexpensive port- replaced the slide rule, the PC is chang- compact hardware through VLSI able multipurpose test equipment using ing how we perform engineering and designs. These designs are the end result personal computers. The introduction run the office. of extensive engineering using small, of commercially available digital signal RCA Automated Systems Division powerful computers like the IBM PC processing software for an IBM PC has (ASD) has, over the past few years, been AT. made these advancements economically a part of this evolutionary process in the feasible. areas of office automation and engi- PCs and vibration analysis To illustrate the difficulty of detecting neering. This transformation has been faults through vibration analysis, con- enhanced through the accumulation of Anexample of engineering design using sider a machine incorporating among its 21 VAX computers, ranging in size from PCs is the effort in vibration analysis. many components a rolling element the MicroVAX I to the VAX 11/780.

These are supplemented by over 300 ter- I 1 l I 1 1 IIII 1 IIII1 II 1 II 1I Abstract:Automated Systems 81216202.428 Divisionhas found innovative 3 2 applications for PCs in engineering, business and management. In 64 engineering, PCs are useful for 16243,2 04856 vibration analysis, fault detection, field data collection, and Vetronics testing. Business applications of the PC include program schedules and proposal updates. In management, PCs are used for producing engineering data in graphic format for management reviews. In the future, the PC will serve as a laboratory aid, and will play an. integral role in automatic test equipment and test architectures. Fig.1. This magnified photograph shows a bearing outer race that containsa Class C fault as 01986 RCA Corporation. graded by the Army. This class of fault does not immediately impair the bearing's functionality, Final manuscript received January 3, 1986 but warrants replacement. With PCs and signal processing software, minor bearing faults Reprint RE -31-2-3 such as this one can now be detected earlier

12 RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 Wang PC or DECmate word proces- sors. The DECmates and Wangs can access VAX as terminals or transfer text files, eliminating the most notorious form of pseudo office automation- managers typing memos into a termi- nal, printing it and handing it to their secretaries for retyping. We are also employing IBM personal computers for spreadsheet -intensive applications and to access specialized PC applications software. All IBM PCs are connected to the VAXcluster and can double as termi- nals. We have recently installed DEC's All -In -One package, which replaces DECmail, as well as adding an applica- tions integration environment and some enhanced features, such as calendar management. The migration of users to All -In -One will be a continuing process The MEC Information Center is equipped with DEC VT241 graphicsterminals over the next year. and IBM PC AT PCs. In addition to serving as a site for classroom andindividual instruction, the information center can be used by employees whodo not otherwise have access to PCs. User support No investment in computer facilities base, as well as increasing emphasis on retired. Probably the most important makes sense unless people know how to engineering workstations and personal trendwillbe towards computer - use them. We have made substantial computers. To meet these needs, ECS integratedmanufacturing(CIM), efforts to provide supporting services to will be providing supporting services on wherein all design, administration, and our user community. A weekly schedule new engineering workstations in 1986, manufacturing is completely integrated of classes provides instruction in DEC - as well as expanding its support of per- through common databases and com- mail, DECalc, and DECgraph. Special sonal computers. We expect a major munication links. We will be working classes can be arranged for busy man- shift of manufacturing processing to with Somerville's CAD, CAM, and MIS agers. Computer -based instruction cov- VAX systems in the next few years as organizations over the next few years to ering office automation, VAX/VMS obsolete versions of IBM software are bring the CIM evolution to Somerville. and touch typing can be accessed at any phased out and the HP -3000 systems are time at any terminal. We have estab- lished an information center adjacent to our office area that includes top -of -the - line DEC VT241 terminals and IBM PC ATs. It is used for training classes as well in New York City. As a Member of the Technical Staff in the Design Automation department he as individual use and evaluation. We worked on computer -aided design software publish a bimonthly newsletter, Mail- development, including automatic VLSI routing box, which includes hardware and soft- algorithms and the porting of the production ware news, user tips, and system sched- ART system to superminicomputers. In 1983 he became Project Leader of CAD Technical ules. To insure the integrity of our Support and was responsible for expanding systems, we maintain a rigorous data Somerville's engineering computer capabilities backup policy, offsite data storage, and and commercial software support. Between we have installed sophisticated security 1983 and 1985, VAX -based computing capacity was increased seven fold, as the subscriber systems to protect our facilities. Most base swelled from 20 to over 400, and overall important of all, we provide a telephone usage increased 1600 percent. In late 1985 he help line- Tacnet: 325-7273-which is was appointed Manager of Engineering the central point for reporting system Computer Services, and in that capacity he is and performance problems, as well as now responsible for the Engineering Computer Center and VLSI Design Center, as well as office asking for help or advice on any of our automation systems for the Microelectronics products and services. Center and Solid State Engineering. Contact him at: Future Louis Judice joined the RCA Solid State Microelectronics Center Technology Center (now the Microelectronics Somerville, N.J. If current trends continue, we expect to Center) in 1978 after receiving the BE degree in Tacnet: 325.6425 see an expansion of the overall user Electrical Engineering from Manhattan College DECmail: JUDICE SMDCDM/SMDC::LJJ

Judice: Engineering Computer Services keeps Somerville online 11 Electronic mail links most RCA engineers ... and @COPSDM is the address of the DECmail VAX in Why aren't you using it? Princeton) Cc: MAILMAN (MAILMAN is the local mailbox for the One of the least known benefits of tying together most of ISMEF message switch) RCAs VAX and IBM computers is the ability of virtually any user to exchange electronic messages with another. One Cc: CHURCHILL @MRGATE@RCABRU (Churchill is on stumbling block is the existance of several electronic mail VMSmail, which requires routing through the VAX's Mes- programs and some slightly obscure rules for addressing sage Gateway) mail to remote sites. The current status of networked elec- Cc: tronic mail systems is as follows: Topic: SOS Device Characteristics Proposal Somerville (Solid State Division, Microelectronics Enter Message Text Center)-DECmail, VMSmail, HPmail, ISMEF @PROFSCH:GCLEVELAND (This is the PROFS address Princeton (RCA Laboratories)-DECmail, VMSmail, ISMEF that ISMEF will use to route from DEC to IBM)

Cherry Hill (Corporate Information Systems and Type in your message text . . . Services)- PROFS, ISMEF Command> SEND Moorestown (Advanced Technology Labs)-VMSmail This may look very complex. How on earth does one Cherry Hill (A&D Staff)-VMSmail remember so many names and addresses? Well, Engineer- East Windsor (Astro-Electronics)-VMSmail ing Computer Services in Somerville has published an Essentially, all systems with DECmail can talk to other sys- Electronic Mail Directory, with assistance from Corporate tems with DECmail, and all systems with VMSmail can talk Information Systems and Services and Princeton Informa- to other systems with VMSmail. ISMEF is a special com- tion Systems. Although we print the directory, we can also munications system developed by Information Systems provide a VAXNMS command procedure that searches Planning in Princeton Labs. It translates one mail protocol through the directory online. VAX groups interested in con- to another mail protocol, thus allowing a PROFS user at 30 tributing to the directory should contact me at Tacnet: 325- Rockefeller Plaza to send mail to a DECmail user in Somer- 6425 for further information, or better yet, send me mail at ville. SMDC::LJJ on VMSmail, JUDICE @SMDCDM on DEC - Almost anyone in the above sites with access to VAX or mail, or @SMDC:JUDICE through ISMEF. CMS can send mail to almost anyone else in the same or Of course, another excellent use of electronic messag- another site. Of course, you should contact your local VAX ing is transmitting your RCA Engineer manuscript to your systems administrator or MIS department for additional Editorial Representative or to the RCA Engineer staff in information on using the systems at your site. Princeton. For example, this article was mailed electroni- Here's an example of an electronic message that starts cally to: in Somerville, and will be read by Wilson in Somerville, Somerville: Sue Suchy (SUCHY @SMDCDM or Roosevelt in Princeton, Cleveland in New York, and Chur- SMDC::SPS) chill in Brussels: and Command> CREATE (This is the DECmail command to RCA Engineer Staff: Tom King (COPS::TEK) "create" a memo) A final note: my electronic mail address is shown after my To: WILSON (Wilson is in Somerville) biography at the end of this article. It is typeset in the form To: that we are suggesting that people at Somerville use on Cc: ROOSEVELT @COPSDM (Roosevelt is in Princeton, business cards, in articles, on memos, etc. the process of acquiring a 36 -inch color office systems around the VAXcluster, links to the Princeton "LINX" DEC - Versatec plotter. choosing specialized workstations for mail system. These allow users in users with very specialized needs. To Somerville to communicate with users integrate communications we installed of Princeton DECmail, as well as users Office automation DECmail, a comprehensive electronic of the corporate PROFS office automa- In 1984, our organization was given the mail and filing system. We wrote a tion package onIBM.We are working responsibility of developing a compre- frontend menu system, called Inte- with Princeton and Somerville MIS to hensive office automation system for grated Office Services, to allow novice extend the network to include the SSD the Microelectronics Center and Solid and casual users to log in and select HP -3000 -based manufacturing systems. State Engineering. The philosophy of from DECmail, DECalc spreadsheets, In terms of workstation choices, we our approach to office automation is to DECgraph graphics, bulletin boards, havetakenaveryconservative make maximum use of the synergy that corporate mail directories, and other approach. For most users, inexpensive will exist between engineering, manu- functions. During the past six months, DEC VT220-type terminals provide facturing, management, and adminis- we have solidified our system by install- adequate access to text and data proces- tration using one computing environ- ing links to Princeton's ISMEF elec- sing applications. Text -intensive users, ment. Therefore, we chose to center our tronic mail exchange and direct DECnet such as secretaries, are served with either

10 RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 modems on the Micom to allow users to SOMERVILLE CHERRY HILL SSD A& D °SRC DATA DATA EC3 SEMICUSTOM DECNET DEC NET access our systems from home terminals CENTER CENTER DECNET or personal computers. A major design goal of our terminal network was to let any user access any

computer resource in Somerville from SNA DECNET one desktop workstation. Amazingly, until the introduction of the Micom, there were offices that contained two or more terminals for accessing different services. Though VAX and HP com- puters were easily supported on the VAX CLUSTER Micom, special-purpose emulators were required for IBM access. We employ a Local Data Datalynx 3274 protocol emulator, which allows DEC terminals MICOM to enter the RCA SNA network and ETHERNET PBX access Somerville and Cherry Hill IBM computers as if they were IBM 3278 ter- minals. We have also provided autodial modems on the Micom to allow a user at PERSONAL AT&T. APOLLO. DEPARTMENTAL TERMINALS CALMA COMPUTERS NIPPE RN ET MENTOR VAX AND his or her office terminal to easily con- PDP-1 1 nect to outside databases such as Dow Jones News Retrieval or the Source. The At the center of the ECS network is the VAXcluster. The Micom, DECnet, Ethernet and SNA Micom also supports a network of each play a role in the overall communications architecture. about 20 local printers, including laser printersandletter -qualityimpact tion and file transfer. This has been VLSI Design Center, located in the printers, which are scattered throughout accomplished by providing special Microelectronics Center, has been ful- the Somerville facility. UNIX-to-VAX/VMS communications filling this function for four years. Orig- Though the Micom provides an excel- emulation software on the VAX and inally formed from the merger of SSD lent medium for terminal communica- Apollo systems. and MEC design centers, the facility tions, we support many other local- and Although the majority of engineering today consists of both workstation and wide -area networks. Engineering Com- computation is VAX -based, it is impor- shared -logic graphics systems. Five puter Services is a part of the Aerospace tant to maintain tight communications Calma GDS-II/32 and two Mentor and Defense DECnet network, linking with the Corporate mainframe com- Graphics workstations are employed, VAX systems in Moorestown, puters in Somerville and Cherry Hill, along with three Calma shared -logic sys- Burlington, Camden, Cherry Hill, East since there are certain classes of prob- tems and one Applicon shared -logic sys- Windsor, and Somerville to each other, lems that lend themselves well to solu- tem. In addition, a Calma S/280 mini- and to the CISS Engineering Computer tion on IBM mainframe hardware. We computer provides background pro- Facility (EC'). Somerville and RCA are implementing a DEC SNA gateway cessing capabilities for the Calma work- Laboratories established DECnet com- on the Somerville Ethernet to link our stations. Over the next two years we munications in late 1985 to support elec- systems to IBM. This network will expect to replace the remaining shared - tronic mail file transfer and remote ter- replace an aging and unreliable remote logic terminals with either Calma or minal access. We are also networked to job entry (RJE) system based upon out- Mentor workstations. An interesting the SSD Semicustom DECnet, which dated 3780 protocols. The SNA gateway benefit of our new workstation equip- links Somerville to the Brussels and will also allow new functionality, includ- ment is the ability to network into the Santa Clara design centers. Closer to ing the ability to route IBM printouts to VAXcluster. Both Calma and Mentor home, DECnet, over Ethernet, con- the VAX lineprinters, maintain multiple users can now transfer files to and from nects the Engineering Computer Center VAX -IBM connections, and permit the VAX systems, thus eliminating the to departmental VAX and PDP-11 com- more flexible file transfers. The SNA tedious and very error -prone task of puters within the Somerville Plant. All gateway will operate at 56 kbps, as writing and reading magnetic tapes. groups with DEC hardware are being opposed to 9.6 kbps for the existing RJE The VLSI Design Center also sup- encouraged to join the network to take link. ports several specialized pieces of equip- advantage of the VAXcluster's im- ment. The Calma Fast Mask Engine is a mensely greater computing and storage dedicated CPU that is optimized to exe- capabilities, and to help integrate vari- VLSI Design Center cute design -rule verification algorithms. ous types of design, test, and manufac- Of principle importance to the Somer- It is networked to the Calma worksta- turing databases. The same Ethernet ville community is access to sophisti- tions to allow high-speed local verifica- that allows DEC computers to talk to cated computer graphics systems that tion of circuit designs. Three black -and- each other also allows DEC and Mentor allow custom integrated circuits to be white Versatec plotters, including two engineering workstations to communi- laid out and edited in the quickest and 72 -inch units, provide high -resolution cate, allowing remote terminal emula- most productive manner possible. The plots of circuit designs. We are also in

Judice: Engineering Computer Services keeps Somerville online 9 neering Computer Services was formed to manage what had grown to become a SMDA VAX -11/785 four -node VAXcluster consisting of two VAX -11/780s, one VAX -11/785 and M one VAX -8600. These four systems 9.6 Kb/s CONNECTION SMOB VAX -11/780 share a pool of 52 megabytes of main M memory and over eight billion bytes of

LOCAL TERMINALS AND PC'S SMDC disk storage. An important feature of VAX -11/780 VAXcluster is the ability of each proces- sing node to share disks, common batch M M478 6 SMDE queues, and print spools. This lets users MULTIPLEXER 138 Kb/s 0 VAX -8600 TRUNK 0 view the cluster as one giant computer complex. Since each machine operates RCASOM in an independent (but cooperative) VAX -I 1/782 manner, there is built-in redundancy. In

AT&T nearly two years of VAXcluster opera- P 2212D HP 3000 AUTOANSWER B tion, we have experienced complete MODEMS clusterwide failures only a handful of times. Our overall uptime consistantly X.25 DATALYNX PAD 3274 averages over 99 percent month after month. The VAXcluster supports over

UDS 212D 500 subscribers-mostly basedin AUTODIAL MODEMS Somerville, though many Princeton, Moorestown, and Mountaintop users

X.25 also access our systems. Somerville's PAD VAXcluster is the largest such installa- tion in RCA, and supports one of the largest user communities of any divi- sional computer center in the corpora- ADMINISTRATION DIAGNOSTIC STATISTICS CONSOLE CONSOLE LOG tion.

The Micom M600/2 Data PBX is the central switching system for terminals in Networking the ECS communications network. Over 300 terminals are connected to the To support this user population, a Micom-every office cubicle in some 90 percent of our service area is provided Micom M600 Data PBX is used to with at least one terminal. switch some 350 terminals and tele- phone lines between the VAXs, as well as to provide access to Somerville's HP and IBM computers. We selected the Micom approach to terminal access overotherapproaches,suchas Ethernet, due to its very low cost per connection, open architecture, and maintainability. In some two years of service, our Micom switch has displayed 100 -percent reliability, an impressive statistic. Most office areas are con- nected to the Micom switch by time - division multiplexed trunk lines operat- ing at138 kbps over twisted -pair cabling. The vast majority of our termi- nal population consists of DEC VT220, VT240, and VT102 video display termi- nals. A growing population of IBM per- sonal computers, including XT and AT models, are supported as VT100 look -a - likes. A number of Wang and HP per- sonal computers, as well as DECmate II Calma GDS-II/32 VLSI design workstations provide a significant improvement and III word processors, are also con- in layout designer productivity since they are based around dedicated 32 -bit nected to our terminal network. We supermicrocomputer technology. Each station is connected to Ethernet, allowing have provided a large number of the design files to be transfered to the VAXcluster. latestAT&T 2212Dautoanswer

8 RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 L.J. Judice

Engineering Computer Services keeps Somerville online

Integration is the key to building an information system that serves engineering, manufacturing, and administrative users.

Somerville's Engineering Computer Center has its roots in a 1972 Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) PDP- 11/20 minicomputer. Purchased by the Design Automation department, the PDP-11 was a great step forward from the PDP-8 computers then in use. The system was used for the initial develop- ment of the ART program, the produc- tion software system still used to convert mask artwork into numerical control tapes for optical and electron -beam pat- tern generation equipment. ART grew and grew, and was eventually trans -

Abstract:RCA's Somerville plant is the home of the Solid State Division and the Aerospace and Defense Group's Microelectronics Center. Somerville is the focal point of RCA's LSI technology and integrated circuit Technicians in the Engineering Computer Services Operations Center can pinpoint and correct problems anywhere in the computer and communications product development. Providing complex. A sophisticated telephone and paging system can be used to instantly information services to this diverse contact other staff members anywhere in the plant or at home. community is the responsibility of the Engineering Computer Services (ECS) organization. ECS is a part of the ported to the Solid State Division's IBM 1981 to help speed the development of Computer and Design Services 370/168 mainframe. Many other new automated layout software sys- function of the RCA Microelectronics internally developed computer -aided tems. The VAX quickly became the pre- Center. Its responsibilities include the engineering tools were developed in ferred computer system for software operation of Somerville's Engineering Somerville over the years, including the developers, layout designers, and engi- Computer Center, the VLSI Design RCAP circuit simulator, MIMIC logic neers, due to wide software availability, Center and office automation systems simulator, and the AUTOROM ROM good response time, and numerous user for the Microelectronics Center and pattern generator, just to name a few. friendly tools and utilities. Most of SSD Engineering. This article is a brief Few changes to the computing environ- RCA's IBM -based CAD tools were con- look at Engineering Computer Services ment occurred until the late 1970s, when verted to run on VAX in the early 1980s. and the ways we serve our user a new phenomenon occurred in the Concurrently, the phase -out of several community. computing industry-the super mini- venerable, but hard -to -support pro- computer-epitomized by machines grams such as CRITIC and SMART such as the DEC VAX -11/780 and the occurred during this period. ©1986 RCA Corporation. Final manuscript received February 28, 1986 Prime 750. The Design Automation By 1985, the majority of engineering Reprint RE -31-2-2 department purchased a VAX -11/780 in computation was VAX -based. Engi-

RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 7 ties installed. The actual programs reside on the network system volumes and look for this "key diskette" in drive "A" when loaded. Other packages, like WordPerfect, are available with net- work licenses and no awkward copy- protection schemes. The standard issue of software includes WordPerfect (wordprocessor), Lotus 1-2-3 (integrated spreadsheet), and PC -VT Additional software pack- ages being used are Harvard Total Pro- ject Manager and Timeline (project management), dBase III (relational database), and Dr. Halo II (high resolu- tion graphics). At this time, pointing devices such as a mouse, light pen, or graphics tablet that might further enhance the PC graphics capability are being evaluated. All PC users have received formal training via three separate courses: Introduction to PC -DOS and the ATL/ LAN; Lotus 1-2-3; and WordPerfect. Authors, left to right: Rosenthal, Peters, and Abrams. Plans for the future A new version of the PC -DOS mail soft- Gary Abrams has been a computer systems experience includes systems and software ware that will allow the interchange of analyst at ATL since March 1985. His first programming, operations research, and achievement was the creation of ATL's numerical control programming. Mr. Peters mail messages between VAX/VMS and comprehensive PC network. Currently, he is studied Computer Science at Carnegie-Mellon PC -DOS is expected to be released in responsible for all phases of the operation and University. 1986 from Syntax Systems. This capa- enhancement of this network. His other efforts Contact him at: bility will allow us to further integrate involve ATL's VAXs and parallel Ethernets. Advanced Technology Laboratories Before coming to ATL, Mr. Abrams was in Moorestown, N.J. the two environments and offload addi- charge of all PC hardware and software support Tacnet: 253-6644 tional VAX processing to the PCs. at MicroAge. During this time, he became As Manager of ATL's Software Engineering certified to service and support innumerable Additional mechanisms to integrate the Laboratory, Harry Rosenthal is responsible for kinds of PCs: IBM, ATT, Compaq, and Altos, for VAX/PC installations will be investi- the development of advanced software example. Earlier, at UNIVAC, he was responsible engineering tools, for transfer of software gated. for the repair of minicomputer systems. The new version (2.0) of Lotus 1-2-3 Contact him at: technology, and for computer operations and administration. Areas of technical focus include will be installed as soon as it arrives. Advanced Technology Laboratories Moorestown, N.J. validation/verification (both formal and informal), Some of the new features are file level modeling/simulation, compilers, operating Tacnet: 253-6676 password protection, linear regression systems, project/product management, data analysis, an increased size of 8192 rows base management, and systems analysis. by 256 columns, 8087 math co- Jack Peters is Manager of Computer Before joining RCA, he spent over twenty Operations and Administration in ATL's Software years in DoD consulting, primarily in the processor support, and improved mem- Engineering Laboratory. The computer center research and development sector, and also ory management. he manages contains a cluster of VAX worked for two computer manufacturers. Mr. The latest release of WordPerfect computers. This center services over 300 user Rosenthal holds MA and BS degrees in (4.1) will also be installed on the net- accounts. Currently, he is in charge of a system Mathematics from New York University work. A few of its new features are a of networks connecting all nonsecure Contact him at: computers in ATL. This networking extends, Advanced Technology Laboratories built-in thesaurus, split-screen editing of also, to other divisions of Aerospace and Moorestown, N.J. multiple files, newspaper (snaking) Defense and an IBM 3083 mainframe. His Tacnet: 253.6451 columns side by side on the screen, memory caching, and cutting and past- ing of rectangular blocks of text.

6 RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 Xerox disk server board had to be installed in the 3Server ceiver cables from either DELNIs or A Xerox disk server was also consid- to provide a bridge to the AppleTalktransceivers. No Thin Ethernet cable is ered. In addition to a disk server, an Network. used because it greatly limits the overall interface board (with software) was distance of the network and requires the use of repeaters. needed for each PC. The server would Syntax VAX Interface Manager (VIM) provide moderate performance via Each user has a five- or ten -megabyte Ethernet connection, scheduled The last alternative, VAX Interfacedata volume on the VAXcluster server, backup, some file security, and limited Manager (VIM) from Syntax Systems, depending on needs. This volume is the shared resources. Among the disadvan- used in conjunction with the 3Com user's own private area, and cannot be tages were high initial and incremental products, was the design of choice. VIMaccessed by another user unless the costs. Additionally, non -IBM personal was found to be a software product that owner allows it. There are two system computers would not be supported, the runs as four detached processes undervolumes that support PC -DOS 3.1 for disk server required operator attention, VAX/VMS. To a PC connected to thethe IBMs, and MS-DOS 2.11 for the and very little commercial software was network using 3Com's Etherlink prod- DEC Rainbows. Other than having dif- supported. uct, the VAXcluster emulates a large ferent versions of DOS utilities on them, 3Server. The initial cost is low, and up to these system volumes contain basically 200 users can be supported. Virtual disk the same application programs wher- capability is provided, as well as shared ever possible. The system volumes are Corvus Omninet access to two printer queues. A mail util- read-only so users cannot alter the Corvus Omninet was another candi- ity is included, although the IBM PC -installation parameters of the individual date. A stand-alone disk server, inter- DOS mail software from 3Com ispackages once they have been estab- face board (with software) for each PC, needed to use it. A number of utilities to lished. and twisted -pair cabling was required. facilitate file transfers between VMS The 3Com 3Server not only bridges This network supported both IBM and and DOS are included, but require VMS the gap between the Apple Macintoshes DEC PCs, had moderate initial and privileges to use. If the VAX that the and the rest of the network, it provides incremental costs, and an electronic software is running on goes down, the secure storage for a management data- mail utility was available. However, at 1 software can be started on another VAXbase. Although VIM stores the DOS Mbs the transfer rate was relatively in the cluster, thus providing failover files in a translated manner (from a slow, the total distance of the network protection. Backup is provided through VMS standpoint), additional security was only 1000 feet, and no scheduled normally scheduled VAX/VMS back- was desired. Users who need an extra backup was available. Furthermore, no ups. An extra software package, called layer of security for their data store it on bridge or gateway to the VAXcluster via Remote File Manager, allows file trans- the 3Server, which is kept inside a Ethernet was available. fers between DOS and VAX/VMS to be limited -access computer center. At the initiated from the PC. To connect the end of each day the 3Server is backed up Apple Macintosh computers to the rest and powered down, making the data 3Com 3Server of the network, a 3Server, with an stored on it unaccessible. The 3Com stand-alone 3Server was AppleTalk interface board in it, is used The mail utility allows users to send evaluated. When used with the 3Com as a bridge between the VIM software messages as well as binary files. When a Etherlink board and software, it pro- on the VAX and AppleTalk. user receives a message with an attached vided each PC with a virtual hard disk. binary file, both can be stored for later The Etherlink board supported direct use with another application. This fea- Ethernet connection via a DEC DELNI Current network ture is especially useful for spreadsheet or transceiver, or through PC -to -PC The current PC network allows PC files that must be updated periodically chaining with Thin Ethernet cable. users to share VAX disk and printer by various people, or for the production Either way, the transfer rate of 10 resources. System volumes containing of large documents by combining a Mbs provided high throughput. A various utilities and application pro- number of smaller documents that have streaming -tape backup unit, permitting grams can be linked to by any user on been mailed from different sources. scheduled backups, was available. the network. Each non -secretarial PC A site license was obtained for a DEC 3Com's 3Server provided good file secu- has its own local dot-matrix printer and VT100 emulation package (PCVT). It rity, required little end -user retraining, a link to a letter -quality printer through allows the IBM and compatible PCs to and posed few software compatibility the network. A small laser printer is communicate with the VAXcluster issues. However, the cost/Mbyte was included as part of the standard PC sec- through an asynchronous serial connec- comparatively high, and no bridge or retarial system. Acting as local print tion. Some software, such as1-2-3from gateway to the VAXcluster was availa- servers in addition to being worksta- Lotus Development Corporation, is not ble. Maintenance and lack of failover tions, these systems allow localization of available with a network license, but protection(explained below)also high -quality printing resources for each employs a copy -protection scheme that caused a concern. The server, along with laboratory. requires a "key diskette" to run. This operating software, only supported 60 Each PC has two connections-one difficulty has been overcome without users; after that, another server would network connection and one asynchron- violating the license agreement by eras- have to be added. Only IBM PCs and ous serial line for terminal emulation to ing (not formatting) the files on the compatibles were supported by the the VAXcluster. All Ethernet connec- diskette and making it a DOS system Etherlink product, and an additional tions are made through standard trans- diskette with network drivers and utili-

Abrams/Peters/Rosenthal: Expansion of the RCA engineering network 5 G.O. AbramsJ.K. PetersH. Rosenthal

Expansion of the RCA Engineering Network by means of PCs

ATL's personal computer local area network is designed to take maximum advantage of, integrate with, and build upon the existing ATL VAXcluster and RCA Engineering Network.

Enhancementof the data handling and resources. System -wide backup is easily general ATL userbase expected from a processing capabilities for personnel in provided. The PC network performs PC. After the results were tallied, stan- the Advanced Technology Laboratories high-speed (10 Mbs) data transfers via dard PC configurations were defined. (ATL) required the addition of com- extensions to an existing ATL Ethernet. The base system consisted of a dual - puter processing power for manage- In addition, a separate management drive IBM-PC XT with a 12 -inch (diag- ment, support and technical engineering database is provided by an independent onal) amber display, a 3Com Etherlink use. Additional power was obtained via server whose files cannot be accessed by board, a Tseng Laboratories multifunc- establishment of a personal computer unauthorized users. tiongraphicsboardproviding (PC) local area network (LAN). The system will be discussed from the 720 x 348 -pixel resolution, a real-time The resultant implementation allows standpoint of design requirements, clock with battery backup, RAM PCs to network directly and to integrate alternatives investigated, and utility. expansion up to 640 kbytes, a parallel with the ATL local VAXcluster, com- printer port, and an asynchronous serial prised of a combination of VAX 8600/ port. Okidata Microline 193 printers 780/750 equipment running VAX/ Requirements were chosen for local non -secretarial VMS. In addition, a variety of other The goal wasto take maximum advan- output. Their characteristics include computers are connected to the VAX - tage of, integrate with, and build upon a draft -mode print speed of 160 char- cluster. As the hub of the RCA Engi- the existing ATL VAXcluster and RCA acters per second and compatibility neering Network, the VAXcluster inter- Engineering Network. Asynchronous with standard IBM PC graphics. The faces with over 40 VAXs and the transmission of ASCII and binary files selected DEC Rainbows have 256 kbytes ATL-resident IBM 3083-J of the Engi- was one requirement-others included of RAM, an amber display, and a DEC neering Corporate Computer Center. support of IBM, Apple Macintosh, and LA100 printer. The Apple Macintoshes The ATL network of IBM, Macin- DEC PCs; ease of use; high speed/ have 512 kbytes of RAM, an external tosh, and Rainbow PCs provides both performance; scheduled backup; trans- disk drive, and anumeric keypad. sharedhardwareandsoftware parent operation; reliability; versatility; data security; expandability; minimal Alternatives investigated incremental costs of adding users and Abstract:Enhancement of the data increasing disk storage; PC -to -PC "Walk -LAN" handling and processing capabilities for direct transmission and electronic mail; The first design alternative investigated management, support, and engineering shared resources such as high -quality was "Walk -LAN" (i.e., non -networked personnel at the Advanced Technology printers and large -capacity disk drives; PCs). Although this would be very flexi- Laboratories (ATL) required the the ability to move applications from ble in terms of relocation of equipment addition of specialized computer the VAXcluster to the PCs in order to and low initial cost,it provided no processing power. This was achieved free VAX resources for large jobs; and shared resources, scheduled backups, through the establishment of a personal easy maintenance. Additionally, man- VAXcluster integration, or PC -to -PC computer network integrated with the agement wanted to avoid completely mail utility. In addition, having to ATL VAXcluster. rewiring the building since two Ethernet "walk" floppies throughout ATL was coaxial cables were already in place. considered too time consuming and, @1986 RCA Corporation. Final manuscript received November 20, 1985 A formal study was done to deter- therefore, not very cost-effective or effi- Reprint RE -31-2-1 mine the level of functionality that the cient.

4 RCA Engineer 31-2 Mar. / Apr. 1986 in this issue ... PCs & engineering workstations

Abrams/Peters/Rosenthal: "The ATL network of IBM, Macintosh, and Rainbow personal computers provides both shared hardware and 4 software resources." VAXcluster

7 Judice: "Somerville's VAXcluster is the largest such installation in M 9.6 Kbis CONNECTION RCA, and supports one of the largest user communities of any C divisional computer center in the corporation." 0 4.1 M

A 0 12 Stern/Voto: "In a unique engineering application, an IBM PC is used CONVERTER' -I SMD IBM PC -AT -20PIS in conjunction with an internal combustion engine test set (STE-ICE) for DIGITAL CIRCUITRY 25 field data collection and development."

53

Butt/Miller/Hoke/Piazza: "We have developed an applications 1 AM/EZZ-77 program that allows our designers to enter their parts list information 2 PROCESSOR AAA into a text file while they are working on their drawing." PROCESSOR RHM 4 PROCESSOR ROB Marett: "Most of the commands of PERSONAL870 are the same as 5 PROCESSOR CCC 6 PROCESSOR III those used by the Applicon software." 7 PROCESSOR SEE AN/XXX-99 Solomon: "Our experience has shown that reliability predictions can 9 PROCESSOR DDD be done using Monte Carlo simulations instead of analytical solutions." 10 PROCESSOR OGG 29 11 PROCESSOR FFF Kunz/Miller/Renfro: "This integrated approach allowed us to build a Monte Carlo 12 AN/Y7Y-88 system that is reliable, has fast response times, supports a large number of users, and is easily taught to new users." 34 IBM 4381 - 02 Law/Bernard: "Note that once an actual feature algorithm has been identified, without the functional simulation capability, the building of o tgE these features on breadboards would have been required." gigigI I

Lazarus/Kelley: "Repeated attempts to stretch PC -based systems to kipp00000000 plan multiple large projects were only partially successful." loomommon Kjellquist: "With a superbly engineered man -machine interface and a 42 singular focus on a weighted -criteria analysis, Lightyear is a unique engineering tool." 58 Barton: "For some time we have been recommending the Macintosh as a low -end graphics terminal." terminal emulation

Zarodnansky: "... just because there are some fancier machines around doesn't mean that you should relegate your PC to the scrap heap yet."

Stranix: "Software . . . is an intellectual property that has value beyond its direct utility to RCA."

in future issues... laser technology LASER manufacturing OPERATING quality alCBM Engineer Vol. 31 No. 2 Mar. Apr. 1986

networks 4 Expansion of the RCA engineering network by means of PCs G.O. Abrams J.K.1 Peters 1H. Rosenthal

7 Engineering computer services keeps Somerville online L.J. Judice

applications 12 Personal computers in the engineering workplace M.D. Stern F.A. Voto

18 Comprehensive application of a CAD/CAM system to mechanical design S.W. Butt H.P. Miller D.N. Hoke IF. Piazza

25 Analog printed -circuit board design using an IBM PC AT T. Marett

29 Spacecraft reliability predictions by computer simulation J.G. Solomon

34 IBM graphics workstations at Video Component and Display Division P.J. Kunz R.N. Miller 1 G.M. Renfro

42 Simulation of digital TV signal processing with an engineering workstation K.A. Law IFS. Bernard

50 Automated project management with PCs and a mainframe F.F. Lazarus iW.T. Kelley

53 Lightyear-an engineering analysis tool D.T. Kjellquist

58 Using the Macintosh as an engineering workstation D.P. Barton

The Engineer's Notebook 70 Dressing your PC for success D. Zarodnansky

74 Software, a valuable by-product at RCA A.J. Stranix

departments Patents, 761Pen and Podium, 77 1News and Highlights, 79

Copyright 1986 RCA Corporation All rights reserved Personal computing workstations in engineering Lower cost and increased functionality have made of PCWs and stand-alone, dedicated machines. PCs and Workstations (PCWs) the ubiquitous Unfortunately, today's technology cannot combine all sliderule of the decade. PCWs have greatly changed approaches into a seamless whole; the crunch the engineering environment. A continuum of comes at the interfaces between dissimilar systems. computing power is now available-from PCWs The technical community requires a communal through micro and minicomputers to mainframes vision or purpose: an evolving "single technical and supercomputers. The distinctions among computing system"-not one vendor or one way, but computing machines are becoming increasingly rather an overall view of how best to assemble and blurred. mesh smaller discrete systems into a larger, What are the opportunities and problems arising cooperative whole. This is a bold step, truly beyond a from this technical cornucopia? First, it is clear that comprehensive solution today, but a requirement for significant administrative and technical tasks will be our future business. done on PCWs. Strong productivity gains are already There are several principles that can be followed documented. The market is brimming with useful incrementally: a guiding architectural view, tools aimed at the engineer/manager, and these will integrated telecommunications, gentle but firm increase in power. Second, as change accelerates, system standards, a cautious narrowing of the the need to integrate the work product of individuals vendor base, and use of common systems for with the broader purpose of organizational groups common tasks. The benefits of following these will place a high premium on sharing and principles are enormous, but we must use care to do cooperation. More engineers will work across it right the first time. Tip -toeing into shared multiple computer systems to solve their technical computing on a massive basis is like staging a ballet and administrative problems. Better tools merely let in a mine field. us solve bigger problems. Looking forward to our new relationship with Many business units have invested in PCWs, but General Electric Company, we can anticipate even mostly on an ad hoc basis with limited access. Too more support for this vital area. often, progress is driven by departmental technical activists without senior management involvement. Several Divisions have already achieved significant results from the coordinated use of PCWs on a near- saturation basis and are at the beginning stages of broader system integration. What do we need? Helter-skelter individualism must yield to shared approaches that are driven from large, sophisticated computer systems, strong in integration and communications, and from a variety

James C. Miller Director, Engineering Computing Corporate Information Systems and Services Editorial Representatives and Technical Publications Administrators

Contact your Editorial Representative at the Tacnet *Technical Publications Administrators, responsible numbers listed below to plan your RCA Engineer article for review and approval of papers and presentations, and to announce your professional activities. are indicated here with asterisks before their names.

Advanced Technology Laboratories Tacnet Network Services Tacnet *Merle Pietz Moorestown, New Jersey253-6429 *Richard Spencer Princeton, New Jersey272-7750 Ed Master Moorestown, New Jersey253-6436 New Products Division Aerospace & Defense Staff *Pete Bedrosian Lancaster, Pennsylvania227-6880 *Theresa Law Cherry Hill, New Jersey222-5833 Bob McIntyre Ste Anne de Bellevue514-457-9000 (Approvals only) Patent Operations American Communications George Haas Princeton, New Jersey226-2888 *Anita Labib Princeton, New Jersey258-4346 (Approvals only) RCA Cylix Carolyn Powell Princeton, New Jersey272-4194 Paul Dixon Memphis, Tenn.739-0214 Astro-Electronics Division RCA Laboratories *Frank Yannotti Princeton, New Jersey229-2544 *Julie Dann Princeton, New Jersey226-2061 Carol Coleman Princeton, New Jersey 229-2919 (Approvals only) Automated Systems Division Eva Dukes Princeton, New Jersey226-2882 *Gene Galton Burlington, Massachusetts326-3775 RCA Records Division Linda Kriesman Burlington, Massachusetts326-3001 *Greg Bogantz Indianapolis, Indiana424-6141 Communication and Information Systems Division RCA Service Company *Dan Tannenbaum Camden, New Jersey 222-3081 *Murray Kaminsky Cherry Hill, New Jersey269-5418 Harry Green Camden, New Jersey 222-2423 Dick Dombrosky Cherry Hill, New Jersey269-5618 Bruce White Camden, New Jersey 222-3908 Ray MacWilliams Cherry Hill, New Jersey269-5005 Consumer Electronics Operations RCA Technical Excellence Center *Eugene Janson Indianapolis, Indiana422-5208 *Tony Bianculli Princeton, New Jersey226-2111 John Hopkins Indianapolis, Indiana 422-5217 (For corporate approvals) Larry Olson Indianapolis, Indiana422-5117 Corporate Information Systems & Services Solid State Division *John Schoen Somerville, New Jersey325-6467 *Sue Handman Cherry Hill, New Jersey222-6242 Sy Silverstein Somerville, New Jersey325-6168 Global Communications Virginia Pate Somerville, New Jersey325-6704 Harold Ronan Mountaintop, Pennsylvania327-1473 *Dorothy Unger Piscataway, New Jersey335-4358 or 327-1264 John Young Findlay, Ohio425-1307 Microelectronics Center *Susan Suchy Somerville, New Jersey325-7492 Video Component and Display Division *Ed Madenford Lancaster, Pennsylvania227-6444 Missile and Surface Radar Division Lou DiMattio Scranton, Pennsylvania329-1435 Circleville, Ohio432-1228 *Don Higgs Moorestown, New Jersey224-2836 Nick Meena Marion, Indiana427-5566 Graham Boose Moorestown, New Jersey253-6062 J.R. Reece Jack Friedman Moorestown, New Jersey224-2112 National Broadcasting Company *Bob Mausler New York, New York324-4869

March 26. 1986 BULK RATE RCA Engineer US Postage A technical journal published by PAID the RCA Technical Excellence Center "by and for the RCA engineer" Phila., Pa. Permit No. 2906 13 Roszel Road, P.O. Box 432, Princeton, NJ 08543-0432 Address correction requested

47E080rN IIIH A?J2i31-13 Ob SNIN13 EOZ NOSSON r3

Printed in the U.S.A. Form No. Re -31-2

Color is often used in computer graphics to enhance the display of selected information, especially when the data set is complex or busy. These three examples are from the Kunz/Miller/Renfro article on page 34. At the left is a 3-D wireframe model of a 26V COTY picture tube. At the bottom left is a complex CADAM isometric. At thebottom right is a false -color plot of a picture tube mask -frame assembly. The colors in this last photo represent z-axis displacements of the assembly resulting from a given thermal distribution.

.4 ColDS ! 0,11,141 10./.-45 l0.0 04,141 1 Rt.. 2,9.as DIS,,EMIxfa ] !L OK. r.1114 ..1114 , r,Il Ins