Mechatronics Management (Part 2): Electrical Aspects 机电产品的管理 II 电子部分 原文 by chad jackson 翻译 by 咋不乐
This series of four posts looks at the management of items, data and bills of material for mechatronic products. It is split into mechanical aspects, electrical aspects, software aspects and integrated aspects. 这四个系列的帖子着眼于机电产品的物料项目，数据和物料清单的管理。它分为机械部分，电子部分，软件方面和集成部分。 In the minds of many, managing electrical aspects of products has, well, already be done. Meaning there have been approaches and technologies that have been around for some time to manage the artifacts representing electrical components. But actually there have been some relatively recent advancements in the technology that, by and large, isn’t commonly managed centrally today. Let’s take a look. 在很多人心里，管理产品的电气元件已经很成熟了，也就说很多方法或技术已经由来已久，并成熟地运用于管理电气元件的图文档。但总体来说，它并不是集中管理的。让我们来看看吧。 Managing Electrical Aspects of the Product（管理产品的电气/电子部分） When you start talking about the electrical side of the house, things tend to be a bit more complicated compared to the mechanical side of things. What is considered a part can be dramatically different depending on the type of electric item you’re discussing. Here it makes sense to split up the discussion based on the type of electronics being developed. 当你开始谈到电气部分的时候，情况相对要比机械部分复杂。同机械部分相比，事情变得比较复杂。以前我们谈的“零件”在电子产品中将要视情况而定。根据开发的电子产品我们将区别对待。 Managing PCB Schematics, Diagrams, Layouts and Libraries（管理PCB功能图，原理图，布局图和元件库） Printed circuit boards (PCB) are used pretty frequently in today’s products. The design of a PCB often starts with a 2D logic diagram that represents the functions of the PCB. Next the design moves on to a 2D schematic, where the connections between the different board components are symbolically shown. And finally, the layout shows a detailed view of the placement of components and the path and layer for each trace in the board. From a manufacturing or sourcing perspective, the lowest level items on a PCB are the components (resistors, etc.) and the board. However, there is information embedded in these design artifacts that describe a deeper level of granularity in the board itself: the traces that connect the components on the board. To further complicate things, the components and connections between them are represented in both the schematic and layout. That means if that connection changes in one, it should change in the other. 印刷版(PCB)在当今的产品中使用非常频繁。PCB板得设计往往从表示PCB功能的2D功能图开始。下一步将转移到2D原理图,在2D原理图中板子上不同元件之间的联系用图象征性地表示出来了。最后，布局图将会显示出版子上各种元件的位置信息，轨迹和每个板子的轨线层。从制造加工和采购的角度来看，PCB上最底层的单元是PCB板上的元件（电阻等）和板子。但是在这些设计文档里面嵌入了一些信息，而这些信息表达了板子更深的粒度信息：板子上连接元件的轨迹。把事情搞的更复杂的情况是：元件和元件间的联系在原理图和布局图中表现出来了。也就是说这个链接在一个地方改变的话，它将在另一个地方相应的做出改变。 Today’s PLM or PDM systems often recognize that the diagram, schematic and layout all essentially represents the same electronics assembly. And as such, they create links between them. And while integrated tools recognize that a change to a connection in the schematic should propagate to the layout, most PLM or PDM systems do not. Furthermore, the information about the connections themselves that is embedded within these design artifacts are often not extracted into the PLM or PDM system. From a Bill of Material (BOM) perspective, most PLM or PDM systems will extract the counts of the different electronic components, creating a flat list with quantities. The diagram, schematic and layout are often attached to the top level board assembly. 今天的PLM或PDM系统通常承认，原理图，示意图和布局都基本上代表了相同的电子组装件。正因为如此，我们需要创建它们之间的联系。当集成工具识别出其中与示意图连接发生变化的话，它就会将这种变化带入到布局图。大多数PLM或PDM系统不会这么做。此外，嵌入到设计图文档中的链接信息往往不会被提取到PLM或PDM系统。从BOM的角度来看的话，大多数PLM或PDM系统将提取不同的电子元件的数量，创建一个数量清单。该原理图，示意图和布局图往往附着在顶端的板组装件中。 What shouldn’t be lost in all of this details is the fact that most PCBs are assembled almost completely out of off-the-shelf items. As such, a centralized library composed of approved parts lists generated by the procurement organization is used to identify which components are OK to use for designers and engineers. Traditionally, PLM and PDM systems have managed this library as a single item that can be downloaded to a desktop. From there, the ECAD or EDA application accesses the library directly.It can certainly work. However a fair amount of functionality exists in PLM and PDM systems to manage libraries of parts, to manage change across those libraries and to promote reuse so that higher volume discounts can be achieved. By managing the electronics component library as a single item, none of those things can be proactively managed. Ultimately, electronics components would be managed as individual items, just like mechanical parts, in PLM and PDM systems. PCB组合起来用的元器件大部分都是现成的。因此，认证零件构成的中心零件库先由采购部门制定好用来帮助设计师和工程师来确定哪个元器件是可以用的。传统上，PLM和PDM系统管理将零件库当做一个可以下载到桌面的项目来管理。这样的话，ECAD或EDA应用程序可以直接去访问这个库。这当然是可行的，但在PLM和PDM中相当数量的功能用来管理零件库，管理零件库间的变化以及提高重用来降低零件种类。但是将电子元件作为一个单一项来管理，上述的好处都不能获得。最终在PLM和PDM系统中，电子元件将会像机械零件一样被当做单一的项目 Managing FPGA Programming（管理FPGA编程） In many circumstances, manufacturers want to optimize processors to do a specific job. One option is to custom build application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), but they are extremely expensive because they require custom dies and manufacturing runs. The number of ASIC manufacturers in the world can probably be counted on a couple hands. So, instead, manufacturers often use field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). This type of chip is a off the shelf component that can be programmed with custom logic to perform specific jobs more quickly and efficiently than generic chips. However, since they are off the shelf components, they aren’t nearly as expensive as ASICs. 在许多情况下，厂家要优化处理器去做具体工作。一种选择是自定义生成特定应用（ASIC）的集成电路，但他们都非常昂贵，因为他们需要定制模具和生产。在世界范围内，ASIC厂商的个数可以用一双手算起来了。所以制造商通常使用现场可编程门阵列（FPGA）。这种芯片是一个现成的组件，可以用自定义的逻辑编程以执行特定的工作使之比普通芯片更迅速，更有效率。然而，因为它们是现成的组件，它们不如ASIC昂贵。 So how are FPGAs programmed? Traditionally, manufacturers would hire programmers to code the logic of these chips. And managing that environment looks very much like a Software Configuration Management (SCM) problem. But times are changing. There are new software applications that will let a user create a logic diagram and then, in an automated fashion, generate the code to program the FPGAs. This is an advancement in terms of enabling everyday engineers to define the logic they want without working through a programmer, a proxy who often doesn’t understand the engineer’s design intent. This approach is sometimes referred to as visual programming. Now don’t get me wrong. The code generated by these software applications aren’t perfect. However they often enable the programmer to just check the code instead of writing it themselves. And that can be a huge time savings for an expensive resource. 因此， FPGA是如何编程的？传统上，厂商会聘请程序员来编写这些芯片的逻辑。管理这些环境看起来非常像软件配置管理（SCM）的问题。但是时代在变化。有新的应用软件可以让用户创建一个逻辑图，然后，自动化生成的代码进行FPGA编程。这有利于日常工作中工程师不通过程序员定义工作逻辑，通常程序员这个代理人往往不明白工程师的设计意图逻辑。这种方法有时被称为可视化编程。但不要误会我的意思。这些由应用软件生成的代码是不完美的。但是程序员往往可以在其基础上修改，而不是重新写自己的代码。这往往可以节约很多的时间和资源。 As you can imagine, either programming directly or using a visual programming approach will generate a number of design artifacts that should be centrally managed in some manner. More often than not, this type of deliverable though is managed as a generic artifact, just like a word document, and as a result doesn’t have any automated association with the FPGA item it will affect. Furthermore, none of the information or intelligence embedded in these artifacts are exposed to the broader audience. But most importantly, the logic of the FPGA is disconnected from the logic of the PCB on which it resides. Combining the two holds the potential to perform more realistic simulation. However, let’s hold off on that discussion for the integrated aspects post in this series. 正如你可以想像，无论是直接的编程或使用可视化编程的方法都会产生大量的设计图文档并以某种方式进行集中管理。很多时候，这种类型的交付作为一个通用的图文档，就像一个Word文档，没有任何与可能会影响的FPGA项目自动关联。此外，这些资料或嵌入式智能信息都没有让更广泛的人员接触。但最重要的是，FPGA的逻辑和驻留在PCB的逻辑是断开的。如果结合这两者的话，以后将会取得更逼真的模拟。不过我们还是暂时打住这方面的讨论而关注在“集成”这个话题吧。 Conclusions and Questions（结论和问题） In summary, there is a great amount of complexity in managing the design artifacts used to develop PCBs ranging from schematics, diagrams and layouts. They are each connected and change from one should propagate to the others. Today’s PLM and PDM systems manage these representations as an interconnected set, extracting the BOM from them, but infrequently extracting more granular information than that. From an FPGA perspective, most design artifacts are managed by PLM or PDM systems as unintelligent files. Instead, it is more frequent that the artifacts for FPGA programming are managed with Software Configuration Management (SCM) systems. 总之，用来研发电路板（涉及到逻辑图，原理图，布局图等）的产出物管理异常复杂。。它们本应该直接相互连接，一个改变应该更新到另外两个。今天的PLM和PDM系统管理的这些信息却是不相关的。我们可以从中提取BOM，但很少能提取出更细粒度的资料。从FPGA的角度来看，大多数设计图文档作为非智能文件是通过PLM或PDM系统来管理的。但是大多数情况下，FPGA编程信息通过软件配置管理（SCM）系统管理。 Time to sound off. What are you using to manage these artifacts today? Do you think PLM or PDM systems manage these design artifacts to enough granularity or is there still room for improvement? Weigh in and let us know what you think. Take care. Talk soon. And thanks for reading. 这个话题该结束了。您是怎样来管理这些图文档的呢？你认为PLM或PDM系统能够以足够的粒度来管理吗，或者说还有改进的余地呢？思考一下，让我知道你是咋想的。 感谢你们的阅读。 |
