January  2003 
Volume 2 Issue 1
 

Jordan, Apostal Ritter Associates, Inc. 

Engineering the Future
Providing Engineering Analysis, Mechanical & Electronic Product Development
 

JAR EMAIL  
NEWSLETTER 
CONTENTS

JAR WISHES YOU A HAPPY  NEW YEAR 

WHAT TO DO 
WHEN YOUR MICROPROCESSOR GOES END-OF-LIFE

MIKE APOSTAL, PRESIDENT OF JAR, TESTIFIED  IN A RECENT PATENT INFRINGEMENT TRIAL

APPLICATION OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN OF EXPERIMENTS TECHNIQUES AND FEA

R&D TECHNOLOGIES'  SOLIDWORKS TRAINING SCHEDULE  

To Discuss Your CAE ANALYSIS NEEDS Please Contact: Chuck Ritter,  Vice President, 

(401) 884-3014 x234

 or email ritter@jar.com

To Discuss Your MECHANICAL OR ELECTRONIC PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT REQUIREMENTS  Please Contact: Chuck Anastasia, General Manager,

(401) 884-3014 x 225 or 

email anastasi@jar.com

JAR Associates, Inc.
35 Belver Avenue
North Kingstown, RI  02852

tel  (401)884-3014
fax (401)294-3826

www.jar.com

To Discuss SolidWorks Software, Training or Support, Please Contact Andy Coutu at 401-885-6400 or email
acoutu@rnd-tech.com

ALL OF THE STAFF AT JORDAN, APOSTAL, RITTER ASSOCIATES WISH YOU A HAPPY,  HEALTHY AND PROSPEROUS 2003 

  The purpose of this Newsletter is to keep in touch with our current and prospective clients, and to provide information that readers will find interesting and useful.   Prior JAR Newsletters are available on our  website archive. We really appreciate reader feedback.  Please let us know if you see something that you like, or don't like.   Suggestions are welcome if there is something you would like to see in a future issue.  To comment on the newsletter, please email newsletter@jar.com    [top]

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR MICROPROCESSOR GOES END-OF-LIFE

Embedded microprocessors have been ubiquitous for many years. Unfortunately as older microprocessors go out of production, manufacturers are left with working designs that can no longer be produced. Further, in the current environment of business mergers and acquisitions, many older designs are not well documented, nor is source code available, creating an obsolescence dilemma.

Options  to solve this problem are:
1. If significant new features are being added to the product, re-engineering from scratch may be the best approach while upgrading to a modern microprocessor. 
2. For an established product facing microprocessor obsolescence, the best approach may be to recover the documentation, and reverse engineer the source code to port the design to a newer microprocessor.  This approach reuses the existing “intellectual property” in the original software.

JAR uses the first approach for “new designs” when a starting from clean sheet of paper makes sense. This however, may not the case where microprocessor obsolescence is the driving issue. The second approach may be the best solution.

Many companies are not large enough to support an electronics/software engineering staff, so they either contract design consultants or find a design that can be purchased, modified and produced without a large engineering infrastructure. For many years they are able to produce the product until key components become obsolete. When a component is deemed obsolete, semiconductor manufacturers usually allow a year for end of life buys, providing time to design out the obsolete part. 

There may be a significant effort to replace a microprocessor designated end of life, particularly if the design and source code are not well documented. For many older designs, documentation may be sketchy or non-existent, particularly when the company that did the original design has been bought  or merged. Most likely a file used to burn the program into memory, schematics and a user manual are all that is left. In addition, since the product has been in production for years, knowledgeable designers may have left the organization.

JAR has been very successful in helping clients extend the life of tried and true designs by recovering design intent and intellectual property locked in older products. We have recovered source code from object files and ported this code into replacement microprocessors, thus, providing our clients with a cost effective solution to the microprocessor obsolescence dilemma. In addition, JAR delivers complete product documentation that can be archived for future reference.

Conclusion:
A lot of products are at risk due to microprocessor obsolescence. This is not a reason to redesign from scratch. Old designs may contain a wealth of product knowledge, which should not be discounted. JAR has and is successfully extending the life of embedded products by recapturing their design intent. In many cases, a design can be recovered, documented and then ported into a newer part with minimal impact in terms of time and cost. Frequently the new processor costs significantly less than its obsolete predecessor. The client wins by getting a quality documented software design and a product that can be kept in production for many more years.

JAR’S  ELECTRONIC PRODUCT DESIGN SERVICES

• Analog and Digital Hardware and Firmware

• FPGA and CPLD high speed design 

• Development and customization of BIOS/Board Support Packages for embedded X86 and Motorola families

• Hardware driver development for embedded X86 and Motorola families

• User Interface design and development

• Real Time Operating Systems 

• Real Time Image Processing

• Motion control systems

For more information on outsourcing  electronic or mechanical product development, please contact Chuck Anastasia at 401-884-3014x225  or email anastasi@jar.com              [top]

 Mike APOSTAL, PRESIDENT OF jar TESTIFIED IN A RECENT PATENT INFRINGEMENT TRIAL

In November, Dr. Michael C. Apostal, President of Jordan, Apostal Ritter Associates, Inc. testified as an expert witness in a patent infringement case related to the design and manufacturing of paper plates.  The case took place in the United States District Court in Milwaukee, WI .  To support his testimony, Dr. Apostal led a technical team that combined non-linear finite element analysis with industrial design of experiments techniques to analyze and rank the structural significance of various design features of paper plates. (See the article below for more discussion of Finite Element Analysis & Design of Experiments techniques.)  Dr. Apostal was retained as an expert witness by the law firm Wallenstein & Wagner of Chicago, IL, who represented Solo Cup against infringement allegations filed by Georgia-Pacific Corporation's Fort James unit which was seeking as much as $96 million from Solo Cup Co. over patents related to the manufacture of paper plates.  The results of the trial were reported in the national media.  

The federal jury in Milwaukee determined that Solo Cup's All Occasions paper plates did not infringe Fort James patents. Fort James, which makes Brawny paper towels, Quilted Northern bathroom tissue and Dixie brands paper products, was seeking $32 million in damages. That sum could have been tripled if the jury determined that Solo intentionally infringed the patents.

The patents, issued in 1986 and 1988, relate to the process of using pressed paperboard to make containers such as paper cups and paper plates.  “This was a very significant victory for Solo, particularly in view of the past success Fort James has had enforcing these patents in the industry,” said Solo Cup lawyer Bradford Lyerla of Wallenstein & Wagner of Chicago.

Georgia-Pacific said it may appeal the jury's decision.  The trial, which ended Nov. 26, 2002 was held before U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph T. Randa.

Based on reports from Bloomberg & The Atlanta Journal Constitution                                            [top]

APPLICATION OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN OF EXPERIMENTS WITH FEA IN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Design of Experiments (DOE) applies a systematic approach to purposely change the design variables (factors) of a process or system to observe the corresponding changes in the output variables or responses. DOE techniques are applied over a range of industries where the goal is to develop a quantitative understanding of complex systems where many variables influence system performance or process outcomes. Traditionally DOE techniques are used for empirical studies, however they can also be combined with finite element analysis to systematically and quantitatively evaluate the effects of design variables.  Collecting data through one factor at a time experiments or a series of trial and error tests is an inefficient and ineffective approach to understand multivariate systems or processes.

 Industrial Design of Experiments (DOE) is a widely accepted practice, recognized for its ability to:

• Effectively identify significant input factors
• Efficiently understand the relationship between multiple input factors and responses
• Build mathematical models relating the response to the input factors
• Establish optimal settings for input factors to achieve the desired response

 Steps for using Experimental Design are:

• Statement of the problem

• Objective of the experiment

• Select input variables (factors) and output variables (responses)

• Review the process and classify the variables

• Estimate the resources required for the experiment

• Review and select appropriate design types

• Establish the procedures

• Conduct the experiment and record the data

• Analyze the data

• Draw conclusions, make predictions

• Confirm the results

• Assess the results, make decisions or recommendations

Tools used for combined FEA with DOE

The book Understanding Industrial Designed Experiments can be purchased from 
Air Academy Associates

Please contact Chuck Anastasia or Mike Apostal at JAR to discuss applications of Industrial Design of Experiments with Finite Element Analysis for your project.                        [top]    

R&D TECHNOLOGIES' SOLIDWORKS TRAINING SCHEDULE

For more information on SolidWorks training or support, please contact Andy Coutu at 401-885-6400 or email acoutu@rnd-tech.com

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