VTT and telecom companies developed new tools for electronic systems design
Better competitive ability for new products

VTT, Nokia, Ericsson and several other telecom companies in central and southern Europe have worked together in the EU IST-programme research project SYDIC-Telecom to specify a conceptual model for electronic systems design, and have defined the relevant concepts in a new glossary. They have further defined means for companies to better reuse work done once in product design. Thus the European companies in the field will be able to create new competitive edge, notably in new telecom products, such as multimedia equipment and mobile phones.

The most recent integrated circuit technologies make it possible to combine increasingly versatile functions in electronics products. VTT was also involved in work that developed methods for the evaluation of systems design languages, and analysed reuse of design work. These means allow companies to make better use of the extremely rapid technological development.

For competing European companies improving systems design in electronics is a common concern. However, due to inadequate design methods and tools it has been difficult to exploit the most recent technology. Customers and subcontractors in the telecom field have moreover lacked common concepts, and therefore the common definition of new products has been troublesome.

Nokia Research Center was involved in the project. Principal scientist Klaus Kronlöf says that the functional design of a telecom product has traditionally been accomplished based on the constraints of the implementation, thus changing the implementation technology means redesigning from scratch. According to Klaus Kronlöf the results obtained with VTT will promote the companies' ability to combine new technologies with versatile functions of novel products. The methods developed will allow the company to undertake more effective co-operation than before with subcontractors.

The results of development work are described comprehensively in the publication: Cavalloro, P, Gendarme C, Kronlöf K, Mermet J.P, van Sas J, Tiensyrjä K, Voros N.S; System Level Design Model with Reuse of System IP. ISBN 1-4020-7594-4.
http://www.wkap.nl/prod/b/1-4020-7594-4

Photo: VTT	Photo: Nokia Research Center
VTT Electronics Kari Tiensyrjä, Group Manager tel. +358 40 545 0897 kari.tiensyrja@vtt.fi	Nokia Research Center Klaus Kronlöf, Principal Scientist tel. +358 50 483 6510 klaus.kronlof@nokia.com