Chris, To be clear here, I'm not a software salesman. Maybe someone who earns their money selling this stuff can jump in and answer your question in a more positive way. I don't want to sell something short. Your first scenarios would be doable for sure. Been there, done that. But I think the problems you talk about below are getting too complicated. Some design of experiment type work would be required to constrain things to make it practical. Otherwise, based on my experience, you would be wasting your time. That's one reason I recommended working with a consultant on something like this, at least until you gain some experience. A good, honest one (yes, they really do exist) would tell you that your expectations are unrealistic, and hopefully offer you an alternative approach that makes more sense. Julian Ferry High Speed Engineering Manager Samtec, Inc. -----Original Message----- From: Chris Cheng [mailto:Chris.Cheng@xxxxxxxxxxxx] Sent: Monday, December 06, 2004 1:24 PM To: Julian Ferry; Chris Cheng; ''rmatthews@xxxxxxxxxx' '; 'rsefton@xxxxxxxxxxxxx '; 'si-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ' Subject: RE: [SI-LIST] Re: EMI simulation tools at PCB level Julian, If you think the complexity of analyzing individual component/assembly will take you 24x7x52. How would you think if a few hundred of them (similar or different parts) are randomly put together within an enclosure that has arbitrary openings everywhere ? And to put things in better perspective, if I tighten my screws by one turn, that's a change of dimension by a fraction of a mm in a couple meter size enclosure. Do you think your tools can predict what will happen ? -----Original Message----- From: Julian Ferry To: 'Chris Cheng'; 'rmatthews@xxxxxxxxxx'; rsefton@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; si-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: 12/6/2004 8:36 AM Subject: RE: [SI-LIST] Re: EMI simulation tools at PCB level Chris, Samtec doesn't design any servers or computers. We wouldn't want to step on our customers toes, now would we? But we do design connectors, pcb's, cable assemblies, and other components that go into some bleeding edge systems. And the components that we design can have a major impact on those systems' EMI performance. So we need to know what's going on. Well, I guess we don't really _need_ to know what's going on. We could leave those headaches for you systems design guys to figure out. But we like to help out as much as we can.... You said: "I've always wanted to simulate why if I tighten the screw by one more turn on my door and my EMI gaskets compressed a little harder and the signature changed by 10 db. Or if I hang the cable this way or that way the signature changed by a few db." My point is that software is available to simulate these kinds of problems. Accurately too. These are the kind of relative comparisons I was talking about. We do them all the time. I think most engineers who have been around this stuff long enough realize that the signaling environment used in these simulations is not going to be the same as what will be seen in any particular system. That's the missing link in the "Holy Grail" sort of software that Kai, Scott and others alluded to. And I agree with Scott to some extent. That is something that we probably won't see in his lifetime. It might happen in my lifetime though, because I'm a lot younger than he is... Julian Ferry High Speed Engineering Manager Samtec, Inc. ------------------------------------------------------------------ To unsubscribe from si-list: si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field or to administer your membership from a web page, go to: //www.freelists.org/webpage/si-list For help: si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'help' in the Subject field List FAQ wiki page is located at: http://si-list.org/wiki/wiki.pl?Si-List_FAQ List technical documents are available at: http://www.si-list.org List archives are viewable at: //www.freelists.org/archives/si-list or at our remote archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/si-list/messages Old (prior to June 6, 2001) list archives are viewable at: http://www.qsl.net/wb6tpu