Getting to the root of the problem... inside the box.
6SigmaET bridges the gap that has existed between original equipment design and its placement and performance within the datacenter – spelling an end to many of the ‘design assumptions’ which have been traditionally used for datacenter design decision-making.
The software brings a new level of productivity to electronics cooling design, overcoming many of the ease-of-use problems that have plagued analysis tools from the beginning – with new levels of automation and intelligence making 6SigmaET usable by the broad community of design engineers;
6SigmaET makes available a broad range of
intelligent modelling objects such as: PCBs, chip
sockets, and electronic components such as
resistors and capacitors, temperature controlled fans
and blowers, card and drive bays.
6SigmaET greatly expands modelling automation.
Objects come with rules that auto: place, align,
collision-detect and error-check. Plus grid-generation
rules automatically ensure the optimum grid is
always used.
Simulation results are object-associated as
well. Display of critical temperatures and airflow
patterns can be initiated from the objects directly.
Highly customisable automatic report-generation
ensures the results of the study can be easily and
effectively communicated.
Automated revision-control and design-timeline
tracking are included to enable designers to
organise design variations and track design
progress from concept to production.
This new level of intelligence and automation delivered by the 6SigmaET enables designers to focus more intensely on the design and away from software operations. The result? A shortened learning curve, increased design productivity and tighter integration with the electrical and mechanical design and manufacturing.
Overview
Features
Resources
Environment matters
Model electronic systems in detail as a board or boards in a ‘wind tunnel’ test environment or as a complete chassis in a typical operational environment.
Intelligent Objects
Model creation is easy with intelligent objects that know their relationship.
Model 'As-is'
Represent components with complex geometry (such as bespoke heat sinks, angled dimms) without geometrical simplification.
Export 'ready to use' models for data center performance simulations
Automatically create simplified models of the equipment for use by customers housing your equipment in racks / cabinets or mission critical facilities.
A state of the art Graphical User Interface (GUI) is extremely easy and intuitive to use. The interface allows the user to build as well as analyze the models in the same window and is fast and responsive and extremely robust.
High definition Multi-View graphical display for:
- 2-D and 3-D views of whole model
- Specific objects in their own view
- Simulation Results
- Profile Plots
- Comprehensive numerical summary data
View objects in either solid, wireframe, transparent or textured mode individually or globally controlled using the highly customizable Layer Manager
User based mouse controls - define your own mouse controls to fit your own preference
Dockable windows and toolbars
Model Tree clearly shows relationships between objects
Property sheets to define object parameters:
- Clear layout with logical grouping of parameters
- Intelligent; parameters vary as appropriate for actual settings
- Allows changes to more than one object at a time
Easy access to both local and network libraries
Multi-level undo/redo feature
Global or local change of units - Metric or Imperial
Global or local search feature for objects within a model
Crash recovery manager to prevent data loss due to a crash
Automatic flagging of collision errors and warnings during model build reduces the time spent on trouble shooting a model
Version Tree
The version tree in 6SigmaET is a revolutionary feature, that that consolidates all the various designs in a singular version tree, allowing for a tighter integration into product design cycle.
Include design changes in the version tree by creating new versions
Create multiple alternates of one version and perform analysis on all alternates
Accept the preferred alternate and reject the remaining
Store accepted and rejected alternates or versions with results in the version tree
Move forward or backward in the design to review critical engineering decisions
Compare results from multiple versions or alternates side by side
Change tracker automatically records and displys the changes made between versions and /or alternates
Conceptual Board Design
By integrating both board level chassis level analysis, 6SigmaET is the only tool that fully integrates the design all the way from conceptual board design to the final system design.
Conceptual board layout using the built in wind-tunnel environment
Optimize component layout from a thermal standpoint
Finalize mechanical keep-out zones for component heatsinks
Push final board layout forward in timeline for a chassis level thermal analysis
Export the final board design back into your preferred EDA tool(s)
Electronics Specific Parts
6SigmaET has been developed keeping the end user in mind and the nomenclature used in the electronics industry. The entities in 6sigmaET are parametrically defined and know their function and behavior, which makes the model easier to build and analyze.
Chassis
Vents - rectangular or circular
PCB - rectangular or non-rectangular shapes
Chip Sockets
Chips - 2-Resistor and simple models
Resistors
Capacitors
Inductors
Daughter board Sockets for DIMMS, Mezzanine Cards, and PCI or PCIe cards
Card Bays - easilt put together a Cisco or Juniper type telecomm chassis model with multiple line cards
Chassis Bays - "chassis within a chassis" concept to model blade servers or vertical blade rack solutions
Drive Bay - for hard disc drives, CD / DVD drives
Power Supply Unit
Temperature controlled Axial Fans & Blowers
Thermal Interface Materials
Heatsinks with cutouts:
- Extruded
- Pin Fin with square, rectangular, round and elliptical fins
- Stacked Fin - both horizontal and vertical with square, rectangular, round, elliptical, or user defined polygon shape
- Complex geometry imported from MCAD
Heatpipes
Internal cabling
Embedded vias and heat spreaders in PCBs
Obstructions
- Solid with defined holes - rectangular, cylindrical or any polygon
defined outline to represent any complex geometry like shrouds
and baffles
- Perforated - to allow flow through small holes or slots defiined
by either the size and pattern of holes or bt open area percentage
EDA Import
By making the IDF import smarter, 6SigmaET truly can cut the time taken to import and modify an IDF file compared to other tools that claim to have IDF import capability.
Bi-directional link allows for import and export of IDF files
IDF Import with intelligent mapping of components
- Automatically mapping IDF library components to entities within 6SigmaET based on reference designators and
entity name
Import component power
2R values
Component keep-outs
Holes
Vias
MCAD Import
Use the 3D MCAD model as is for analysis in 6SigmaET with minimal simplification or translation. The object based gridding in 6SigmaET automatically recognizes the CAD model and prepares it for the simulation.
Import multiple native 2D AutoCAD Drawings and use it as a tracing paper for building the 3D model
Import multiple complex STL Shapes from your preferred MCAD Software
Sophisticated post-processing displays results on the full STL shape
Gridding & Solver
With fully automated gridding, 6SigmaET saves set-up time and ensures the optimum grid is always used.
Object based gridding - pre-defined gridding rules automatically decide the best grid for the simulation
Able to handle angled / rotated and imported MCAD geometry within a state-of-the-art Cartesian grid
Extremely fast and robust 64 BIT solver capable of solving
models in excess of 20 million grid cells using up to 16 processors
Post Processing
A comprehensive set of post-processing displays ensures easy analysis of the results of the CFD simulation. In addition, fully customizable reporting makes it easy to communicate the results, especially when comparing multiple alternates.
2-D and 3-D Result planes showing distribution of temperatures or pressures
2-D and 3-D Flow patterns
Profile Plots
Streamline and Ribbon plots and animations
Summary data, including total heat soource and total flow rates in the model
Minimum, Maximum and Mean temperatures available for each object individually and in Table summaries
De-rated Fan curves showing operating point
De-rated noise values for each fan and a total for all the fans in the model
Customizable automatic reports including standard pre-defined views and / or user defined graphical views
6SigmaDC is a program suite that will require different levels of hardware resource depending on the size and complexity of the models it is used to create and run.
For the sake of basic training and other small models (< 500sqft), it will run on a standard laptop with 1GB RAM and integrated graphics.
Any other modelling use is likely to require more powerful hardware.
The license server component, which can be installed separately on a remote machine, requires very little resource and should run on any supported Windows PC.
Supported Operating Systems. 32 and 64bit: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003,Windows Server 2008, Windows HPC Server 2008.
Virtual machines are not recommended.
Example configurations for mid-range systems:
Laptop - Mobile Core i7, 4-8GB RAM, Discrete graphics, 500GB HDD
Desktop - Core i7 or Xeon UP, 12GB RAM, nVidia Quadro FX 580, 1TB HDD
Server - Xeon DP or MP, 32GB+ RAM, nVidia Quadro FX 1800, 1TB HDD
Enquiries:
Home
6SigmaRoom
6SigmaET makes available a broad range of 
Include design changes in the version tree by creating new versions
Conceptual board layout using the built in wind-tunnel environment
Chassis
Bi-directional link allows for import and export of IDF files
Import multiple native 2D AutoCAD Drawings and use it as a tracing paper for building the 3D model
2-D and 3-D Result planes showing distribution of temperatures or pressures
