Magneti Marelli Powertrain S.p.A. (Milan, Italy) manufactures transmission and engine control components for automakers around the world. Customers include companies like Renault, Ford Motor Co., Audi, DaimlerChrysler and Toyota. Specific products include electronic powertrain control units, hybrid wire throttle assemblies and fuel pump modules.

To streamline its product design process, one that often incorporates the efforts of multiple design teams, the company incorporated SystemVision modeling and simulation software from Mentor Graphics Corp. (Wilsonville, OR). The system, which includes mechatronic system simulation and safety function simulation capabilities, is currently being used at the company's Venaria Reale facility in Torino, Italy, to facilitate work on Magneti Marelli's application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) line.

"Magneti Marelli's Powertrain Division reduced development time for its engine control custom design by 30 percent using SystemVision and...achieved a full running component in the first release," says Magneti Marelli methodology manager of hardware development, Edoardo Martelli.

By incorporating multimodel and multidomain software, SystemVision software provides a kind of "virtual laboratory," providing complete system analysis without having to build a prototype. The system supports a number of industry-standard languages, including VHDL-AMS, SPICE and C, for creating and analyzing analog, digital and mixed-signal systems.

For more information on modeling and simulation software, call 800-547-3000, visit www.mentor.com or eInquiry 12.