Technology

Equa's simulation technology is primarily aimed at networked flow systems. The flowing media can be anything from TCP/IP packets or traffic to paper pulp or refrigerants.

Most industrial simulation is done without using a general-purpose simulation tool, and relies rather on numerical subroutine libraries and traditional programming languages. These special-purpose tools exploit the particular characteristics of their application domain to attain acceptable performance in real-scale problems. If a general purpose tool is used at all, those that are available - based on block-diagram model descriptions - are limited to toy-size problems in comparison to the special-purspose tools. A real analog electronics problem may, for example, require handling of ten thousand components, such as transistors, resistors and capacitors. If it is modeled in a mainstream block-diagram simulator one may, with considerable effort, be able to manage perhaps a few dozen components. This is a significant weakness.

Why then, you may ask, do engineers spend countless hours trying to squeeze physical system models into block diagram tools? The answer is that they need the generality. The models offered in domain specific tools are insufficient. They need to model the electronics and the hydraulics, perhaps even some controllers and thermodynamics as well. It simply does not all fit into the dedicated analog electronics simulator.

"What we, at Equa, offer is a new general method".

One that solves a special-purpose problem just as quickly and reliably as the dedicated tools, sometimes even faster, so that the electronics, the hydraulics, the controllers and the thermodynamics all can be combined in real-scale problems with thousands of variables.
The trick is to find the optimal way of describing complex dynamical systems. Forget about FORTRAN or C subroutines, block diagrams and spreadsheets. All are difficult to read and provide far too few opportunities for model re-use. Instead, we focus directly on the most natural way of communication for all engineers: the mathematical equation, expression equals expression.

"We focus on the mathematical equation, expression equals expression".

Using our own special combination of smart computer algebra and numerical methods, symbolic equation-based models can be solved with comparable performance to the special-purpose simulators. Modelers love it. They can concentrate on the problem formulation - to write down the equations - and let IDA worry about the solution. No more two-timing as numerical analyst.

"The methods are robust enough to build end-user applications for people with little or no simulation experience".

We offer development environments for end-user simulation applications, so that easy-to-use special-purpose app's can be built in a fraction of the time it would take with standard development tools. As an additional benefit, since it is all based on a general approach, the advanced user can model any accompanying system he or she wishes.