The difference between early computers and today’s high-end CPUs is staggering. It’s not just the performance and physical size discrepancies – but the creation of today’s electronics is nothing short of a sci-fi scene. A consumer-grade CPU will have transistors as small as 3 nanometers – and if this scale doesn’t tell you anything, human hair is around 100,000 nanometers thick!
The manufacturing side is amazing on its own: the tolerances, the measures to remove any dust and impurities… But there’s another question: how does one even improve, let alone design something this tiny? The answer is simulation – and in this article, we’ll be learning how and why it works – in more industries than just chip making!
Simulation vs. Blueprinting
We’re all familiar with blueprints. Industrial illustrations have long replaced contact print paper for computer-aided programs (like AutoCAD), but they’re not the same as simulations. While simulations and blueprints do have similarities — like providing a visual layout during early-stage planning—these concepts are fundamentally different.
- Simulations are dynamic. The main difference between prints and simulations is that the latter can be adjusted dynamically. Simulation software allows designers to test their prototypes without even a physical counterpart.
- Simulations enable optimization. Thanks to their dynamic nature, simulations allow designers to improve on the features during testing. For example, structural engineers can adjust material type to see how it reacts to under-load stress or CPU designers check performance benchmarks.
- Simulations enable predictions. Powerful simulation software can show problem areas over thousands of iterations without even an hour passing in the real world. For example, the famous SpaceX Falcon 9 had issues with fuel movement – and simulation software caught it before a physical prototype was even built.
Simulation is a powerful tool for optimizing efficiency, durability, and cost. Modern infrastructure is basically incomprehensible without it. It’s used everywhere: in medicine, civil engineering, electronics manufacturing and R&D, and, as we’ve mentioned before, even rocket science!
Types of Simulation
With this many potential applications, simulation has to include a whole bunch of types. It can range from incredibly precise calculations and big data analysis (like in medical and civil engineering, where errors can result in deaths) to simulating real-world issues. Even something as simple as phone drop tests is a simulation! Let’s take a look at three common types of simulations. There are way more of them out there, but listing them all would take way too long to include.
Physical Simulations
The most basic type of simulation includes automobile crash tests, drop and splash tests for consumer electronics, and any type of physical stress testing you can think of. Physical simulation can even include interesting experiments like simulating the effect of zero gravity on a human body without leaving Earth. Experiments like these are a subset of physical simulations called human-in-the-loop simulations, which also include flight simulators, driving simulators, and even “human on Mars” simulators!
Manufacturing Simulation
This is the type of simulation we touched on earlier, and it represents the most technologically advanced — and stereotypical — application of simulation. Simulation software used in manufacturing is incredibly complex, analyzing all the variables of the process down to very minute details. Engineers use manufacturing simulation to quantify output and, therefore, profit, as well as quality.
Web Simulation
In the world of web design, simulation is highly versatile. It can include something basic like online casino marketing teams asking potential gamblers for their opinions on the upcoming redesign or the back-end developers stress testing the gambling site to see how long until it breaks under high traffic. It can also be taken a step further with SEO simulations. The SERP and NLP simulations can rank the gambling site on search engines, modeling its popularity among bettors compared to its competitors.
Benefits and Examples of Using Simulation Tools
Simulation can be critical for safety. Even in industries where errors won’t result in a catastrophe, simulations can help save costs, make products more reliable, and innovate. There are a lot of reasons to avoid the mistake of testing in production!
- Safety: In industries where product quality is paramount, and any issues can result in injury or death, simulations are required to ensure that safety standards are adequately met. These must include software and physical tests (like in automotive safety trials).
- Reliability: Simulations can identify issues with the product or even the manufacturing process itself. For example, a product may have potential longevity issues with the design, but nobody is going to wait 10 years to see if it’s still intact, so instead, we use stress testing.
- Cost saving: Developing a simulation tool that can reliably test aspects of the product can be costly, but it pays back with dividends over having to recall bad batches of goods or having a barren website. Optimizing the product thanks to sims before manufacturing minimized material and labor costs wasted.
- Trend testing: Using simulated trials for a product may help find the preferences and wants of potential buyers. For example, the Nothing Phone company released its first phone to gauge its popularity before its official release, which is an example of market simulation. The company tested marked demand, consumer behavior, and its position on the market on a small scale before going out to hedge its costs.
Mistakes happen, and their fallout can range from destroying the company that made them to even more dire examples of life-endangering tragedies. Simulation can prevent these mistakes, and it’s worth investing extra in a reliable solution.
Summing Up Simulations
Simulations are a necessity in high-tech development and manufacturing, but their usefulness isn’t contained to just this industry. Sims can be simple—like physical crash tests—or incredibly complex physics-based software engines. Either way, they’re used by virtually every industry out there—from entertainment and web to medical and chipmaking. The use of simulations allows companies to ensure safety standards, review their manufacturing process, save on material and labor costs, and also simply innovate in ways that aren’t possible without them.
