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Why DSIM Is Different

See how DSIM’s DSED approach compares to the commercially available simulation methods used by most power electronics tools today.

The Challenge

Limitations of Conventional Simulation

Most power electronics simulation tools were designed around fixed time-step solvers. Here are the common challenges engineers face.

Fixed Time-Stepping

Conventional simulators step through time at uniform intervals, computing at every step regardless of whether a switching event occurs. This wastes compute on long steady-state periods and limits the ability to resolve fast transients efficiently.

Convergence Failures

Traditional circuit solvers can struggle with convergence when simulating circuits with many active switches, high switching frequencies, or stiff systems with widely separated time constants.

Ideal Switch Approximations

Many simulation tools rely on ideal on/off switch models to improve speed. While fast, these models cannot capture the physical switching transients, parasitic effects, and device-level losses that matter for real hardware validation.

Simulation Time as a Bottleneck

As circuit complexity grows — more switches, higher frequencies, longer time horizons — conventional simulation times can scale to hours or days, making iterative design exploration impractical.

Feature Comparison

DSIM vs Conventional Approaches

CapabilityDSIMConventional Tools
DSED solverComputes only at switching transitions, skipping fixed time-step intervals
Strong convergenceSolver stability across complex topologies with hundreds of switches
Common issue
Electro-thermal co-simulationSimultaneous electrical and thermal domain simulation for loss and temperature analysis
Varies by tool
Parametric sweepsAutomated simulation runs across ranges of component or operating parameters
Varies by tool
AC sweep for switch-mode circuitsFast frequency sweep analysis for stability and loop gain in switching converters
Limited
Python API / scriptingProgrammatic control of simulations via Python
Varies by tool
MATLAB/Simulink co-simulationBidirectional data exchange with MATLAB and Simulink
Varies by tool
Custom C code blocksEmbed custom C code for control algorithms and behavioral models
Varies by tool
Scales to hundreds of switchesSimulate topologies with hundreds of active switches without performance degradation
Often impractical

“Conventional Tools” refers to commercially available simulation approaches used by most power electronics software. Actual capabilities vary by vendor and product version.

Benchmarks

DSIM Simulation Speed

Internal benchmarks comparing DSIM's DSED solver to commercially available simulation methods on identical hardware. Actual performance varies based on topology complexity and system configuration.

50 kVA Power Electronics Transformer
Commercially available solver57 min 20 sec
DSIM5 sec
687xfaster
10 kV Four-Port Solid-State Transformer
Commercially available solver6 hr 12 min
DSIM~20 sec
1100x+faster
AC/DC Hybrid Microgrid System
Commercially available solver4 hr 10 min
DSIM30 sec
500xfaster

AUV internal benchmarks. Actual performance varies by topology and hardware configuration. These results compare DSIM against commercially available solvers, not against any specific named product.

Want to See DSIM in Action?

Book a personalized demo and our engineering team will run your topology on the DSIM platform.