We’re used to seeing a lot more about power and thermal modeling and analysis these days. So perhaps it’s no surprise to see another company making a thermal modeling announcement.

But is Docea’s thermal modeling tool just more of the same? Actually, by their claim, no; it’s unique. And that’s because it works at the architectural level.

Most thermal analysis tools work with finite element analysis or compact thermal models, calculating in detail how much heat there is and where it’s going. Those are typically very specialized tools requiring engineers well grounded in thermal dynamics.

But we all know that the decisions having the most impact on power (and, hence, heat) are made early on when the architecture is set. At that point, the architect is trying to play with high-level blocks, toying with various alternatives to figure out what the best tradeoffs are. At that stage of the design, a thermal guy isn’t going to be satisfied with the level of information available to do any analysis, and, more importantly, if an architect has to hand the design off to a thermal guy for each new idea or configuration, well, that’s going to take forever.

Docea’s approach is intended to allow a non-specialist (thermally speaking, that is) to estimate power at a high level. This lets the architect do quick what-if scenario calculations on the fly (or at least much faster than involving someone else in the process).

You can find more in their release…