A few months back, I wrote about Cadence Design Systems’ Palladium Z3 and Protium X3 systems, for chip debug and advanced prototyping. The Palladium Z3 and Protium X3 are two parts of Cadence’s vast suite of EDA, digital twin, and simulation tools, and are key enablers across many leading edge industries. In fact, while learning about the systems, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said, “Blackwell would not exist without Palladium!” during a fireside chat at the event. For those unaware, Blackwell is Nvidia’s latest GPU architecture for AI and HPC applications.
In the tech sector, virtually everyone leverages simulation and digital twin technologies throughout the manufacturing lifecycle, to gain valuable insights into their designs, from tiny low-power chips to massive data centers. In tech, it is essentially a given that simulations and digital twins are used early and often, so I was taken aback to learn that they aren’t quite as pervasive in the aerospace and defense sectors, at least not in the traditional sense.
In a recent conversation with James Chew, Senior Global Group Director, Aerospace and Defense, Cadence Design Systems and Chairman of the National Defense Industry Association Science and Engineering Technology Division and Charlie Schadewitz, Vice President of Aerospace and Defense at Cadence Design Systems, I learned that in many aerospace and defense applications, it’s more likely that digital twins – if they are employed at all — are used after the prototyping phase to refine or fix designs after they already exist in the real world. In aerospace in particular, a “fly-fix-fly” philosophy is often employed, which seems backwards to a chip-head like me.
Digital twins are wildly beneficial in a number of different industries, because they ultimately help make products and services better. By creating a virtual copy of a real system – i.e. a digital twin — companies can discover and remedy problems or refine systems early in the design phase, which can often make their offerings more reliable and higher-quality. Digital twins can also accelerate time to market. Companies can iterate on their designs in a virtual world, which cuts down the time from initial concept to final production. Digital twins may also enhance long-term sustainability, by using fewer physical resources and cutting down on waste, which aligns well with many of today’s green initiatives. Digital twins may smooth operations too, by highlighting deficiencies in systems and helping identify where they can be improved. Digital twins may also boost output. By fine-tuning processes based on digital data and physically accurate simulations, businesses can ensure initial prototypes are somewhat optimized right out of the gate and use the ideal materials, etc.
What all of that ultimately means in the real world is that digital twins can improve customer outcomes, whether that customer is an end user or the U.S. government.
Unfortunately, there’s not always a penalty for doing things wrong when government contract are involved. When a mistake is made, funding is often provided to “fix” the design and iterate again. This paradigm is not conducive for delivering products on time, on budget, and on schedule, but it’s the way many things have been done for decades and old habits die hard. Cadence, however, is trying to educate its customers and key government officials to change that paradigm and the company seems to be making headway.
In December 2023, the Department of Defense (DOD) implemented policies for using digital engineering in the development of defense systems. The DOD also plans to progressively build its digital engineering capability to support automated system design, development, and production. However, there are concerns about the timely implementation of these capabilities, given past challenges in related programs. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has also noted that the use of digital engineering tools, like digital twins, by companies for iterative development and collaboration may be a requirement soon. The Comptroller General of the United States has been directed to review and brief congressional defense committees by January 1, 2025, on the DOD’s use of digital engineering and digital twins in weapon systems development and production.
As an outsider looking in, these moves simply make sense. Digital twins are fundamental in many industries for delivering products, in the most efficient and timely manner. Of course, designing and building aerospace and defense systems will have requirements that don’t directly align to some other industries, but the benefits of physically accurate simulation and digital twin technologies still apply.
