( ESNUG 468 Item 12 ) ------------------------------------------- [09/13/07]
Subject: Dan's take on the Fast SPICE simulators which were shown at DAC
> 23. For SPICE, see Nascentric AuSIM MT -- it's a Fast SPICE that's
> multithreaded which makes it "10X or more faster than the fastest
> competitor." They also claim no netlist cutting required.
> (booth 7160) Ask for Steve McCarthy. Freebie: pump rocket
>
> Berkeley has Analog FastSPICE and RF FastSPICE which is integrated
> into Cadence Virtuoso ADE. They seem to be more accuracy fixated.
> (booth 1780) Ask for Scott Guyton. Freebie: polo shirts
>
> Agilent EEsof ADS seems to target the SI at Gbs+ data rate guys.
> (booth 6364) Ask for Larry Lerner. Freebie: wind-up flashlight
>
> Magma FineSim Pro and FineSim SPICE are also 2 new players, but
> I'm not sure their specialty. (booth 4578) Ask for KT Moore.
>
> - from http://www.deepchip.com/gadfly/gad060107.html
From: Daniel Payne <daniel=user domain=marketingeda not calm>
Hi, John,
In the San Diego DAC, I saw some of the Fast SPICE companies and have the
following to report:
1) Synopsys is still in the #1 position with two Fast SPICE simulators.
HSIM (from Nassda acquisition) handles hierarchy so memory designers
and designs with embedded memory can be simulated with an MOS device
capacity in the 100 Million+ category. They added a new high
accuracy engine called XA this year to offer SPICE-like accuracy.
NanoSim is their flat Fast SPICE tool and has a tight integration with
VCS, their Verilog simulator. I think a combined super-simulator
would be more efficient than maintaining two Fast SPICE simulators,
kind of like when Synopsys merged their two ATPG tools into a single
family. Mike Demler is the marketing guy to contact for Fast SPICE.
They could use multi-thread or parallel execution in their road map.
HSPICE is the gold-standard for SPICE simulators and is in the mature
product category.
2) Cadence has a hierarchical Fast SPICE tool called UltraSim, which came
from the acquisition of Celestry. I hear good things about this tool
but Cadence doesn't issue many press releases on UltraSim. I couldn't
find UltraSim at the Cadence booth/suite this year. Their strategy is
to promote UltraSim into accounts that prefer mixing transistor-level
with HDL level. Parallel needs to be in their roadmap.
3) Mentor is promoting ADiT (ACAD acquisition) this year as a Fast SPICE
replacement for Mach TA, a previous tool developed internally. This
flat simulator integrates with their HDL simulator, just like Cadence
and Synopsys strategies. Parallel and hierarchy should be in their
roadmap. Cyril DesCleves is the marketing guy to talk with. Eldo is
their mature SPICE tool, loved by ST and most of the European giants.
4) Magma touts FineSim Pro as a Fast SPICE tool that is parallel although
flat and not integrated with any HDL simulator. I'd like to read some
customer success stories. One cool feature is the ability to read
transistor-level netlists finding the gates, then modeling the gates
as behavioral and not transistor, which speeds up simulation even
faster. Need to add hierarchy and HDL integration to the roadmap. At
Magma I ask for KT Moore.
5) Nascentric had the best booth demo with theatre style delivery and
hilarious video clips from Godzilla. Their AuSIM Fast SPICE tool is
hierarchical and they've added parallel processing this year. What I
don't find yet are customer quotes and any HDL integration, more ideas
for their roadmap. Dino Caporossi is the marketing contact.
6) Berkeley DA has created a new product category they call Analog Fast
SPICE, so their tool is 5X-10X faster than regular SPICE and doesn't
require arcane commands to get accurate and fast results. This is a
flat simulator and all their customers are in Japan mostly because
their first generation product was for PLL noise analysis and it had
Analog Fast SPICE under the hood. I'd add hierarchy, parallel sim
and HDL integration to the roadmap. Paul Estrada is the COO and is
your best contact.
7) Xoomsys wants to let you use all those SPICE simulator licenses in
your network to simulate larger designs, so it's not a Fast SPICE
simulator but will kind of compete for mindshare in that space. I'm
still waiting for a first customer quote to prove this idea out.
HSPICE is their first target simulator, then I'd expect they will
add: Spectre (Cadence), Eldo (Mentor) and maybe event SmartSpice
(Silvaco). The technique should work for any SPICE simulator, so
even the big IDMs like Intel, IBM, Infineon, TI and Analog Devices
should be attracted to the Xoomsys technology. Ask Anjaneya Thakar.
The most mature Fast SPICE suppliers are: Synopsys, Cadence and Mentor.
- Daniel Payne Tualatin, OR
Index
Next->Item
|
|
