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Mountain View, California - Jan 26, 2004 - Apache Design Solutions, the technology leader in physical design integrity solutions for system-on-chip (SoC) designs, today introduced two new versions of NSPICE, the next-generation true-SPICE simulator. Both versions offer capabilities that are not available from any other simulator on the market today.
NSPICE-PI (for Power Integrity) simulates extracted power-ground mesh circuits and other circuits containing an extremely large number of linear elements. Simulations of netlists containing more than five million nodes, with more than 25 million RLC elements, multiple S-parameter blocks (each with 100+ ports all having their own reference), and more than 100100,000 transistors can be done on a machine with 16GB of RAM at true SPICE accuracy.
"We are very impressed with NSPICE-PI's ability to perform true SPICE simulation of I/O simultaneous switching outputs," said Akira Denda, senior design engineering manager, broadband LSI technology business unit, NEC Electronics America, Inc. "For the first time, we are able to analyze the detailed output waveforms of a large network with more than 300 I/O buffers, a 100+ port S-parameter package model, and millions of extracted power/ground RLC parasitics."
NSPICE-UBS (Ultrawide Broadband Simulation) simulates very high-speed circuits, which may need to be simulated over relatively long time spans to capture lower-frequency effects such as ripple or modulation. NSPICE-UBS offers the unprecedented capability to simulate multi-gigahertz signals requiring extremely small picosecond time-steps, over microseconds of time, such as high-speed serializer-deserializer (SERDES) circuits.
More about NSPICE-PI The most powerful application for NSPICE-PI is I/O simultaneous-switching output simulations involving hundreds of inputs and outputs (I/Os), such as those on a wide memory bus exiting a chip. Other applications include inductive noise analysis of a high speed clock network, and simulation of power/ground integrity of custom analog circuits.
NSPICE-PI offers unprecedented capacity while maintaining true-SPICE accuracy by adding the BLSN (Big Linear, Small Non-Linear) Solver, on top of the C++ modern data structure of the NSPICE engine. A true-SPICE simulation with NSPICE-PI can include:
The SPICE netlists for the output buffer cells as well as the fully extracted on-chip power grid.
A detailed, fully coupled S-parameter model for the package and/or connectors.
Transmission line elements or S-parameter networks for the board traces.
SPICE netlists of the receiver circuitry.
Popular fast-SPICE simulators cannot provide true-SPICE accuracy since it requires concurrent simulation of both the power mesh and all non-linear circuit elements. Traditional SPICE simulators cannot handle the sheer capacity requirements.
More About NSPICE-UBS In the analysis of a high-performance multi-Gbps transceiver, designers need to analyze the impact of power/ground noise, as well as crossover modulation on the multi-GHz data transmitted in the channel. Due to the large intrinsic size of the power/ground structure, the spectrum of power/ground noise is in the lower tens of MHz, while the spectrum of the data signal may be in the tens of GHz. This broad spectrum requirement creates a simulation challenge, which NSPICE-UBS directly addresses. It reads in accurate S-parameter data directly and calculates the precise time step (in picoseconds) to replicate the high-frequency signal, while running fast enough to cover the long simulation span.
Availability and Pricing Both NSPICE-PI and NSPICE-UBS are available immediately on 32-bit Linux and 32-bit or 64-bit Solaris platforms. A 64-bit Linux version will be available soon. The list price for a one-year time-based floating license for NSPICE-PI is $60,000 on any platform. A one-year floating license for NSPICE-UBS is $35,000.
About Apache Design Solutions Apache is a provider of innovative next-generation physical design integrity software that accelerates the design process and guarantees the reliability of massive system-on-chip semiconductors operating at gigahertz frequencies. By providing tools for power, timing, and system I/O integrity, Apache enables leading networking, wireless, communication, consumer, and semiconductor companies to develop highly competitive and reliable products. Apache's physical design integrity products are used early in the sub-130 nanometer design process with minimal setup, delivering the highest standards of computational performance, capacity handling, and integrity. For more information, including a white paper on dynamic physical power analysis, visit http://www.apache-da.com.
Apache Design Solutions, NSPICE, RedHawk-SDL, and Vectorless Dynamic are trademarks of Apache Design Solutions, Inc.
