Spice program upgrades help verify large, post-layout analog designs

Mentor, a Siemens business, announced significant advances in the Analog FastSPICE Platform with the introduction of Analog FastSPICE eXTreme technology for nanometer-scale verification of large, post-layout analog designs. Analog FastSPICE eXTreme includes revolutionary technology that can substantially boost simulation performance, while helping maintain the foundry-certified accuracy required for nanometer-scale analog verification.

Analog FastSPICE eXTreme is especially valuable for analog designs containing high levels of parasitic complexity and contact resistance, both of which grow increasingly problematic as process geometries continue to shrink. Initial customer benchmarks show a simulation performance boost of 10X compared to Mentor’s previous-generation  Analog FastSPICE offering, and a 3X simulation performance acceleration compared to commercially available solutions at similar accuracy settings.

Mentor’s Analog FastSPICE Platform provides rapid circuit verification for nanometer analog, radio frequency (RF), mixed-signal, memory, and custom digital circuits. Foundry certified to 5nm and essential to the design of many of the most successful analog integrated circuits (ICs) in the world, the platform delivers nanometer-scale SPICE accuracy two times faster than parallel SPICE simulators.

Available to current Analog FastSPICE customers at no additional cost, the new Analog FastSPICE eXTreme technology is designed to deliver additional performance benefits for large, post-layout analog designs. Analog FastSPICE eXTreme features innovative resistor-capacitor (RC) circuit reduction algorithms, significant performance improvements to the Analog FastSPICE core SPICE matrix solver, and comprehensive, full-spectrum device noise analysis capabilities designed to enable silicon-accurate simulation.

Analog FastSPICE eXTreme complements Mentor’s Symphony Mixed-Signal Platform, which leverages the Analog FastSPICE circuit simulator and offers fast and accurate mixed-signal verification with industry-standard HDL simulators. The Symphony platform supports verification of complex, nanometer-scale mixed-signal ICs with an intuitive use model, powerful debugging capabilities and configuration support.