News and New Products

HSpice gets an update

By Gabe Moretti -- EDN, 6/4/2004

Designs are growing, and their execution speed is also increasing. As a result, engineers performing circuit analysis sometimes find that they can only approximate the run-time frequency; otherwise, they must partition the design to complete a simulation. Synopsys has enhanced its HSpice-circuit simulator to speed execution and increase the range of operating frequency the tool can support. An enhanced time-step-control algorithm combines with a simplified simulation-control interface to improve performance. You can simultaneously scale all simulation tolerances using a single control option. The tool automatically maximizes each time step to meet the desired accuracy level.

HSpice now supports high-capacity, nonlinear simulation for high-frequency designs with the addition of a harmonic-balance engine. It performs periodic-steady-state, periodic- and phase-noise, and periodic-ac analysis. Designers use the analyses to measure building-block components of wireless applications, such as RF transceivers. The Discovery AMS simulation environment that integrates HSpice also includes VCS and Nanosim. The HSpice module sells for $20,000 for a one-year term license.

Synopsys, 1-650-584-5000, www.synopsys.com.