RE: [SI-LIST] : Hspice: Windows vs Unix

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From: Ken Cantrell ([email protected])
Date: Tue Apr 10 2001 - 08:06:55 PDT


Doug,
Although your e-mail was relatively short and to the point, this is not an
advertising site for vendors. Now every other vendor will have to post
their material. It's a bit like crowding in the lunch line. It is
customary for someone selling something to simply post the url, and let the
group take it from there. OK?
Ken

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Burns, Douglas
Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2001 6:59 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: [SI-LIST] : Hspice: Windows vs Unix

Anthony,

I work for Signal Integrity Software Inc (SiSoft) where we have been
developing software to support our high-speed design methodology. This
methodology encompasses both pre and post layout waveform and timing
analysis for GHz+ signaling environments. We seamlessly support IBIS and
SPICE models on both PC and UNIX based HSPICE. We use both compute
environments and have launched long complicated simulations successfully
on both platforms.

PC Solution
1) Does not support queuing. Jobs must be submitted in a serial fashion.

2) PC_HSPICE lives on the PC. If you get a node-locked license, Only the
person with the key can access HSPICE. You can get a floating license
and install HSPICE on all user's PC's, but you are still limited to the
number of jobs that can be launched simultaneously. Also you would need
to do separate installs/updates/support on all machines. Third, you
could install HSPICE on a PC server and give your users access to the
server.
3)PC hardware is less expensive with similar performance to the UNIX
platforms

The Unix Solution
1) Supports queuing. Hundreds of jobs can be submitted easily
2) Multiple users can simultaneously log onto 1 machine and submit jobs
3) Easy scripting/data manipulation
4) New CMI models support (though not on all UNIX's)

In practice, user access and data manipulation capabilities should be
primary concerns. We believe that the UNIX platform presently provides
the best access and flexibility.

 Doug Burns
 Principal Consultant
 Signal Integrity Software, Inc.
 www.SiSoft.com
 [email protected]

-----Original Message-----
From: Mohan [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2001 12:18 AM
To: Anthony Davidson; [email protected]
Subject: Re: [SI-LIST] : Hspice: Windows vs Unix

Hi

It depends on your needs......If you need to run small circuits, it is
okay
to use the PC version. Otherwise, Unix is preferable anyday !! I have
had
many instances of PC-version crashing when running long and accurate
simulations ( eg. PLL ). Version 2000.2 (?) has problems with the
'Update'
feature in PC. I cannot track a waveform while simulation is running. (
There could be some fixes for these ! ).

As regards the links to 3rd party tools : the links help you to invoke
Hspice simulator other than the default simulator. For example, if you
are
using Cadence's Analog artist, you would be able to use Hspice as a
simulator instead of CDSpice or Spectre.. the link provides the license
to
do so. You could then analyse the results in the 3rd party's waveform
viewer. Of course, you need to have Hspice binaries too....i am not
aware of
any Cadence or Mentor tools on PC. Mentor's NT support is probably close
to
what you would want on a PC.

Mohan Kumar

----- Original Message -----
From: "Anthony Davidson" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2001 1:55 AM
Subject: [SI-LIST] : Hspice: Windows vs Unix

> We are looking at Star-Hspice from Avanti! as a signal integrity
analysis
> tool to evaluate/analyze high speed interconnects. We have decided to
> purchase some licenses but now we have to decide to buy a Windows
version
or
> a Unix (Solaris, I believe) version.
>
> According to Avanti!, Windows Hspice is a subset of Unix Hspice. The
> information I have is this:
>
> CMI is not supported on Windows. CMI is a development library allowing
one
> to create MOSFET models in C. This will prevent us from using any
vendor's
> MOSFET model that was generated with CMI, however, this may not be a
problem
> because most manufacturers use the BSIM3 model nowadays. Does anybody
know
> if BSIM3 models are better/worse than models generated with CMI? Will
I be
> limited in anyway by not having CMI?
>
> Avanti! says that some 3rd party output formats are only supported on
Unix,
> such as CadenceLink and MentorLink. Does anybody have any experiences
they
> can describe using such links? What do these links allow you to do?
>
> Finally, has anybody used Hspice on both Windows and Unix platforms?
Would
> you say that you prefer one platform over the other? Why?
>
> Any other comments would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks in advance for your help!!
>
> Anthony Davidson
>
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