The intense verification
challenges of nanometer analog, RF, mixed-signal, and
custom digital circuits demand an accurate, fast, and
full-featured verification platform. Key requirements
include nanometer SPICE accuracy, fast single-core and
multi-core simulations, silicon-accurate device noise
analysis, and the capacity to handle even the largest
post-layout simulations.
The Analog
FastSPICE™ (AFS) Platform is the world’s fastest
nanometer circuit verification platform, providing
analog, mixed-signal, and RF (AMS/RF) design teams
the ultimate in accuracy, performance, capacity,
and functionality.
Over 100
semiconductor companies have adopted the AFS
Platform for their toughest nanometer verification
challenges. Applications include ADCs, DACs, PLLs,
high-speed I/O, and RFICs. Design teams rely on
the AFS Platform for verification tasks from
block-level characterization to full-circuit
functional verification.
The AFS Platform addresses
the nanometer circuit verification requirements in a single
executable that seamlessly integrates into the
industry’s leading design environment.
5x-10x faster nm SPICE
accurate simulation on a single core
2x-4x more performance with
4-8 core multithreading
Certified to 28nm by the
world’s leading foundries
>120 dB transient dynamic
range
Most accurate & efficient
analog/RF circuit characterization
Full-spectrum device noise
within 1-2 dB of silicon
Near-linear scaling with
increasing number of cores
Includes detailed
parasitics and device noise effects
>10M-element capacity with
no accuracy degradation
Mixed-mode co-simulation
with leading Verilog® simulators
Block-level characterization
requires extreme resolution to verify tight
specifications. AFS delivers nanometer SPICE accuracy,
the industry’s fastest iterations, silicon-accurate
device noise analysis, and ~linear performance scaling
with multi-core parallelization. For complex blocks such
as ADCs, PLLs, and SerDes, only AFS delivers
silicon-accurate results including parasitic and device
noise effects. For full-circuit functional verification
including verifying connectivity and operating modes,
AFS delivers the industry's fastest near-SPICE-accurate
results for circuits up to 10M elements without any
simulator tuning.
Accuracy With
default SPICE tolerance settings (~0.1%), Berkeley
Design Automation guarantees that the AFS Platform
produces identical waveforms to the leading “golden”
SPICE simulators. For nanometer circuit verification,
AFS delivers foundry-certified nanometer SPICE accuracy
with time-domain-based accuracy exceeding 120 dB of
dynamic range.
Performance
The AFS Platform delivers nanometer SPICE accuracy
5x-10x faster than any other simulator on a single core.
In multithreading mode, AFS delivers an additional 2x-4x
speedup when using 4-8 cores. In multi-core parallel
mode, performance scales near linearly with the number
of cores. Advanced numerical analysis and computational
efficiency let the AFS Platform achieve this performance
without sacrificing accuracy.
Capacity
A circuit simulator’s useful capacity is a function of
DC convergence and performance. The AFS Platform
robustly converges on circuits with >10M elements. For
functional verification tasks that only require
near-SPICE accuracy, AFS delivers the industry’s fastest
near-SPICE-accurate simulation, making full-circuit
functional verification practical in a practical
timeframe.
Specifications
Netlist
compatibility
Accepts industry-standard SPICE
netlists
VCD
for simulation stimulus
Model
support
Gummel-Poon,
HICUM, Mextram, VBIC
BSIM3,
BSIM4, BSIMSOI, MOS11, PSP
MOS1,
MOS3, JFET, Diode, Juncap
Verilog-A,
s-parameter, w-element
Outputs
PSF
ASCII, PSF binary, tr0, FSDB
Nutmeg
ASCII, Nutbin, Nutbinf
Integration
Comprehensive
integration with the
leading EDA design environment
Waveform
viewer
Powerful calculator, script generation, and
waveform viewing functions
