BDA - Scorecard

Berkeley Design Automation Analog FastSPICE (AFS) and RF FastSPICE (RFS) tools provide design teams the means to perform verification on complex blocks and full circuits that is otherwise impractical or impossible. The tools’ nanometer SPICE accuracy combined with 5x-10x performance and 5x-10x effective capacity is transforming how analog/RF design teams verify their circuits, which in turn will enable them to create even more impressive circuits in the near future.

The table above summarizes the comparative results for traditional SPICE, digital fastSPICE, and Berkeley Design Automation AFS and RFS. In so doing it makes the company’s technical advantages strikingly clear. The rows are the specific verification tasks for simple blocks, complex blocks, and full circuits. The same verification tasks apply to simple and complex blocks. The table provides a summary rating for each verification task by simulator type. The ratings are from 0 to 4 check marks.

Traditional SPICE generally performs all verification tasks well for simple blocks. Its limited performance and limited effective capacity severely limit its applicability for complex blocks and full circuits. For complex blocks it is adequate for some pre-layout simulation and minimally performs most other tasks. However it cannot generate full-circuit DC operating points or run full-circuit performance simulations for moderately complex top-level designs.

For all of the attention given to digital fastSPICE simulators in the analog/RF domain, they provide value only for tasks that do not need accuracy. They are not at all applicable for simple blocks because traditional SPICE is much easier to use, guaranteed accurate, fast enough (in fact faster for small blocks), and has sufficient capacity. Digital fastSPICE simulators are only really applicable to functional verification at the complex-block and full-circuit level. They rate only two checks in each case because they require block-level simulator tuning and their accuracy limitations are unacceptable in many cases.

While Berkeley Design Automation focuses on Big Analog/RF Verification, its tools provide superior performance often with higher accuracy even on circuits with <1K total elements and <1-hour runtimes. Nevertheless, their real value is on complex blocks and full circuits, which are where design teams face their biggest challenges given today’s highly analog/RF integrated circuits. In the former case, they provide substantially more value across the board. Yet there is room for improvement with additional accuracy, performance, and/or functionality for post-layout, variation, noise, and periodic analysis. The company’s Precision Circuit Analysis technology shines on full circuits being the only solution for DC operating point analysis and targeted performance simulations as well as providing vastly superior analysis of package and transmission-line effects. Again there is room for improvement. Besides the obvious improvements in performance and capacity, additional features such as co-simulation, hierarchy, parasitic reduction, and multi-core support would significantly improve its current advantages.

For more information about how Precision Circuit Analysis tools compare with traditional SPICE and digital fastSPICE, see: