Cadence introduces Spectre FX FastSPICE simulator

Cadence Design Systems has introduced the Spectre FX Simulator, a next-generation FastSPICE circuit simulator that enables the efficient verification of memory and large-scale system-on-chip (SoC) designs.

Part of the Spectre simulation platform, the Spectre FX Simulator’s scalable FastSPICE architecture offers customers up to 3X better performance compared to the latest FastSPICE simulators with equal or better accuracy.

With the addition of the Spectre FX Simulator, the Spectre platform now offers the industry’s only complete simulation solution suitable for applications from cell characterization through to chip-level verification.

Complex memory and SoC designs need high accuracy and fast simulation performance to ensure they function as intended and meet chip specifications and it’s becoming essential to include post-layout parasitics in the chip verification process, especially for advanced-node designs to account for the layout effects on the chip functionality.

The FastSPICE solver provides significantly improved levels of performance and accuracy within the Spectre FX Simulator and gives design and verification teams the ability to accurately check timing, functionality and power consumption of their full-chip and subsystem-level designs.

In addition to the productivity gains, the Spectre FX simulator offers several other benefits: the simulator offers scalability of up to 32 cores with multi-threading to parallelize transient simulations to take advantage of hardware resources and improve productivity; delivers a more intuitive use model with out-of-the-box accuracy and performance balance and a minimal amount of tuning needed to obtain the optimal accuracy and simulation speed for any given verification task; and ease of adoption as the simulator fully leverages the Spectre platform’s infrastructure technology, including seamless integration into the Virtuoso ADE Product Suite, providing easy adoption into existing Spectre and SPICE flows.

The Spectre FX Simulator also offers extensive verification capabilities, including static and dynamic circuit checking, alters, sweeps and Monte Carlo analyses, allowing designers to expand the scope of their verification beyond functionality, timing and power checks.

Commenting Tom Beckley, senior VP and general manager of the Custom IC & PCB Group at Cadence said, “With the new Spectre FX Simulator, we are completing the Spectre portfolio and bringing customers a highly accurate and fast simulation solution. The Spectre FX Simulator allows customers to accelerate SoC design verification, enabling them to meet aggressive time-to-market goals.”