Typically, analog and digital blocks are verified independently with different simulation products that vary in accuracy. When analog and digital blocks are combined in one simulation, verifying them together usually requires some additional modeling techniques that only approximate circuit behavior. With this type of approach it is very common for engineers to spend a significant amount of time interpreting the results. In some cases engineers waste time chasing down false design errors; more often the result is that real design problems are missed.

As mixed-signal designs increase in size and grow more complex, the ability to achieve correct functional verification becomes very challenging. Verification becomes virtually impossible for current simulation solutions once fully-extracted parasitics are introduced.

FineSim Pro is the first product that allows designers to functionally verify mixed-signal systems on a chip (SoCs) seamlessly using a single engine and without the overhead of traditional solutions. In addition to enabling the designer to work with detailed parasitic information, FineSim Pro allows complete control of accuracy-versus-performance tradeoffs with a few simple control statements.

Simulation Accuracy and Performance

FineSim Pro contains advanced fast-SPICE circuit solvers that are guaranteed to provide the most accurate results for very large and complex mixed-signal designs. As the industry’s first single-executable circuit-level simulator, FineSim Pro allows the designer to take advantage of multiple circuit-solving techniques, such as hierarchical simulation recognition for memory structures, or multi-rate techniques for sensitive analog circuits. In addition, FineSim Pro includes FineSim SPICE, a full SPICE engine, for use during full-chip simulation when SPICE accuracy is required.

Native Parallel Technology

Included in FineSim Pro and FineSim SPICE, Magma’s Native Parallel Technology enables SPICE-accurate analysis of very large complex digital designs such as memories and complex analog designs using multiple CPUs. Designers can quickly and easily apply appropriate accuracy settings to their designs without the unnecessary setup options required with conventional approaches. Leveraging multi-CPU architectures not only improves FineSim Pro’s simulation throughput, but also enables FineSim Pro to handle very large designs.

Enhanced Transistor Modeling with E2M for Digital Blocks

FineSim Pro provides a unique mechanism for improving the simulation of large digital blocks. Through Magma’s revolutionary E2M technique, the simulation of large digital sections of a design have been shown to speed up significantly while maintaining SPICE-like accuracy. Performance improvements of 50X to 100X and more compared to normal fast-SPICE have been achieved on very large standard-cell blocks with minimal loss in accuracy.

Non-Ideal Power Simulation and EM Analysis Option

FineSim Pro has an optional package for dynamic power analysis as well as electromigration (EM) analysis. FineSim Pro accurately calculates peak, average and root-mean-square current values and graphically displays the results for a quick visual analysis.

Device Model Support

FineSim Pro supports standard SPICE models, such as BSIM3, BSIM4, BSIM-SOI, Phillips MM9, Gummel-Poon models, VBIC 1.2, Philips Mextram 503, Diode and RLC models and inverted inductance