Traditionally EDA applications are evaluated narrowly per the dual benchmark of speed and accuracy. It is the case for a simulator as well as for a Streamer…
Whatever the Missing EDA Link, a Platinum reference must be innovatively defined.
For years, Golden simulators were claimed to provide the “guarantee” that simulation results would be both fast and close to silicon measurements, BUT only for pure ANALOG circuits.
Today, most SoC's are mixed
signal and no Golden simulator can deal with mixed
signal circuits with multi-level accuracy, while any Streamer must face the transition from IC's to SoC's hierarchically designed
using Virtual Components. A worthwhile EDA application thus must
be assessed in terms of design productivity increase and quality
control.
This entails that a traditionally trusted Golden
(analog) simulator gives unreliable and oftentimes false results
for mixed-signal operations due to the recourse to a "Cosimulation backplane".
It is dually cumbersome for the user, since it is unprepared
for the issues aggravated by the hierarchy (convergence on operating
points, calibration…)
It is now time for Platinum Simulators!
Truthfulness for a simulator means providing results which are both stable and accurate with respect to silicon.
Truthfulness for a Streamer entails completeness of data transfers through format conversions…
A Platinum Simulator is truthful in mixed signal by construction,
moreover it only can make calibration of multi-level models
feasible, where Calibration enables proving that any higher model
level is a truthful, albeit less accurate substitute to a lower
level.
A Platinum Simulator increases productivity by focusing on the three aspects of speed:
ease of set-up, localization of rest-states and mere execution.
Golden benchmarking of simulators focusing narrowly on the speed
of execution and accuracy of computations, miss the platinum
mark, as simulation set-up time is the most relevant for productivity
and safety of design:
Smash platinum reference
Not only does simulation set-up take 80 % of the simulation time (per Pareto law), it is the operation with the highest margin to increase productivity.
By providing the designer with a friendly and adaptable user interface, menu-based or script-based at will, the platinum goal is an on-going productivity increase of 30 % per annum!
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