ZSPICE Project Home Page

http://sourceforge.net/projects/mot-zspice

!!!!!!!!!!DRAFT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Introduction

The goal of the ZSPICE project is to show how to write in xml a simulator interface for adms.

(version 1.21.0 of adms required.)

In short ZSPICE is a simple reconfigurable spice simulator.

ZSPICE has its own device interface through which new verilog-ams device models can be implemented.

Its device library is automatically generated using adms, a software tool available on SourceForge.net.

Limitations:

• Only DC/AC simulations are supported
• Subset of Verilog-ams supported
• Note: a Verilog-AMS sub-committee is working on extensions on Verilog-AMS for compact modeling.
• ZSPICE syntax for netlists is NOT of spice flavor

The intend of ZSPICE is to illustrate how to build adms interfaces for simulators

ZSPICE is used to test the performance/robustness of new compact models, not to simulate complex circuits

Once a compact model has been tested using ZSPICE it can be implemented in SPECTRE or ADS

ADMS interfaces are available for SPECTRE and ADS

More on Zspice can be found at: http://legwww.epfl.ch/ekv/mos-ak/crolles/06_ll_mos-ak03.ppt

Diagram (requires Internet Explorer!)

Download and Installation

Only binaries for Windows are available.

Use link: http://sourceforge.net/projects/mot-zspice

• Windows:
  • unzip zspice-bin-1.1.2.zip
  • Add the path to directory zspice-1.1.2 to your PATH

Basic Options

If you run:

• zspice (no argument)
  • a short description on zspice options is displayed
• zspice --help
  • the list of implemented modules is displayed
  • the syntax to write zspice netlist is presented
• zspice --help <module>
  • detailed on built-in module <module> is displayed
  • for instance: zspice --help mextram
• zspice --load <zsp-module>
  • detailed on shared object <zsp-module> is displayed
  • for instance: zspice --load sp.zsp
• zspice -i
  • create the interface of zspice (API)
• zspice --demo
  • run demo
• shell variable
  • zspice_verbose: when set to 1 print many verbose info

How to implement new modules into ZSPICE

The ZSPICE API interface consists of four files (it is created by zspice -i):

• zspiceInterface.h
• zspiceMath.h
• zspiceBasic.h
• zspiceDynamicMacros.h

If you want to add a new module into ZSPICE you need to write a bench of c code that follows the rules of the ZSPICE API interface. (see header files above, I am still writing a documentation on the header files.)

This solution is tedious. It requires to calculate partial derivatives by hand.

A better solution to introduce a new compact model into Zspice is to use adms , a multi-purpose code generator, and code the new model in verilog-ams.

More specifically, if you want to add mextram you have to execute the following commands:

• download mextram.va
• install adms
• run: admsXml mextram.va -e zspiceModuleC.xml -e zspiceModuleH.xml -e zspiceEvaluate.include.xml
  • three c code files mextram.c , mextram.h and mextram_evaluate.include are created
• run 'zspice -i' in order to create the interface of zspice
• create a dynamic library (we call it zsp module)
  • On cygwin-windows run: gcc -shared -g mextram.c -I. -o mextram.zsp
  • You can run instead: gmake -f Makefile.zspice MODULENAME=mextram MODULEFILE=mextram.va
  • Dynamic library mextram.zsp is created
• run: admsXml mextram.va -e zspiceZkt_dc.xml
  • zkt netlist mextram_dc.zkt is created
• run: zspice --load mextram.zsp
  • info on zsp module mextram.zsp is displayed
• run: zspice mextram_dc.zkt
  • zspice will simulate automatically created file mextram_dc.zkt
  • Note: the created netlist has no simulation card
• See VBICSELFT example below that runs a dc simulation

Examples of Implemented Modules

Note:

I wish to thank Colin McAndrew, Prof G. Gildenblat, Prof. Slobodan Mijalkovic who gave me the permission to post VBICSELFT, SP and MEXTRAM respectively.

Running a simulation using VBICSELT

In this section we run a simulation using vbciselft and display the result using the Adobe SVGViewer.

Steps:

• run: zspice vbicselft_dcsweep.zkt 2> vbicselft.data
  • File vbicselft.data contains the simulation results of zspice netlist vbicselft_dcsweep.zkt
• run: perl svg.pl vbicselft
  • Perl script reads file vbicselft_dcsweep.zkt and converts it into SVG format
• Using Netscape or Internet Explorer click on created file vbicselft.svg in order to visualize the simulation result.
  • Note: you need to download the Adobe SVGViewer plug-in

Related project

http://sourceforge.net/projects/mot-adms

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