LSI circuit simulation on vector computers

Thesis/Dissertation · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1982

OSTI ID:5132668

Vladimirescu, A

The simulation of Large-Scale-Integrated (LSI) circuits requires very long run times on conventional circuit analysis programs such as SPICE2. A new simulator for LSI circuits, CLASSIE, has been developed which is more efficient and preserves the same accuracy. Two basic factors of present technology are considered in the design of the new LSI circuit simulator. First, LSI circuits are usually a collection of a limited number of structurally identical functional blocks such as logic gates, operational amplifiers, etc. The second is the availability of vector computers which provide an ideal architecture for fast computations on repetitive structures. SPICE2 operates on an entire circuit matrix which is processed at the individual electrical element level. The analysis in the new program takes into consideration the structure of the LSI circuit. The identical functional blocks are grouped together and the simulation is performed at two levels. The above design considerations speed up the simulation of an LSI circuit performed by CLASSIE considerably compared to SPICE2. For the analysis of a large circuit, CLASSIE on a vector computer rates in simulation speed between SPICE2 and a timing simulator. For various test circuits containing from a few hundred to a few thousand semiconductor devices, CLASSIE simulation runs on a CRAY-1 indicate that the speedup compared to SPICE2 increases with circuit size. The solution techniques implemented in the new simulator make the execution time grow linearly with increasing circuit complexity in comparison to an exponential growth in a conventional circuit simulator. Vectorized device-model evaluation and a machine-code solver using both vector and scalar operations bring about the increased performance.

• Research Organization: California Univ., Berkeley (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5132668
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
420800* -- Engineering-- Electronic Circuits & Devices-- (-1989)
ANALOG SYSTEMS
COMPUTER CODES
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
COMPUTERS
ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS
FUNCTIONAL MODELS
INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
MICROELECTRONIC CIRCUITS
PERFORMANCE
PROGRAMMING
SIMULATION
SIMULATORS
SPECIFICATIONS
TIME DEPENDENCE
VECTOR PROCESSING