Many nanometer-IC design issues have a transient, current-based nature: IR drop, leakage currents, electromigration, and cross-coupling effects. Nascim, a fast-Spice simulator from Nascentric, is the first in a suite of tools that will address the transient nature of the physical and electrical effects that degrade timing, power, and signal integrity.
Nascim relies on current-based transistor models to accurately reflect the actual current flow in CMOS circuitry, enhancing the overall accuracy of simulation and analysis. The tool quickly evaluates designs across multiple constraints. It approaches simulation through intelligent use of multiple evaluation engines, accurate current-based measurement, and efficient storage and transformation of data.
Multiple engines handle device-, topology-, and application-specific evaluations of the circuit. Optimized for each type of design entity within the circuit (transistor-, interconnect-, cell-, and block-level analysis), the engine-based architecture enables a very finely grained simulation of nanometer effects. Nascim runs very quickly—up to 10 times faster than existing fast-Spice simulators, according to Nascentric.
The initial release of Nascim is suited to addressing the needs of large blocks of random digital logic and memory circuits. Subsequent releases will address analog blocks within mixed-signal applications.
Nascentric will support several pricing models depending on the configuration. The preliminary cost for a perpetual license begins at $80,000. Nascim will be available for delivery on March 1.
Nascentric Inc.www.nascentric.com