The 16.6 AMS Simulator (PSpice) release now includes support for multi-core capabilities. There are several runtime options available to enhance the performance of simulation runs.
Read on for more details…
Performance of multi-core capabilties is enabled. There are focused performance enhancements for large designs with complex model instances like MOSFETS and BJT. In addition, I/O performance improvements with significant performance enhancements for large DAT files are included:
Threads
- Maximum number of threads to be used for simulation
- THREADS = 1 => Single-threaded simulation
- THREADS = 0 => Use default calculation
- By default, the number of threads is calculated based on device count, number of cores in the machine, and the PSpice license used.
- The default thread count is <= number of cores/2
- A maximum of 4 threads can be used for regular PSpice licenses
Convergence improvement options
- Advanced biaspoint convergence homotopies
- Integration method option
- Node value limiting
- Relative tolerance
- Accuracy improvement options
- Worst-case control independent of RELTOL
- Behavioral sources TimeStep control for sinusoidal functions
- MinStep independent of TSTOP
- 64-bit data accuracy
New PSpice options—biaspoint convergence
- PSEUDOTRAN
- Bias-point convergence enhancement
- Used when all other methods (STEPGMIN, STEPSOURCES) have failed
- ADVCONV
- Enables all convergence algorithms, viz. PseudoTran, StepGmin, and StepSources (ON by default)
- GMINSRC
- Enables StepGmin from inside of StepSources
- NOSTEPDEP
- Suppresses stepping of dependent sources during StepSources
Here are three options that give additional control to power users:
- GMINSTEPS
- Maximum number of steps per iteration of StepGmin
- ITL6
- Maximum number of steps per iteration of StepSources
- PTRANSTEP
- Maximum number of steps per iteration of PseudoTran
New PSpice options—transient convergence
- METHOD = [TRAPEZOIDAL|GEAR|DEFAULT]
- Integration method to be used during Transient analysis
- Gear is more stable, so more often used in the default mode
- Trapezoidal is more accurate
- TRTOL
- Tolerance for integration error calculated during transient analysis
- A higher value implies more tolerance, so bigger time steps and reduced accuracy
- Can be useful to jump model discontinuities in case of fast-switching designs
- Default = 7
- LIMIT
- Absolute limit on data values calculated in PSpice engine during simulation
- Can be used in case of overflow errors
- Can also be useful for convergence failures in some simulations
- WCDEVIATION
- Deviation to be used for worst-case analysis
- Default calculation for worst-case delta is nominalValue * RELTOL
- If WCDEVIATION is specified, it gets modified to nominalValue *
New PSpice options—accuracy
- PROBE64
- 64-bit probe data
- Increases resolution of probe
- Very useful for differential probes
- NOGMINI
- Suppress GMIN addition across current sources
- Gives more accurate results for very low current values
- BRKDEPSRC
- Sets automatic break-points for sinusoidal behavioral sources
- Useful for long simulations when default Max Time Step is too big
New PSpice options—simulation enhancement
- VT Tables
- Optional parameter for table-driven behavioral sources
- Tells simulator that x-axis of the table represents time
- Run-time settings supports enabling convergence homotopies and configuration without a simulation re-start
As always, I look forward to your feedback!
Jerry “GenPart” Grzenia