Virtuoso AMS Environment User Guide

Overview of the Virtuoso AMS Designer Flow

editor to create components, use the Hierarchy Editor to define a configuration, and use

SimVision to simulate and debug the design interactively. In both cases, you use the

SimVision Waveform Viewer to display the simulation results.

Creating HDL Modules for CDBA Cellviews

The AMS simulator operates only on modules containing HDL information. Modules containing other kinds of data, such as the CDBA cellviews produced by a schematic capture tool, must be translated into HDL information before the modules can be simulated. The AMS simulator always uses the Verilog-AMS language for netlists, even if your design consists solely of VHDL and VHDL-AMS blocks.

Depending on the design development approach you use, the AMS environment provides different tools to facilitate the creation of HDL modules.

■If you use a schematic capture tool within the AMS environment, the environment automatically creates the HDL modules whenever you save a complete, valid schematic or change CDF information. As a result, when you are ready to simulate, the HDL modules already exist and are ready to use.

■If you develop designs outside of the AMS environment or with HDL creation turned off, the environment provides tools you can use to create the HDL modules needed for a simulation. With these tools, you can create HDL modules for a given library, cell, or view or for all of the modules used in a specified configuration.

The following sections discuss these approaches in more detail.

Creating HDL Data as You Save CDBA Cellviews

In this approach, each time you save a valid schematic or layout block within the AMS environment, the AMS netlister immediately creates a corresponding HDL module. For example, you change a connection in a schematic, then check and save the cellview. If the cellview passes the check, the AMS environment overwrites any existing HDL information for the cellview with new HDL information that corresponds to the changed schematic. Then you change the CDF for a cell. When you save the CDF, the AMS environment creates updated HDL information for all the views of that cell that are specified as eligible.

Creating HDL Data from Pre-existing CDBA Cellviews

Depending on your needs, you can create HDL data from pre-existing CDBA cellviews for

■Specified cellviews located in libraries

Virtuoso AMS Environment User Guide

Overview of the Virtuoso AMS Designer Flow

■All the cellviews used in a configuration

Creating HDL Data for Libraries, Cells, and Views

To facilitate using libraries that do not have corresponding HDL modules, the AMS environment provides a translator tool, the AMS netlister, which creates HDL data for the

CDBA cellviews within a specified library, cell, or view. If you prefer a graphical interface, you can run the AMS netlister through the Tools menu in the CIW. If you prefer a non-graphical approach, you can run the AMS netlister from the UNIX command line.

Creating HDL Data for Cells Used in a Configuration

The AMS environment provides a tool, AMS Design Prep, that checks all the cellviews used in a design configuration and creates up-to-date HDL data for them. You run AMS Design Prep from the hierarchy editor.