Hspice and Cadence Spectra, what are the differences? My school used Hspice for digital IC class before, but they now use cadence spectra for both analog and digital IC classes.
Hspice is a tool from Synopsys
Cadence Spectre ( not Spectra) is a tool from Cadence.
They are both circuit simulator but they are different in syntax and device model
Hie The last version of Spectre that is included in the IC 4.1.41 package have almost 100% compatibility with hspice netlists for other side you can use the cadence virtuoso schematic editor to create the schematic and generate the netlists and then use hspice to simulate the netlist.
If you uses the option when you genetate the netlist please certify the netlist format that you choose is spice.
spectre is much better in RF circuit simulation. It covers almost all your need in RF analysis such as the S-parameter, Noise, 1dB-compression, IIP3, etc..., concerning RF design. In hspice, it is quite inconvenient or even infeasible to do these analysis.
In general, hspice is considered the most accurate simulator in AC and transient analysis. So it is better in analog circuit design.
Each company uses different tools according to their needs.
HSPICE is not available at cadence or Synopsys.
It is a tool by AVANTI
Spectre is a recent tool while HSPICE has been there for a longtime. So people using Cadence are moving to SPectre as it comes in the cadence bundle. They might pay less for the licences
The HSPICE in Cadence is a script that let u run HSPICE from Synopsys. So, you will need to have HSPICE simulator installed as well as license set up correctly. You will also need license from Cadence to use the feature to link up with HSPICE simulator.
By the way, Synopsys bought Avanti so HSPICE is owned by Synopsys.
However, in IC5141, Spectre can take HSPICE model but I am not sure of its accuracy as well as efficiency. Love to hear others' opinion on this.
Yes the Spectre simulation in IC5141 can take HSPICE model, and that was not possible in previous versions (or at least I didn't try in IC5 or 5033).
If you are really curious about the difference in different simulator option in Cadence, I suggest you to go to comp.cad.cadence on Google because there is guy called Andrew Beckett from Cadence who seems to very knowledgable.
vikadik:
I believed you were asking a question; pardon me if i'm wrong. I used HSPICE myself and didn't use Spectre. In IC5141, the Spectre simulator can take model files in HSPICE syntax and runs the simulation.
hi . upto yet i worked with spectre tool for simulation now i'm trying do simulations with HSPICE. where can i get the hspice package.. give me the link for that tool..