This paper describes a new behavioural simulator based upon an optimised Piece-Wise Linear (PWL) representation of signals that can model mixed signal systems at various levels of abstraction. The authors show how analogue and digital models that are both efficient and accurate can be constructed from a small set of universal building blocks. Example applications are given and compared with results from a commercial SPICE type simulator. The new simulator is shown to offer a large reduction in execution time with only a small loss of accuracy.
INTRODUCTIONBehavioural modelling is important for large mixed signal ASKS because of the time and computing power required by conventional simulation methods. It should support multiple abstraction levels to achieve the best balance between accuracy and efficiency for each component block. There are few commercially available simulators that meet these requirements well. The efficiency of a simulator depends on the nature of the models and the signals that have to be passed between them. Digital simulators are only concerned with discrete voltage levels (logic states). They can therefore represent signals much more efficiently than analogue simulators, which assume signals are continuous. An ideal mixed signal simulator would represent analogue voltages and currents as efficiently as logic states. The simulator described in this paper uses piece-wise linear (PWL) waveforms to represent analogue voltages and currents. Digital signals are also represented as PWL voltage waveforms but only points at OV and VCC are stored, requiring a small increase in storage space compared to logic simulators. The nature of the data representation determines the complexity and accuracy of the simulation models and hence the simulator. A PWL signal representation enables very efficient simulation models to be constructed.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.