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ADE-XL: How to force individual result directories for each Monte Carlo point?

dontpanic

Hi! I am having an issue with the way ADE-XL (6.1.6-64b.500.11) is treating the results directories when running Monte Carlo simulations.

I have in my testbench a custom VA component that samples and dumps signals to the disk. For example, if I run a simulation in "Single run, sweeps and corners" mode with 3 corners, my dumped results are stored in the following directories and files:

[...]/[my_lib]/[my_cell]/adexl/results/data/Interactive.7/1/sch__noiseless/psf/myDumpedSimData/vOUTdiff.csv
[...]/[my_lib]/[my_cell]/adexl/results/data/Interactive.7/2/sch__noiseless/psf/myDumpedSimData/vOUTdiff.csv
[...]/[my_lib]/[my_cell]/adexl/results/data/Interactive.7/3/sch__noiseless/psf/myDumpedSimData/vOUTdiff.csv

The problem is when I switch to "Monte Carlo Sampling" mode. For instance, if I run 48 MC points for only 1 corner (and setting in my Job Setup options "Max. Jobs"=8), I see the following directories are being created:

[...]/[my_lib]/[my_cell]/adexl/results/data/MonteCarlo.3/1/sch__noiseless/groupRunDataDir/psf/myDumpedSimData/vOUTdiff.csv
[...]/[my_lib]/[my_cell]/adexl/results/data/MonteCarlo.3/1/sch__noiseless/groupRunDataDir/psf/myDumpedSimData/vOUTdiff.csv~

[...]/[my_lib]/[my_cell]/adexl/results/data/MonteCarlo.3/7/sch__noiseless/groupRunDataDir/psf/myDumpedSimData/vOUTdiff.csv
[...]/[my_lib]/[my_cell]/adexl/results/data/MonteCarlo.3/7/sch__noiseless/groupRunDataDir/psf/myDumpedSimData/vOUTdiff.csv~

[...]/[my_lib]/[my_cell]/adexl/results/data/MonteCarlo.3/13/sch__noiseless/groupRunDataDir/psf/myDumpedSimData/vOUTdiff.csv
[...]/[my_lib]/[my_cell]/adexl/results/data/MonteCarlo.3/13/sch__noiseless/groupRunDataDir/psf/myDumpedSimData/vOUTdiff.csv~

[...]/[my_lib]/[my_cell]/adexl/results/data/MonteCarlo.3/19/sch__noiseless/groupRunDataDir/psf/myDumpedSimData/vOUTdiff.csv
[...]/[my_lib]/[my_cell]/adexl/results/data/MonteCarlo.3/19/sch__noiseless/groupRunDataDir/psf/myDumpedSimData/vOUTdiff.csv~

[...]/[my_lib]/[my_cell]/adexl/results/data/MonteCarlo.3/25/sch__noiseless/groupRunDataDir/psf/myDumpedSimData/vOUTdiff.csv
[...]/[my_lib]/[my_cell]/adexl/results/data/MonteCarlo.3/25/sch__noiseless/groupRunDataDir/psf/myDumpedSimData/vOUTdiff.csv~

[...]/[my_lib]/[my_cell]/adexl/results/data/MonteCarlo.3/31/sch__noiseless/groupRunDataDir/psf/myDumpedSimData/vOUTdiff.csv
[...]/[my_lib]/[my_cell]/adexl/results/data/MonteCarlo.3/31/sch__noiseless/groupRunDataDir/psf/myDumpedSimData/vOUTdiff.csv~

[...]/[my_lib]/[my_cell]/adexl/results/data/MonteCarlo.3/37/sch__noiseless/groupRunDataDir/psf/myDumpedSimData/vOUTdiff.csv
[...]/[my_lib]/[my_cell]/adexl/results/data/MonteCarlo.3/37/sch__noiseless/groupRunDataDir/psf/myDumpedSimData/vOUTdiff.csv~

[...]/[my_lib]/[my_cell]/adexl/results/data/MonteCarlo.3/43/sch__noiseless/groupRunDataDir/psf/myDumpedSimData/vOUTdiff.csv
[...]/[my_lib]/[my_cell]/adexl/results/data/MonteCarlo.3/43/sch__noiseless/groupRunDataDir/psf/myDumpedSimData/vOUTdiff.csv~

So even though all the 48 MC points run without problems, ADE-XL is arranging/processing the results directories in a way that the files with the dumped signals are being overwritten, and in the end I am only left with 8 individual "vOUTdiff.csv" files (+8 old "vOUTdiff.csv~").

The root of the problem seems to be in the way the simulations are being launched, since in the individual spectre.out logs I see the warnings coming from my VA code messages about the files being overwritten (see attached excerpt below), and also that the MC points are being treated as "iterations".

How can I avoid this behavior, and force ADE-XL/spectre to keep the individual results directories for every MC point, while being able to run many MC points in parallel?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Cheers,

Jorge

Parents
  • dontpanic
    Dear Frank, I tried again adding the empty pre-run script idea and now it's working! Thanks so much!!! :)

    I guess for some reason on my first try my ADE-XL setup did not update this change, but I tried again and in my currently ongoing simulations I can clearly see that now each MC point is being run as a separate spectre call with "numruns=1", and in the simulation logs I also see now the entries "Monte Carlo Analysis `mc1': iteration = (1 -> 1)", which is what I expected.

    ...Is there anywhere documented why adding a pre-run script achieves this behavior???

    Thanks again for your help.

    Jorge.

    P.S. BTW, I tried looking in the CDS Support website Case 45811574 for the automated way of adding the pre-run script, but found nothing. Maybe I should I ask "in private" to CDS support?
Reply
  • dontpanic
    Dear Frank, I tried again adding the empty pre-run script idea and now it's working! Thanks so much!!! :)

    I guess for some reason on my first try my ADE-XL setup did not update this change, but I tried again and in my currently ongoing simulations I can clearly see that now each MC point is being run as a separate spectre call with "numruns=1", and in the simulation logs I also see now the entries "Monte Carlo Analysis `mc1': iteration = (1 -> 1)", which is what I expected.

    ...Is there anywhere documented why adding a pre-run script achieves this behavior???

    Thanks again for your help.

    Jorge.

    P.S. BTW, I tried looking in the CDS Support website Case 45811574 for the automated way of adding the pre-run script, but found nothing. Maybe I should I ask "in private" to CDS support?
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