Running corner PVT sims with scalar output evaluated but waveforms not saved

Dear SunnyBhagia,

SunnyBhagia said:

Similarly, is there a way to disable waveform save in corner runs?

I am not an expert, but I've never seen this option for corner/sweep simulation sets. As you correctly noted, it is available in Monte-carlo simulations.

However, there are a number of options you may or may not have considered to significantly reduce your database size. There is also an option to monitor disk space and suspend your simulation set if the available disk space falls below a threshold.

A few options to reduce your storage requirements if you are not aware of them follow.

1. If your netlist is of reasonable size, there is an option where the netlist will be included as an include file in the input.scs file in lieu of including the netlist in every input.scs file. This option can be set invoked by including the line:

envSetVal("adexl.simulation" "includeStatementForNetlistInSimInputFile" 'boolean t)

in your.cdsinit file and is explained at URL:

https://support.cadence.com/apex/ArticleAttachmentPortal?id=a1Od0000000tHUNEA2&pageName=ArticleContent&id=a1Od0000000tHUNEA2&oMenu=Documents%20which%20may%20be%20similar%20to%20this%20document

2. I don't know the specifics of the nature of your scalar outputs, but there are many options to optimize storage if, for example,

a. A scalar output only requires a small section of a waveform (can choose to save only a specific time range of waveform, start saving only after some time)

b. The accuracy of a scalar output is acceptable when it is computed with a subset of the chosen simulator timepoints (use of strobepoint option will only save data at specific timepoints)

c. A scalar output requires the DC operating point only at one or more timepoints (infotimes option)

3. Use of psfxl database format and minimizing saved output parameters (see Figure 1)

These as well as other options are detailed in the note entitled "Waveform Data Reduction and Compression Techniques using Spectre and ADE" at  URL:

https://support.cadence.com/apex/ArticleAttachmentPortal?id=a1O0V0000091CAaUAM&pageName=ArticleContent&oMenu=People+who+viewed+this+also+viewed

Shawn

Figure 1

SunnyBhagia said:

Similarly, is there a way to disable waveform save in corner runs?

Yes, this can easily be done in Explorer, Assembler and ADE XL (it's always been possible since the beginning of ADE XL). In Explorer go to Setup->Save Options and uncheck the Save Simulation Data checkbox; in Assembler/ADE XL go to Options->Save and uncheck Save Simulation Data. When you do this, the results are used to compute scalar results and then are not retained.

Andrew

Dear Andrew,

Andrew Beckett said:

(it's always been possible since the beginning of ADE XL)

Thank you! I'm not sure how I was not aware of this, but I was not! Hopefully, this will satisfy SunnyBhagia's request.

Shawn