[SI-LIST] Re: Xilinx IBIS AMI models with Agilent ADS
- From: "Todd Westerhoff" <twesterh@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <si-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:24:31 -0500 (EST)
Istvan,
I understand ... if you bought a 32 bit machine nowadays, chances are you'd
be crazy to want to run simulations on it anyway. Running 32 and 64 bit
.dll's together is still tricky, so I try to avoid mixing models where I
can. Most of the .dll's I see are 32 bit (remember we started providing
models back in 2007), hence my original response.
You should be able to get portable versions of these models directly from
the vendor. Where SiSoft supplies kits, we configure them for our
simulator and leverage syntax we've publicly proposed to make models more
accurate and/or easier to use. As Colin correctly points out, not all
simulators will recognize and use that syntax, because some of these
features are still in discussion at the committee level.
That's probably as much as I can say on a reflector ...
Thanks for your question!
Todd.
--
Todd Westerhoff
VP, Software Products
SiSoft
6 Clock Tower Place, Suite 250
Maynard, MA 01754
(978) 461-0449 x24
twesterh@xxxxxxxxxx
www.sisoft.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Istvan Nagy [mailto:buenos@xxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Monday, November 14, 2011 4:50 PM
To: Todd Westerhoff; si-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [SI-LIST] Re: Xilinx IBIS AMI models with Agilent ADS
Hi Todd,
Thanks.
The thing about "64-bit" in my opinion, is that most computers sold in the
past 1-2 years (including the cheaper ones) have a 64-bit windows-7, and the
programs we normally install on these are also 64-bit. At least when we
install a new program, we dont yet consider normally the simulation model
files that we want to run on it. Someone from Agilent told me that I had to
start the program in 32-bit mode to prevent crashing when using 32-bit
models. The program didnt give me this info in the error message. So at the
end there is an easy solution with ADS. If we have an RX model as a 32-bit
DLL and a TX model as a 64-bit DLL, then how should the simulator handle
this?
Since you are from Sisoft, can I ask you about the availability of the
models for the general public? Or is it some sensitive stuff that I
shouldn't ask on a mailing list? I mean some Xilinx AMI models seem to be
available through Sisoft, but only for Sisoft customers? I'm not
complaining, just confused.
Best regards,
Istvan Nagy
-----Original Message-----
From: Todd Westerhoff
Sent: Monday, November 14, 2011 3:39 PM
To: si-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [SI-LIST] Re: Xilinx IBIS AMI models with Agilent ADS
Istvan,
The Spartan 6 model I've seen is fully compliant with IBIS 5.0 specification
and should work in any IBIS-AMI compliant simulator.
The issue of 32 vs. 64 bit .dll's is a bit nuanced. In general, 64 bits are
better than 32 bits, because that provides additional precision / capacity,
albeit at some cost (ensuring compatibility of hardware, O/S, program and
runtime libraries). In the particular case of AMI models, 64 bit operation
doesn't buy us much because we don't need the extra precision and the change
in simulation performance is minimal. Thus, while 64 bit .dll's sound like
a great idea, they present potential compatibility issues as Hermann noted.
Note that the IBIS specification uses a declaration of
"Platform_Compiler_Bits" when pointing to the .dll, so a model declaration
ending in "_32" tells the simulator that the .dll has been compiled as a 32
bit object. It's possible (and seems probable) that the 64 bit simulator
you're using is ignoring that declaration, thus it loads the model anyway
and crashes trying to call it.
If you have a 32 bit version of the simulator available, I'd use that
instead. I can't speak to the details of other people's simulators, but in
general that shouldn't make a difference.
For anyone wondering, 32 bit programs & run time libraries always work in a
64 bit Windows O/S because 32 bit compatibility is built-in to the Windows
O/S. If you're running Linux, not all distributions include 32 bit support
by default, so you may need to load the appropriate O/S 32 bit package(s)
for your system.
Todd.
--
Todd Westerhoff
VP, Software Products
SiSoft
6 Clock Tower Place, Suite 250
Maynard, MA 01754
(978) 461-0449 x24
twesterh@xxxxxxxxxx
www.sisoft.com
-----Original Message-----
From: si-list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:si-list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Istvan Nagy
Sent: Saturday, November 12, 2011 2:31 PM
To: si-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [SI-LIST] Xilinx IBIS AMI models with Agilent ADS
Hi Guys,
How do you simulate Xilinx IBIS AMI models with Agilent ADS on a 64-bit PC?
I am trying to evaluate the Agilent ADS-2011.05 (30-day trial) with one of
my previous designs containing a Xilinx Spartan-6 FPGA on it. I have a
2.5Gbps PCIe and a 1.5Gbps Aurora link on it.
I have encountered a few problems, they seem to be related to model
availability.
-Several models are not available from the Xilinx website, but only from
Sisoft. If I'm using Agilent software, so how could I get the models from
Sisoft? The Spartan-6 model package completely, and one of the files (.ibs)
from the Virtex-5-GTP model package (.zip) are missing from the xilinx
website.
-The available models seem to have 32-bit DLLs which crashes the simulation
on my 64-bit windows-7 PC while running channel simulation. The only model
on the xilinx website without missing files is the Virtex-6 GTX transceiver
model, which is totally different than the device on my board (Sp-6 GTP),
but at least i could use it to check the capabilities of the ADS2011.
Is there a solution for the above?
Why be so secretive around IBIS AMI models?
Is there an IBIS-AMI channel-sim tutorial for ADS?
Regards,
Istvan Nagy
Hardware Design Engineer
Bluechip Technology
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