awd command line options

[Zhiheng Cao]

Hi,

When I use Spectre from command line, I found that awd is the only
waveform viewer that I can use. However each time I need to choose
result and enter calcualtor command manually. Is there a way to automate
this? For example can I enter calculator expressions from the UNIX
command line when I start awd?
I found it extremely frustrating that Cadence is not making any useful
documents at all, about this kind of stuff. I searched all the sourcelink,
and
couldn't even find the awd -dataDir command line option in their
official document!
It seems as if they are trying to hide information on how to use
their product, so they can charge extra money for support, maybe?

 

[Andrew Beckett]

See my responses below:

Thanks for posting, but I think did look:

1. wavescan uses the Java stuff, which is unacceptably slow in my
environment.
2. OCEAN has a very frustrating start up delay. Also, if you give it a
script by
redirection, it closes every window after it finishes executing the script,
so how can you see the result?
Of course, each time you can type "load(...)", but you cannot do it from
UNIX
command line, and there is no command line editing or history feature in
OCEAN prompt.

Put the commands in a file, and then do:

ocean -restore script

This then loads the script and then goes interactive once the script is loaded
(and all the functions in the script have been invoked). I always run OCEAN
this way rather than redirecting the input.

The startup time for ocean is no different from the startup time from awd. How
do I know this? It's the same executable...

3. OCEAN executes simulation slower than I directly invoked spectre.

If you'd looked at my solution (the one I mentioned in my post, included
below), you'll see that it specifically talks about running spectre standalone
and then using OCEAN purely for results post-processing.

4. In OCEAN, you have to name the spectre netlist file "netlist", and you
have to
make Header and Footer file, as I remember. This is stupid.

In this flow, the netlist is expected to have come from ADE. However, as I
mentioned above, you don't _have_ to run the simulation using OCEAN.

I ended up use $fstrobe in SpectreHDL to output simulation results to a
file,
and use Matlab dlmread() to display&process the results.


BTW, I wish I can use -nograph option (in icfb, awd, etc) but still be able
to
open window. Matlab can do it, why can't cadence?

Well, if you're using -nograph, you're telling it to not use any graphics. It
actually _does_ open the window - but you can't see it (it goes to a null X
display).

The "ocean" executable however gives an ASCII command line interface, but with
the ability to show plot windows, just like matlab. I can't see that this
would be terribly useful in general with icfb, since it is too graphically
based, but with ocean, it works fine.

Regards,

Andrew.

"Andrew Beckett" <andrewb@DcEaLdEeTnEcTe.HcIoSm> wrote in message
news:fv5kt0hek2nu53m614iv6nbehuipaqljbo@4ax.com...
On Sat, 1 Jan 2005 12:58:56 -0600, "Zhiheng Cao" <cao@ece.utexas.edu
wrote:

You obviously didn't look very far...

a) awd is not the only waveform tool - wavescan is available now.
b) OCEAN is the best way of doing what you want. See solution 11005078
which
I wrote 2.5 years ago... together with the OCEAN documentation in
cdsdoc/openbook (depending on the vintage of the release you're using).
c) Not everything gets documented, because there may be issues with
supporting
things in the long run when things change. I've never had a need to use
the
-dataDir option (in fact I didn't know it existed until you mentioned
it).

There is no master plan to make things hard to use so that we can charge
extra
money for support. If that was the case, my postings here (just one or two
;-&gt would be rather bad for business... I'm not sure I like your rather
negative tone.

Happy New Year!

Andrew.

 

[Andrew Beckett]

On Sat, 1 Jan 2005 12:58:56 -0600, "Zhiheng Cao" <cao@ece.utexas.edu> wrote:

Hi,

When I use Spectre from command line, I found that awd is the only
waveform viewer that I can use. However each time I need to choose
result and enter calcualtor command manually. Is there a way to automate
this? For example can I enter calculator expressions from the UNIX
command line when I start awd?
I found it extremely frustrating that Cadence is not making any useful
documents at all, about this kind of stuff. I searched all the sourcelink,
and
couldn't even find the awd -dataDir command line option in their
official document!
It seems as if they are trying to hide information on how to use
their product, so they can charge extra money for support, maybe?

You obviously didn't look very far...

a) awd is not the only waveform tool - wavescan is available now.
b) OCEAN is the best way of doing what you want. See solution 11005078 which
I wrote 2.5 years ago... together with the OCEAN documentation in
cdsdoc/openbook (depending on the vintage of the release you're using).
c) Not everything gets documented, because there may be issues with supporting
things in the long run when things change. I've never had a need to use the
-dataDir option (in fact I didn't know it existed until you mentioned it).

There is no master plan to make things hard to use so that we can charge extra
money for support. If that was the case, my postings here (just one or two
;-&gt would be rather bad for business... I'm not sure I like your rather
negative tone.

Happy New Year!

Andrew.

 

[Zhiheng Cao]

Thanks for posting, but I think did look:

1. wavescan uses the Java stuff, which is unacceptably slow in my
environment.
2. OCEAN has a very frustrating start up delay. Also, if you give it a
script by
redirection, it closes every window after it finishes executing the script,
so how can you see the result?
Of course, each time you can type "load(...)", but you cannot do it from
UNIX
command line, and there is no command line editing or history feature in
OCEAN prompt.
3. OCEAN executes simulation slower than I directly invoked spectre.
4. In OCEAN, you have to name the spectre netlist file "netlist", and you
have to
make Header and Footer file, as I remember. This is stupid.

I ended up use $fstrobe in SpectreHDL to output simulation results to a
file,
and use Matlab dlmread() to display&process the results.


BTW, I wish I can use -nograph option (in icfb, awd, etc) but still be able
to
open window. Matlab can do it, why can't cadence?


"Andrew Beckett" <andrewb@DcEaLdEeTnEcTe.HcIoSm> wrote in message
news:fv5kt0hek2nu53m614iv6nbehuipaqljbo@4ax.com...

On Sat, 1 Jan 2005 12:58:56 -0600, "Zhiheng Cao" <cao@ece.utexas.edu
wrote:

Hi,

When I use Spectre from command line, I found that awd is the only
waveform viewer that I can use. However each time I need to choose
result and enter calcualtor command manually. Is there a way to automate
this? For example can I enter calculator expressions from the UNIX
command line when I start awd?
I found it extremely frustrating that Cadence is not making any useful
documents at all, about this kind of stuff. I searched all the
sourcelink,
and
couldn't even find the awd -dataDir command line option in their
official document!
It seems as if they are trying to hide information on how to use
their product, so they can charge extra money for support, maybe?



You obviously didn't look very far...

a) awd is not the only waveform tool - wavescan is available now.
b) OCEAN is the best way of doing what you want. See solution 11005078
which
I wrote 2.5 years ago... together with the OCEAN documentation in
cdsdoc/openbook (depending on the vintage of the release you're using).
c) Not everything gets documented, because there may be issues with
supporting
things in the long run when things change. I've never had a need to use
the
-dataDir option (in fact I didn't know it existed until you mentioned
it).

There is no master plan to make things hard to use so that we can charge
extra
money for support. If that was the case, my postings here (just one or two
;-&gt would be rather bad for business... I'm not sure I like your rather
negative tone.

Happy New Year!

Andrew.