Error in Spectre Simulation

[Manu Rastogi]

Hi,

I am getting the following problem in Cadence when I try and simulate
my circuit in spectre:

[1]. /Problems encountered during simulation.
Use the Simulation->Output Log menu for more information.
/
And the Output Log option it is disabled.


So I went ahead and searched on the forums and I found this post :

http://www.chiptalk.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?viewmode=flat&order=ASC&topic_id=216&forum=2&move=next

Hence I saved my file as an ocean script and tried to load it from the
CIW using the load command. Then I get the error as :

Delete psf data in /home/users/mrastogi/cadence/simulation/test/
spectre/schematic/psf.
Cannot start up spectre.
The directory you specified does not contain valid PSF
results. Please check the line for typographical errors or
look in the directory for a logFile and PSF result files.

Does anyone have any clues about this.

Thanks

Manu

 

[Riad KACED]

Hi Manu,
It’s very hard to understand the root cause of your problem indeed. I
think Spectre did abort right from the very beginning, even before
damping any logFile. It usually happens when something is wrong in
environment that prevents Spectre from starting. To debug such a
thing, I would rather go for a command line run.
1. Fire up a unix xterm. You can make it from your Library Manager ->
File -> Open Shell Window.
2. Go into the Spectre run Directory of your design. You get the run
dir from your ADE session. It sould be the Project directory/
design_name/spectre/schematic/netlist.
3.run the runSimulation script. This should be more verbose. You could
checkout for the spectre.out file in the psf directory as well.

Just give a try like this.
Cheers,
Riad.

 

[Manu Rastogi]

Hey Riad,

Thank for the reply. So I followed your directions and this is what I
got:

spectre (ver. 5.0.0.052502 -- 25 May 2002).

Error found by spectre.
Invalid name `artist5.1.0' used with argument `-env'.

So I guess you were right the environment variables is what is causing
the problem. What should I do next?

Thanks a lot.

Manu




On Sep 29, 9:19 pm, Riad KACED <riad.ka...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Manu,
It’s very hard to understand the root cause of your problem indeed. I
think Spectre did abort right from the very beginning, even before
damping any logFile. It usually happens when something is wrong in
environment that prevents Spectre from starting. To debug such a
thing, I would rather go for a command line run.
1. Fire up a unix xterm. You can make it from your Library Manager -
File -> Open Shell Window.
2. Go into the Spectre run Directory of your design. You get the run
dir from your ADE session. It sould be the Project directory/
design_name/spectre/schematic/netlist.
3.run the runSimulation script. This should be more verbose. You could
checkout for the spectre.out file in the psf directory as well.

Just give a try like this.
Cheers,
Riad.

 

[Riad KACED]

That's better indeed.
Edit your runSimulation file, get rid of the '-env \artist5.1.0' bit
and run it again.
I guess it is something related to the ADE interface.

I don't know what this option is doing off the top of my head. Can you
try spectre -h to see what it says ?

Hope this will make you spetre running now ;-)
Cheers,
Riad.

 

[Manu Rastogi]

Well I showed the error message to our sysadmin . He is looking into
it , as it appears even spectre -v was not working. Will let you know
if it gets fixed. Also I looked at the spectre -h it just says that -
env can be accopanied by artistx.y.z (were x, y, z are multiple
values).

Thanks for the help.

-Manu

On Sep 30, 5:13 pm, Riad KACED <riad.ka...@gmail.com> wrote:

That's better indeed.
Edit your runSimulation file, get rid of the '-env \artist5.1.0' bit
and run it again.
I guess it is something related to the ADE interface.

I don't know what this option is doing off the top of my head. Can you
try spectre -h to see what it says ?

Hope this will make you spetre running now ;-)
Cheers,
Riad.

 

[Riad KACED]

Hi Manu,

spectre -v wont work for sure. spectre -V will work instead. It is
case sensistive.

Cheers,
Riad.

 

[Andrew Beckett]

Riad KACED wrote, on 10/01/08 22:40:

Hi Manu,

spectre -v wont work for sure. spectre -V will work instead. It is
case sensistive. According to what you have posted earlier, your
Spectre Version is (ver. 5.0.0.052502 -- 25 May 2002).
Why are you using such an oldish version ? I don't recall having used
this version over my past experiences. It is may be worth droping a
quick email to your favorite Cadence AE to check whether this version
is still supported and/or compatible with your OS/Hardware ... etc.

Just one more thing. Haven't you MMSIM available in your Company/Uni ?
If it is the case then please ask your administrator to set the UNIX
PATH env var to pick up Spectre from the MMSIM Stream and not the IC
stream. I'm assuming IC 5141.

Cheers,
Riad.

A 6 year old version of anything won't be supported...

It sounds as if you're using IC5141 (from the -env artist5.1.0) but are somehow
picking up a very old version of spectre, rather than the one in the IC5141
stream. This could happen if somebody has set the spectre.envOpts simExecName
cdsenv var (if using "spectre" interface or the $SPECTRE_PROGNAME env var
if using the obsolete "spectreS" interface).

Even so, you should use MMSIM really (latest is MMSIM70) as Riad says.

Regards,

Andrew.