EDA Analog Extension (Incubating)

This package provides an extension for the impulse framework, focusing on the import and (optionally) export of Electronic Design Automation (EDA) analog circuit simulation data. impulse is a powerful, extensible platform for signal analysis, visualization, and processing, widely used in engineering and scientific domains to handle a broad range of data formats.

About impulse

impulse is a powerful visualization and analysis workbench designed to help engineers understand, analyze, and debug complex semiconductor and multi-core software systems. It provides seamless integration into IDE frameworks and enables interoperability with a growing set of extensions, such as language IDEs and reporting tools.

impulse is based on a modular framework designed to unify the handling of signal and measurement data from diverse sources. It provides a robust infrastructure for reading, writing, analyzing, and visualizing signals, supporting both simple and highly structured data. impulse's extensible architecture allows developers to add support for new data formats by implementing custom readers and writers, making it a versatile tool for engineers, scientists, and developers.

About EDA

Electronic Design Automation (EDA) refers to the category of software tools used for designing, simulating, and verifying electronic systems such as integrated circuits, FPGAs, and printed circuit boards. This extension specifically focuses on analog circuit simulation, which is essential for analyzing continuous-time and mixed-signal designs. Analog simulation tools such as SPICE (and its variants like HSpice) and SystemC AMS generate simulation data that must be analyzed to verify circuit behavior, performance, and compliance with design specifications.

Purpose of this Extension

The EDA Analog Extension integrates support for standard analog circuit simulation data formats into impulse, enabling users to seamlessly import, analyze, and visualize results from analog circuit simulation tools such as SPICE and SystemC AMS. This extension is essential for circuit designers and verification engineers working with analog and mixed-signal designs, as it bridges the gap between EDA tool outputs and the advanced analysis capabilities of impulse.

Supported and Planned Formats

This package currently includes, or is planned to include, readers (and optionally writers) for the following analog circuit simulation data formats:

• SPICE 3:
  The SPICE 3 format is used for dump files generated by analog electronic circuit simulation tools. SPICE 3 is an open source circuit simulation program for nonlinear DC, nonlinear transient, and linear AC analyses.
  SPICE 3 support is implemented (beta).

• AMS Analog Tabular Format (TAB):
  The Analog Tabular Format (TAB) is used in SystemC AMS systems. The format uses pure text and stores numeric values in columns similar to CSV, making it suitable for analog and mixed-signal system modeling and simulation.
  TAB support is implemented (beta).

• HSpice:
  The HSpice format is a specialized output format used by Synopsys HSpice, a commercial high-performance variant of SPICE used for analog circuit simulation and verification.
  HSpice support is provided as a template implementation (experimental, no official specification available).

Additional formats may be added in the future as the needs of the EDA and impulse communities evolve.

Quick Start

• Select a file to view.
• Use the context menus 'Open with' and select the impulse Viewer (You may select the impulse Viewer as the default option at this point).
• On activation, it may take a while (a few secs) to load the backend java server. The OS may ask you for approval.
• Accept the license.
• Create a new view.
• DnD signals into the view.
• Have fun !

License

Our guiding principle for this and all subsequent versions is:

• Non-commercial use is free.
• Commercial use requires a commercial license (including a free plan).
• see LICENSE.md
• see Plans

Documentation & Videos

Enter https://toem.io/resources/ for more information about impulse.

Sources

impulse extensions and components can be found at https://github.com/toem.

The source code for this extension and its functional blocks is available on GitHub at https://github.com/toem/impulse.extension.eda-analog.

Many functional blocks in impulse extensions support conversion to Custom blocks, which can be modified directly within the impulse environment without requiring external tooling or a build process. This allows for:

• Rapid development, testing, and debugging of modifications
• Quick fixes and enhancements to existing implementations
• Customization to fit specific workflows

The impulse UI supports pulling Custom block implementations from the repository and pushing user enhancements or proposals back to the provider. This collaborative workflow enables you to contribute improvements and share customizations with the community or the original provider, all without leaving the impulse environment.

Status

• SPICE 3: Supported (reader implemented, beta)
• AMS TAB: Supported (reader implemented, beta)
• HSpice: Supported as template (reader implemented, experimental, no official spec)

Contributions and feedback are welcome as this extension continues to evolve.