Synopsys Inc. has announced performance enhancements and extended high-frequency design support in HSPICE, an industry standard for circuit simulation and cornerstone product within the Discovery AMS verification solution. The new release of HSPICE offers as much as 20 times runtime improvement for transient analysis and a new state-of-the-art harmonic balance engine for effective simulation of high-frequency designs. Using the new features, designers can simulate designs faster than before and perform comprehensive analysis of high-frequency and RF circuits, thereby speeding total design time.

An enhanced time-step control algorithm, combined with a simplified simulation control interface, is the key enabler of HSPICE's improved performance. With the new features, all simulation tolerances are scaled simultaneously using a single control option, eliminating the need for users to adjust multiple option settings. HSPICE automatically maximizes each time-step size to meet the desired accuracy level.

With the addition of the harmonic balance engine, HSPICE now supports high-capacity non-linear simulation for high-frequency designs. HSPICE performs periodic steady-state (PSS) analysis, periodic noise and phase-noise analysis, and periodic AC analysis.