1 Overview of Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL

The Virtuoso^® Visualization and Analysis XL is an analog and mixed-signal waveform display tool. This user guide describes this tool in detail and explains how you can use the various features of this tool.

The tool helps you analyze the data generated by your simulator.

The tool consists of the following components:

Results Browser displays simulation data in the hierarchical arrangement of your design.
Graph offers features that simplify the processing of your signal data.
Calculator provides an extensive expression building capability that addresses the needs of a wide variety of analysis types.

This user guide is aimed at developers and designers of integrated circuits and assumes that you are familiar with:

The Virtuoso Studio design environment and application infrastructure mechanisms designed to support consistent operations between all Cadence^® tools.
The applications used to design and develop integrated circuits in the Virtuoso Studio design environment, notably, the Virtuoso Layout Suite, and Virtuoso Schematic Editor.
The Virtuoso Studio design environment technology file.
Component description format (CDF), which lets you create and describe your own components for use with Layout XL

You can use the Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL to browse, evaluate, analyze, and plot the simulation results.

Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL tool has the following three components:

Results Browser
Graph window
Calculator

Results Browser is used to open the saved simulation results (signals). The signals are displayed in a hierarchical arrangement that corresponds to the hierarchy of your design, making it convenient for you to locate and manage simulation data. For more information about the Results Browser, see Results Browser

Graphs are displayed in the various graph windows and subwindows that can be opened in the graph display area in the Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL window. For detailed information about graphs, see Chapter 4, “Working with Graphs.”

Calculator opens in a separate window and is used to create, store, and evaluate expressions for the signals displayed in the Results Browser. For detailed information about Calculator, see Chapter 5, “Working with the Calculator.”

This chapter includes the following sections:

Opening the Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL
Closing the Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL
Saving a Session
You can read the Knowledge Booster Training Bytes blog to learn more about the training videos and online courses available for Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL.

Licensing Requirements

Following is the licensing scheme for the Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL tool:

Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL when opened from ADE Explorer, Assembler, VVO

When you close the ADE window, the Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL continues to hold the ADE license tokens, which are in effect until all Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL windows are closed.

Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL when opened in stand-alone mode or from Virtuoso:

Checks out either the Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL license, ADE license tier, or ADE Verifier license depending on the preferences you have set by using the VIVALicenseCheckoutOrder .cdsenv variable. By default, this variable is set to ViVA, ADE, Verifier.

For more information, see VIVALicenseCheckoutOrder in the CheckoutOrder Variables section of Virtuoso Software Licensing and Configuration User Guide.

Supported Data Formats

The Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL can interpret the following data formats.

Format	Description
PSF	Format created by Virtuoso^® Spectre Circuit Simulator (including the Virtuoso^®Spectre RF Simulation Option) and other simulators integrated into the Virtuoso^®Analog Design Environment. The visualization and analysis tool can read files larger than 2G.
SST2	Format created by Virtuoso^®AMS and Spectre Verilog Simulators. Spectre and UltraSim can also create this format. This format can also be created by the digital simulators, such as NCsim.
PSF XL	Format created by Virtuoso® Spectre Circuit Simulator (including the Virtuoso® Spectre RF Simulation Option) and other simulators integrated into the Virtuoso® Analog Design Environment. This format provides a high rate of lossless data compression. Using this format, Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL can render extremely large datasets at reasonable time rate. Alias support is added to PSF XL. This alias support is required for Spectre XPS and for unified waveform DB feature driven by AMS Designer. PSF XL also supports the reading of in-memory simulator data, which provides external viewers an access to the PSF XL waveform data that is still buffered in the simulator memory. This feature is useful if you use AMS, because in this case you often need to pause the simulation when certain conditions are met, and then inspect the analog and digital waveform data up to the last simulation time point. It is currently supported by SST2, which is the default output format for Spectre, APS, and Ultrasim. When you use the PSF XL format, the MMSIM and stand-alone Spectre license is checked out.
Touchstone	Format created by all simulator. This is an industry-standard format. The touchstone file is an ASCII file, also known as the SnP file, which includes a large signals S-parameter results. The touchstone files are of .`sxp` or .`snp` extensions, where `x` is the integer that varies depending on the number of network ports of the device. For example, if the touchstone file contains the network parameters for a two-port device, the value of x is `2` and the file has `.s2p` extension. For an N-port network, the file has .`snp` extension, where the number of network ports are not specified in the file extension. Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL also supports reading files with .`snp` extensions. The s-parameter reader supports the Touchstone 2.0 file format that can read multiple port impedance information. The `ypm` and `zpm` Calculator functions support the touchstone format.

Points to Note:

Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL does not support WSF format.
Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL supports the reading of fast signal database (FSDB) file format. To know the latest FSDB version supported by Virtuoso, run the following command:
```
srrversion -fsdb
```

Opening the Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL

You can start the tool either from within ADE or in the standalone mode. When you open the tool from within ADE, you work on the simulation results for the latest run. However, in the standalone mode, you work on the saved simulation results that can be accessed through the Results Browser.

This section includes the following topics:

Opening the Tool in Stand-Alone Mode

To open the Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL window from CIW, do the following:

Type the following command in a terminal window to open the tool in SKILL mode:

viva 
[-expr skill
|-V
|-W
|-datadir
|-mode XL]
| -log logFileName
| -nocdsinit
| -noblink
| -45
| -noxshm
| -nograph
| -nographE
| -replay inputLog
| -restore fileName 
| -load_graph fileName ]

Parameter	Description
`-h` or `-help`	Displays information about how to run the tool.
`-expr skill`	Starts the tool in SKILL mode. By default, Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL opens in SKILL mode.
`-v`	Displays the version number for the tool.
`-w`	Displays the subversion number for the tool.
`-datadir`	Specifies the data directory to be opened on startup.
`-mode XL`	Specifies the product mode to be used. This determines the license to be checked out. The default mode is XL.
`-log` logFileName	Logs session information to the file logFileName.
`-nocdsinit`	Skips reading the `.cdsinit` file.
`-noblink`	Turns off blinking.
`-45`	Enhances drawing of 45-degree diagonal lines.
`-noxshm`	Prevents the use of X Shared Memory Access.
`-nograph`	Starts the tool in non-graphical mode.
`-nographE`	Emulates non-graphical mode. Uses the default display or the display specified with the `-display` command-line option. Note that windows and forms are drawn on the specified display. Nograph emulation can also be invoked by defining the environment variable `CDS_NOGRAPH_DISPLAY` to specify the display along with the `-nograph` command-line option or this option.
`-replay` inputLog	Specifies the name of the log file to be replayed.
`-restore` fileName	Specifies the name of the session file to be restored.
`-load_graph` fileName	Specifies the name of the graph state file (.grf) to be loaded.

The command line options for the Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL tool are not case-sensitive.

The Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL window appears.

When the Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL window is opened in the stand-alone mode, the CIW window includes the following options on the menubar:

File
- Exit
Tools
- Calculator
- Results Browser
- Waveform
- SKILL IDE
Options
- Bindkey
- User Preferences
- Log Filter
Help

Opening the Tool Using CIW

To open the tool using CIW, first you need to open Virtuoso and then do the following to open different tools in Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL:

To open the Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL tool:
- Choose Tools – ViVA XL – Waveform.
To open the tool with the Results Browser displayed:
- Choose Tools – ViVA XL – Results Browser.
To open the Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL Calculator:
- Choose Tools – ViVA XL – Calculator.

Opening the Tool Using VirtuosoAnalog Design Environment

You can open the tool from within ADE Assembler and ADE Explorer.

To know about how to open the graph window from within ADE, see Opening the Graph Window from ADE.

To know about how to open Results Browser from within ADE, see Opening a Results Directory.

To know about how to open Calculator from within ADE, see Opening the Calculator using ADE.

Closing the Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL

To close the graph window:
- In the graph window, choose File – Close All Windows.
- Choose File – Close Window.
  Closes the active window. If there is only one open window, the Close command exits the tool.
To close the Calculator window:
- In the Calculator window, choose File – Close.

Saving a Session

When you save a session, the current state of the application is saved. When you reload a saved session, the same windows and settings as in the saved session come up. For more information about the graph attributes that are saved, see Saving and Loading Graphs.

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Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL User GuideProduct Version IC23.1, November 2023

1

Overview of Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis XL