New Built-in Dichotomic Search Algorithm in Smartspice

Introduction

General purpose dichotomic search method is often requested by designers when they want to find a specific element (voltage, current, parameter value …) in an already sorted set. For example, a typical problem that makes extensive use of this kind of algorithm is the computation of setup and hold time for cell characterization. This problem was already discussed in two articles [1] and [2] and a solution was proposed with the use of the SmartSpice Script Language and .MODIF statement.

Continuing on the same kind of example, this article describes a new approach now available in Smartspice which offers significant improvement in terms of speed. The syntax used in the input deck is very close to the one of the optimizer. Therefore the complexity of the parser was absolutely not increased. Of course the powerful .MEASURE statement is also used in conjunction for the definition of the criterions that will lead the dichotomic search.