Hi, I have a well proven flip-flop that I want to run some characterization runs on. In a previous question I was made aware of SpectreMDL. Fine, I thought, let's give it a try. I wrote a netlist of my testbench out of artist and started hacking mdl files on the command line. I have used the dflop example in the mdlref pdf as template. I have successfully run the dflop tutorial example, just to have that mentioned. Of course, my bench is not working, and I try to debug what happens. Spectre writes a .raw directory that I try to read with wavescan. That works, but when I rerun the simulation there is no way that I can update the signal graphs. I have to close the wave window and double click on the signals in the list again. Very irritating, indeed. Next is that the simulation does not compute. I get the error message: Error found by spectre. Error in search binary function, check search condition for start My mdl look something like: // Control card alias measurement setup { export real vddelay, outcross, Tsetup, vcdelay, setdelay, maxq run tran1(stop=500p) vddelay = cross( sig=V(D), thresh=0.45, dir='rise, n=1 ) vcdelay = cross( sig=V(CLK), thresh=0.45, dir='rise, n=1 ) outcross = cross( sig=V(Q), thresh=0.45, dir='rise, n=1 ) maxq = max(Q) setdelay = VDIN:delay Tsetup = vcdelay - vddelay } search VDIN:delay from binary( start=350p, stop=450p, tol=1p ) { run setup } until (setup -> maxq < 0.45 ) and the signal drivers look something like: VDIN (D VSS!) vsource type=pulse mag=0 phase=0 val0=0 val1=vvdd \nperiod=1 delay=0 rise=50p fall=50p width=1 VCLKN (CLK VSS!) vsource type=pulse mag=0 phase=0 val0=0 val1=vvdd \nperiod=1 delay=200p rise=tflank fall=tflank \nwidth=pwratio/fclk-tflank If somebody has an idea where I should start looking for the error or how to convince that wavescan in standalone mode to reload the simulation _and_ update the graphs, then I would be very thankful.
