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Release Notes

• MBP 2013.01 Hotfix Release Notes
• MBP 2013.01 Release Notes

MBP 2013.01 Hotfix Release Notes

• #Enhancements
• #Issues Fixed

Enhancements

Engine

• Support Hisim2 v 2.7.0
• Support Hisim_HV v 2.1.0
• Support PSP 103.2.0
• Support Mextram 504.11
• Update Hisim_HV default parameter configuration file

Features

• Improvement on model reviewer:
• Add P axis information.
• Add selected model parameters information.
• Add extended simulation information.

GUI

• Improve parametrize function to allow user modify constant value directly in parameter table.
• Pin shows simulation minus measurement value instead of absolute value.
• Pin has a new option to show measured and simulated value.
• Improved “change all bin” value and “Select bin param” function.

Issues Fixed

Engine

• Fixed Linux SPECTRE resistor simulation fail issue.
• Fixed SOI Igate internal engine issue.
• Fixed GM calculation failed issue in model tweaking.

Features

• Fixed subckt template function.
• Fixed Model save options with template format issue.

GUI

• Fixed optimization function for parametrized parameters.

MBP 2013.01 Release Notes

What's New

• #Licensing
• #Operating System Support
• #Engine Improvements
• #Integrated Modeling Data Flow
• #Modeling SOP Enablement
• #Circuit-based Model Extraction
• #GUI-based Custom Model Extraction Enviornment
• #Built-in Principal Component Analysis (PCA)
• #Other Enhancements and Improvements

Licensing

If you upgrade from MBP 2012.07, continue to use the existing license file as long as it is valid. If upgrading from any earlier versions before MBP 2012.07, apply for new license file to use MBP 2013.01.
Starting October 2012, all Agilent EEsof Product Releases require: a) version 2013.01 of the EEsof EDA licensing software and b) version 3.0 codewords to run. Refer to the License Version Compatibility chart.

• New License Manager
  The License Manager is now the single-point entry to all licensing related tasks.
• New licensing implementation logic. For more details, refer to Licensing Behavior section.
• Product Selector
  The Product Selector displays a list of licenses that can be used to start Agilent EEsof software, and provides details of the features contained within a product. It appears only if multiple licenses are available to start the software. It does not appear if there is only one license present, or if you have already pre-selected a startup license earlier and that license is available.
• A real-time and systematic license setup trouble-shooting utility is added to the License Manager tool’s Diagnose tab. This utility also produces a detail report on the health of the configuration.

Operating System Support

As previously announced, the Solaris (SUN OS) platform support has been discontinued and MBP 2013.01 is only supported on the LINUX Red Hat and Windows® operating systems.

Engine Improvements

As the industry’s leading silicon model extraction platform, MBP 2013.01 continues supporting the newly released CMC standard models and their latest versions.

Integrated Modeling Data Flow

Agilent offers end-to-end turn-key silicon device modeling flow from measurement, model extraction to model validation. MBP 2013.01 supports IC-CAP/WaferPro IV, CV, and S-parameter data files (MDM files) natively for all kinds of device types without explicit data conversion. Besides it, MBP 2013.01 also allows users to query measurement data stored in IC-CAP/WaferPro SQL/SQLite databases and load them directly for model extraction.

Modeling SOP Enablement

A new feature in MBP 2013.01, called “Model Reviewer”, makes it possible to standardize various aspects of device modeling in a team environment, such as model extraction policies, extraction environment setup, data usage, parameter range enforcement, and review procedure. It not only enables improved model quality and overall efficiency inside a modeling team, but also helps the modeling team improve customer communication and shorten project turn-around time.

Circuit-based Model Extraction

To meet the increasing demands on circuit-based model extraction, in MBP 2013.01, the internal engine adds the support of transient analysis on benchmark circuits such as ring oscillators. Users can select, tune and optimize the model parameters of the NMOS and PMOS model cards to fit the figure of merits (FOMs) of a circuit (e.g. stage delay, dynamic power, and leakage power of ring oscillators).

GUI-based Custom Model Extraction Enviornment

In MBP 2013.01, the new GUI-based custom model extraction environment allows users to customize their own extraction flow in GUI and on the fly. Users can adjust the extraction steps dynamically in the interactive GUI without coding or compiling. It provides users a more flexible, automated yet modeling environment where greater attention to intermediate extraction results and more engineering judgment calls are often required such as for cutting-edge technologies.

Built-in Principal Component Analysis (PCA)

Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is widely used in variation modeling. MBP 2013.01 integrates PCA capabilities internally. It enables the complete PCA-based variation model automated extraction flow inside MBP with NMOS and PMOS correlation support. The stage-by-stage flow implementation allows users the flexibility to fine tune each step of the extraction flow. Together with the support of backward propagation of variance (BPV)-based modeling methodology since 2010, MBP provides the industry’s most complete and widely adopted variation modeling solution.

Other Enhancements and Improvements

• Enabled equation viewer for BSIM6, BSIMCMG and BSIMIMG.
• Supported HSPICE version 2012
• Supported to load WAT data natively in MBP rather than by scripts.
• Supported transient simulation with internal engine, HSPICE or Spectre.
• Supported to load transient data format
• Updated the NF demo data under \demo\RF\mosfet\noise.
• Used scientific notation in mismatch model equation to realize more accuracy in mismatch modeling.
• Enabled to load model library directly from the menu File > Model > Load.
• Added two IMV targets (gm_near_vth and gds_near_vth) for BSIM4.
• Added BSIM-CMG and BSIM-IMG’s task tree extraction flow, including IV and CV.

Issues Fixed

• Fixed the bug of the deviation of the simulation results on BSIM4SOI models between the internal engine and HSPICE.
• Fixed the bug that DCP could not be launched successfully due to the conflict with the new license tool.
• Fixed the bug that the inconsistent model version number between all the relevant models (in the case of one or multiple files were called by another library) after the library is modified. MBP 2013.01 will keep the model version of all the relevant models the same.

Licensing

• The EEsof EDA License Tools version is 2013.01. Licensing vendor daemon (agileesofd) is upgraded to sync up with FlexNet FNP 11.9.1 version of FLEX license manager (lmgrd). MBP installer for the Windows platform will automatically set up these two new license server daemons by default for the local node-locked license users; for Linux, you need to follow the Linux Licensing Setup instruction to complete the licensing configuration process. For more details, refer to Licensing (For Administrators).
• FLEX-10 dongle license works on the Linux 64-bit platform.
• There has been significant improvements in product licensing for this release. As a side effect of these upgrades, MBP2013.01 cannot run simultaneously with any prior release on Linux. A user can, however, run multiple sessions of MBP2013.01 with one license still.
• If a user encounters issues with licensing he can’t workaround, the user can revert to an older version of the EEsof licensing tools by uninstalling the current version and then running the stand alone “EEsof License Tools Installer” available under the EEsof web site. The following are the steps to uninstall and re-install the previous version of the “EEsof License Tools Installer” on Windows. On Linux, the previous version of the “EEsof License Tools Installer” will be available under the previous installation directory of the product or at a location where tools were installed separately.
  • Before you uninstall the current version of the License tools, download the 11.9.0.40 version of the Agilent EEsof License Tools Installer.
  • Go to Control Panel > Add Remove Programs or Computer/Uninstall or change program > uninstall the current version of the “EEsof License Tools Installer”.
  • Double-click the installer for the 11.9.0.40 version of the “EEsof License Tools” to re-install.
• On windows, a possible Administrator privilege issue preventing the automatic restarting of the FlexFNP license server program, lmgrd after the PC comes out of the hibernation mode has been fixed. The License Setup Wizard will automatically restart the server without any user intervention.

Known Issues

1. The ‘mdm’ filename needs to follow the format as following:
   devType_setupName(instName1=value1_instName2=value2_...).mdm
   For example, NMOS_idvg(t=-10_w=1.1E-005_l=1.5E-006_m=1).mdm
2. MBP_LICPREF_COMPUTER-NAME has the wrong value specified in the License Manager.
3. Option to "Run MBP" after setting up the license file is not there.
   Workaround: Manually invoke MBP.
4. New release (2013.01) gets invoked when we are invoking old release of MBP (2012.07)
   Workaround: set MBPHOME=C:\Agilent\MBP_2012_07" to solve this:
   @echo off
   set MBPHOME=C:\Agilent\MBP_2012_07
   set path=%MBPHOME%\bin;%path%
5. If you encounter below message while invoking MQA on Linux Platform:
   Exception in thread “main” java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: xxxx/xxxxx/jre/lib/i386/xawt/libmawt.so: libXext.so.6: cannot open shared object file.
   Workaround: You need to install and use libXext 32bits library:
   Install method: yum install libXext.i686*

Licensing Known Issues

• There is a known Flexera FNP issue, whereby mixing node-locked codewords and floating codewords in one license file can result in: a) Remote simulations not working or b) A second local simulation not working in case the license is node-locked and also has incorrect version.
  Workaround: It is strongly recommended that you do not mix node-locked codewords and floating codewords in one license file nor in any configuration that ends up with node-locked codewords and floating codewords both available on the same server. In other words, put the node-locked license and the floating license on different servers, and point to the respective one based on what you need to run.
  Additionally, we also recommend you to remove expired codewords, to separate out the new and the old versions of codewords into different files and different servers, and to point to the respective one based on what you need to run.
• On the Linux platform, MBP_LICENSE_FILE needs to be correctly specified before starting MBP. Without that being set correctly, MBP would not start.
• Not specifying the TCP/IP port for the license server during license setup may lead to unexpected behavior and/or license checkout failure on the Windows platform. We strongly recommend you to always explicitly specify the TCP/IP port associated with each license server.
• A node-locked or floating bundle operating on Linux cannot be shared between MBP 2013.01 and MBP 2012.07 or earlier MBP releases when run at the same time.
• The "Check-in failed" message occurs in the license activity log occasionally can be ignored; the license mentioned in this message is actually properly returned.
• License Setup Wizard does not remove any previous user-configured FLEX Windows License Service installed using FlexNet's lmtools.
  Workaround: You must remove the previous user-configured Windows License Service via lmtools.
  • Run the lmtools.exe from C:\Program Files\Agilent\EEsof_License_Tools\bin to invoke the lmtools utility. The lmtools utility window is displayed.
  • In the Service/License File tab, check the Configuration using Services option. All user-configured FLEX Windows License Services will be listed.
  • Select the service you wish to remove.
  • Select the Config Services tab and click the Remove Service button to remove the service.
    To ensure that the license service or lmgrd is running, click View Log. A log window appears that confirms whether agileesofd and lmgrd are up and running.
    
• On some Windows 7 machines, when more than one definition of an Ethernet adapter exists (duplicates), license checkouts may appear to hang up.
  Workaround: Disable the duplicate network card definitions in your network settings: Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network Connections. This issue has been acknowledged by Flexera and they have created a bug report (SIOC-000103097).
  
• License Setup Wizard (aglmwizard.exe), which is used to set up and record the license path would not work on Linux platform if you already have an environment variable set for MBP_LICENSE_FILE.
  Workaround: You can use MBP_LICENSE_FILE variable to point to license file or refer to Licensing (For Administrators).
• The License Setup Wizard will exit or not properly configure a license server, if the server has all of its licenses currently in use.
  Workaround: Wait for a license on the server to become available as you normally would before launching the product.
• License Manager Window states that the License are configured successfully even though the License server is not set.
• License wizard crashes if a License Server is pointed whose licenses are already consumed.