With ECAD-MCAD Library Creator, you can easily create footprints for your parts using thousands of ready-to-use templates that are provided with the tool.(read more)

Longfellow's metaphorical footprints on the sands of time is more profound and eternal no doubt but a footprint for silicon (a form of sand isn't it?) is as important for PCB designers. So, here we will list the steps to create a fo...(read more)

All PCB designers know the importance of proper power delivery for successful board design. Integrated circuits need the power to turn on, and ICs with marginal power delivery will not operate reliably. Since power planes can...(read more)

In my previous blog, I talked about creating a footprint using an existing template in Allegro ECAD-MCAD Library Creator and explained how easily you can access an existing template and create a package from it by just clicking a button. In this blog...(read more)

What is a Power Distribution Network (PDN) after all but resistance, inductance, and capacitance in the PCB and components? And, of course, it is there to deliver the right current and voltage to each component on your PCB. But is that all? Are there oth...(read more)

So, what if you can figure out all that can go wrong when your product is being assembled early on? Not guess but know and correct at an early stage – not wait for the fabricator or manufacturer to send you a long report of what needs to change. That’s why Design for Assembly (DFA) rules(read more)

On May 7, 2013 Cadence announced a 30% productivity gain in the June 2013 Incisive Enterprise Simulator 13.1 release.  Advanced debug visualization, faster turn-around time, and the extension of eight years of low-power verification innovation to IEEE 1801/UPF are the key capabilities in the release.

When we talk about low-power verification its easy to equate it with simulation.  For certain, simulation is the heart of a low-power verification solution. Simulation enables engineers to run their design in the context of power intent.  The challenge is that a simulation-only approach is inadequate. For example, if engineers could achieve SoC quality by verifying the individual function of each power control module (PCM), then simulation could be enough.  For a single power domain, simulation can be enough. 

However, when the SoC has multiple power domains -- and we have seen SoCs with hundreds of them -- engineers have to check the PCMs and all of the arcs between the power modes.  These SoCs often synchronize some of the domain switching to reduce overall complexity, creating the potential for signal skew errors on the control signals for the connected domains.  Managing these complexities requires verification methodologies including advanced debug, verification planning, assertion-based verification, Universal Verification Methodology - Low Power (UVM-LP), and more (see Figure 1).

Figure 1:  Comprehensive Low-Power Verification 

But even advanced verification methodologies on top of simulation aren't enough.  For example, the state machine that defines the legal and illegal power mode transitions is often written in software. The speed and capacity of the Palladium emulation platform is ideal to verify in this context, and it is integrated with simulation sharing debug, UVM acceleration, and static checks for low-power. And, it reports verification progress into a holistic plan for the SoC.  Another example is the ability to compare the design in the implementation flow with the design running in simulation to make sure that what we verify is what we intend to build.

Taken together, verification across multiple engines provides the comprehensive low-power verification needed for today's advanced node SoCs.  That's the heart of this low-power verification announcement. 

Another point you may have noticed is the extension of the Common Power Format (CPF) based power-aware support in the Incisive Enterprise Simulator to IEEE 1801.  We chose to bring IEEE 1801 to simulation first because users like you sometimes need to mix vendors for regression flows.  Over time, Cadence will extend the low-power capabilities throughout its product suite to IEEE 1801.

If you are using CPF today, you already have the best low-power solution. The evidence is clear:  the upcoming IEEE 1801-2013 update includes many of the CPF features contributed to 1801/UPF to enable methodology convergence.  Since you already have those features in the CPF flow, any migration before you have a mature IEEE 1801-2013 tool flow would reduce the functionality you have today.

If you are using Unified Power Format (UPF) 1.0 today, you want to start planning your move toward the IEEE 1801-2013 standard.  A good first step would be to move to the IEEE 1801-2009 standard.  It fills holes in the earlier UPF 1.0 definition.  While it does lack key features in -2013, it is an improvement that will make the migration to -2013 easier. The Incisive 13.1 release will run both UPF 1.0 and IEEE 1801-2009 power intent today.

Over the next few weeks you'll see more technical blogs about the low-power capabilities coming in the Incisive 13.1 release.  You can also join us on June 19 for a webinar that will introduce those capabilities using the reference design supplied with the Incisive Enterprise Simulator release.

=Adam "The Jouler" Sherer

(Yes, "Sherilog" is still here.  :-) )

The IEEE has announced the publication of the new 1801-2013 standard, also known as UPF 2.1, and immediate availability for free download through the IEEE 1801-2013 Get Program. Even though the standard is new to the whole world, for the people of the IEEE working group this standard is finally done and is in the past now.

There is a Chinese saying "好事多磨" which means "good things take time to happen." I forgot the exact time when I first joined the working group for the new standard -- about two and half years ago -- but I do remember long hours of meetings and many "lively" debates and discussions. Since the "hard time" has passed us, I would like to share some fun facts about the working group and the standard.

• The 1801 working group is the largest entity based ballot group in IEEE-SA history.
• The new standard was initially planned for 2012, but was delayed purely due to the large amount of work required.
• At one point, the group was debating on whether the new standard should be called UPF 2.1 or 3.0. It may sound weird now but we spent quite some time discussing this. Eventually we settled on 2.1 as it was the original plan.
• The 1801-2013 document has 358 pages which is 53% thicker than previous version (the sheer amount of changes in the new standard indicate that this is more than just a normal incremental update of the previous version as suggested by naming it 2.1)
• Around 300 real issues were reported over the previous version and a majority of them were fixed in the new release.
• This is the first release with constructs and semantics coming from Common Power Format (CPF), a sign of convergence of the two industry leading power formats.
• There are about 100 working group meetings in my Outlook calendar since 2011, with meeting times ranging from 2 hours to 8 hours.
• We extensively used Google Drive (which was called Google Docs when the working group started), a great tool for productivity. I cannot imagine how any standard could have been done before Google existed!

Personally, I had an enjoyable journey, especially from having the privilege to work with many industry experts who are all passionate about low power. I do have one more thing to share though. My older daughter went from middle school to high school during the period of the development of the new standard. Since most of the meetings took place in the early morning California time, she had to endure the pain of listening to all these discussions on power domain, power switches, etc. on her way to school.

I asked her if she learned anything. She told me that other than being able to recognize the voices of Erich, John and Joe on the line, she also learned that she would never want to become an electrical or computer engineer! She was so happy that the meetings stopped a couple of months ago. But what I did not tell her is that the meetings will resume after DAC! Well, I am sure this will be a big motivation for her to get her own driving license in the summer.

If you want to get some quick technical insights into the new standard, check out my recent EE Times article IEEE 1801-2013: A bold step towards power format convergence.

Qi Wang

If you weren't able to attend the 2013 DVCon, you missed out on a great IEEE 1801/UPF tutorial delivered by members of the IEEE committee. Accellera had the event recorded and that recording is now posted on the Accellera.org website. Regardless of your work so far with low power design and verification, you need to watch this video.

Power management is becoming ubiquitous in our world. The popular aspect is that reduced power is good for the evironment and that is true. But for those teams that have been building chips around the 40nm node and below, there is another truth. Power management is required simply to get working silicon in many cases. As the industry expands the number of designs with power management and forges deeper into advanced nodes, we steadily identify improvements to the power format descriptions. The most recent set of imporvements to the IEEE 1801 standard are now available in the 2013 version of that standard.

To help bring the standard to life, five representatives from the IEEE joined to deliver a tutorial at DVCon in 2013. Qi Wang (Cadence), Erich Marschner (Mentor), Jeffrey Lee (Synopsys), John Biggs (ARM), and Sushma Honnavarra-Prasad (Broadcom) each contributed to the tutorial. It started with a review of the UPF basics that led to the IEEE 1801 standard delivered by the EDA companies. The IEEE 1801 users then presented tutorial content on how to apply the standard. The session then concluded with a look forward to the IEEE 1801-2013 (UPF 2.1) standard. The standard was released two months after the DVCon tutorial and is available through the Accellera Get program.

So after the bowl games are over and you'vre returned through the woods and back over the river from Grandma's, grab a cup of hot cocoa and learn more about the power standards you may well be using in 2014.

Regards,

Adam "The Jouler" Sherer

Hello, i saw that MAESTRO is a plotting addon is it a part of ADE EXPLORER?

i cant see the relation between the two.i started to read manual and regarding MAESTRO i only see code.

is there some simple examples?
Thanks.

Hello,

Would anyone know how to setup a PSS or QPSS simulation with 25% dutycycle clock sources or if such a thing is possible with QPSS.

Fig1 (below) is a snapshot of the circuit I am trying to characterize. This has 4 clock ports each with 25%duty cycle in the ON state. Fig2 below shows two of these clocks.

Each path in the circuit consists of two switches with a low pass RC sandwiched in between. The Input is a 50Ohm port sine wave and the output is a 1K resistor. The output nets of all paths are connected together.

I am trying to determine the swept frequency response from input to output (voltage) when the input is from 500Mhz to  510MHz. The Period (T=1/Fp) of each of the pulses is such that Fp=500MHz. The first pulse source has a delay=0, second has delay=T/4, third delay=2T/4, etc...

I am currently getting it working and seeing the correct result (bandpass response) with Transient but the problem is doing a dft at 500MHz with 10KHz spacings needs at least 100us and takes up a lot of time and disk space.

Many Thanks,
Chris.

Fig1

Fig2

Hello, I have a problem with a certain type of transistor,my hyrarchy has a lot components an sub components and visually inspecting them is very hard.

is there a way like in other cadence layout viewer tools , to enter the name of the component or a NET somewhere and it will focus on it visualy or give the hyrarchy path to it?

Thanks.

Hello

The document I referenced is https://filebox.ece.vt.edu/~symort/rfworkshop/Mixer_workshop_instruction.pdf. (This is cadence workshop document)

While following the pxf simulation in the above article, the results are different and I have a question.

My result picture is shown below.

<my result error>

<document result>

<my direct plot>

<document direct plot>

The difference with the documentation is that in the direct plot screen after the pxf simulation,

1.output harmonics-> input sideband

2.Frequency axis: out-> frequency axis: absin

3.The results for port0 (RF port) are also different (see photo below).

4.The frequency values in the box are different.

My screen shows 5G, 10G, 1K ~ 10M, but the document is the same as 1K ~ 10M.

Ask for a solution. Thank you.

Hi, all

Recently, I meet the simulation error as the picture shows when I simulate my circuit with transient.  how can I solve this problem?

thank you~

Hello, i have built a matching network of 13dB gain and  NF as shown bellow step by step.(including all the plots and matlab )

its just not working at all,i am doing it exacly by the thoery

taking a point inside the circle-> converting its gamma to Z_source->converting gamma_s into gamma_L with the formulla bellow as shown in the matlab->converting the gamma_L into Z_L-> building the matching network for conjugate of Z_L and Z_c.Its just not working.

where did i got  wrong?

Thanks.

gamma_s=75.8966*exp(deg2rad(280.88)*i);
z_s=gamma2z(gamma_s,50);
s11=0.99875-0.03202*i
s12=721.33*10^(-6)+8.622*10^(-3)*i
s21=-188.37*10^(-3)+30.611*10^(-3)*i
s22=875.51*10^(-3)-100.72*10^(-3)*i
gamma_L=conj((s22+(s12*s21*gamma_s)/(1-s11*gamma_s)))
z_L=gamma2z(gamma_L,50)

Hi,

i am designing a broadband (100 MHz -6 GHz BW) receiver chain for  radar/rcs measurement tester. i will put Low noise amplifier after antenna input followed by mixed(10 MHz IF BW and digitizer.

I am facing problem regarding LAN. bandwidth of LAN is  approx 6 GHz(100 MHz-6GHz), gain 25-35 dB, with NF less than 2. I am uncertain about noise floor at the output of LNA.  I dont know exact SNR at the input of LNA but it shall be good.System operation will be on stepped CW waveform so receiver input signal will sweep over the BW and some step size.

so LNA output r noise floor will be? i assume, we can neglect thr role of input noise because it will be lesser than internal noise of LNA.

will it be LNA internal noise (Thermal noise due to BW) only ?

will it be LNA internal noise (Thermal noise due to BW)  + LAN Gain ? -78+25 =-53 dB? internal noise shall be lesser because NF is less than 3 . 

i have practically observed that that output noise floor is much lesser then even thermal noise( over LNA BW). i have gone through some tutorial where  formula says( internal noise+input noise)+gain. in  my case input noise shall be much less than theoretical internal noise. 

Thanks

Hi Guys,

Anyone know equivalent skill for create detail.

Eugene

hello there, i'm a student studying allegro PCB designer.

There are some commands that i can do with GUI, but i want to know what kind of commands i used so that i can route with commands only(ex) skill).

Is there any file that i can see what kind of commands i used something like log files or command history?

thank you for reading this long boring question.

We have many legacy board designs which have non-standard films. I'm writing SKILL code to automatically align a board's film records with our internal standard.

While I'm sure there will be multiple questions, here are the first two I've run into:

1. It seems the polyCutLayer parameter of axlFilmCreate() doesn't work. You can easily see this for yourself. Try typing "axlFilmCreate("test" ?polyCutLayer nil)" on the command window in Allegro. I'm returned "nil", indicating the film could not be created, and I see "*WARNING* (axlFilmCreate): Invalid option type: ?polyCutLayer" in the command window. Just to try a different parameter and see that it works, try "axlFilmCreate("test" ?negative t)". I'm returned a "t" and the film is created. Page 139 of 17.4-2019 algroskill.pdf shows this parameter and I can see it listed if I inspect an existing from from the DB, so what gives? Is the polyCutLayer parameter broken when creating films?

2. In conjunction with the above, if I loop through all current films and use axlDeleteObject() to remove them all, and then try to create new films but give an argument to the polyCutLayer parameter, films containing copper layers seem to be automatically created. There are four films (my test board has four layers) with the ETCH/, PIN/, and VIA CLASS/ subclasses. I am able to manually delete all films and see absolutely no films at all. Is there something weird going on here or is this to be expected for some reason?

I'm running Allegro 17.4s002.

I have a script to handle many polys in memory in allegro. 

But after the completion of the script, 

I run the axlPolyMemUse(), it reports (31922 0 0 55076 252482)

Seems too many polys are still in the memory，and they are not being used. 

So how to delete these polys from the memory? And reclaim the memory?

BTW. I have no skill dev license. So gc() function doesn't work. 

Thanks.

Hi , 

I am sharing with you some simple skill script that draw line in user layer :

axlCmdRegister("DrawLine" 'DrawLine)
procedure(DrawLine()
   layer_name = "substrate geometry/userlayer"
   mypopup = axlUIPopupDefine(nil '(
      ("Done" "axlDBTransactionCommit(mark), axlFinishEnterFun()")
      ("Oops" "axlDBTransactionOops(mark), when(zerop(--oopsNum)")
      ("Cancel" "axlDBTransactionRollback(mark), axlCancelEnterFun()")
      ("MENU_SEPARATOR", nil)))
   axlUIPopupSet( mypopup)
   ; Clear the dynamic buffer
   axlClearDynamics()

   if(axlLayerGet(layer_name) != nil then
      if(axlIsVisibleLayer(layer_name) == nil then
         axlVisibleLayer(layer_name,t)
         axlVisibleUpdate(t)
      );End if
   else
      if(axlLayerGet("substrate geometry") == nil then
         layer_name = "board geometry/userlayer"
         axlLayerCreateNonConductor(layer_name)
         axlVisibleLayer(layer_name,t)
         axlVisibleUpdate(t)
      else
         axlLayerCreateNonConductor(layer_name)
         axlVisibleLayer(layer_name,t)
         axlVisibleUpdate(t)
      );End if
   );End if

   ; Clear mypath to nil, then loop gathering user picks:
   mypath = nil
   mark = axlDBTransactionStart()
   flag = t
   allP = list(nil)
   seg1 = nil
   seg2 = nil
   while( (mypath = axlEnterPath(?lastPath mypath))
      if(flag == t then
         p = axlDBCreatePath(mypath, layer_name)
         seg1 = car(car(car(p))->segments)
         seg2 = car(cdr(car(car(p))->segments))
         path = axlPathStart( list(car(seg1->startEnd)) , 0)
         axlPathLine( path , 0 , car(cdr(seg1->startEnd)))
         if(seg2 then
            axlPathLine( path , 0 , car(cdr(seg2->startEnd)))
         );end if
         flag = nil
      else
         p = axlDBCreatePath(mypath, layer_name)
         seg1 = car(car(car(p))->segments)
         seg2 = car(cdr(car(car(p))->segments))
         axlPathLine( path , 0 , car(cdr(seg1->startEnd)))
         if(seg2 then
            axlPathLine( path , 0 , car(cdr(seg2->startEnd)))
         );end if
      );end if
      allP = cons(car(car(p)) allP)
   );Loop
   axlDBCreatePath(path, layer_name)
   forall( x allP axlDeleteObject(x))
);End procedure

Is anyone can help to understand why this script can work with 16.5/16.6/17.2 and doesn't work with 17.4 ?

To be more informative in 17.4 this script behaves differently , when i am trying to draw line i can't zoom in/out ,i can't use my shortcuts to snap it on segment/middle/edge , it's like it's waiting only for next X/Y user click , all other functions just disabled .

Thanks .

I'm working on a circuit that requires the input voltage to be converted to a frequency, transmitted over an optical cable, and then converted back to a voltage. I am attempting to simulate this circuit using Eagle ngSpice simulations. The voltage to frequency converters that I am using are ADVFC32 and made by Analog Devices. However, I can't seem to find a SPICE model for this component. Analog Devices does not provide it on their website. Can anyone find a SPICE Model for this part? I'm new to working with electronics so any help/advice you can provide would be appreciated.

Hi,

I have to Take DRC report by cadence skill code I don't know the command to get Element 1 and Element 2 Report any one please help me out.

I have made a customized menu in PCB Editor which I now would like to fill with content.

First of all I would like to have commands to add (or delete) layers in the board. I have parameter files (.prm) that describes both the stackup and the artwork for 2, 4, 6 and 8 layers.

I guess I could record a script (macro) where I use the "Import Parameter file" dialogue but this will get windows flickering by etc. Can I do this with SKILL instead?

I realize that it is possible (somehow) to do a SKILL-script that completely builds up the stackup and artworks for boards with different number of layers but I then have to edit the SKILL everytime I need to change anything. My thinking is that it perhaps is easier just to call the prm-file, which is easy to modify from within Allegro without knowing anything about SKILL.

I'm also looking for a solution to remove some Subclasses, containing certain keywords with a SKILL script but since I'm completely new to SKILL I don't really know where to begin.

Any assistance would be much appreciated.

Hi,

I wanted to find the location of a pin in the design using skill program. pin_dbids = axlDBGetDesign()->pins, this gives me all the dbids of the pins that are present in my design. But when im entering that dbid, pad = axlDBGetPad("000001EA8FD8B9F8" "package geometry/assembly_top" "regular") it is throwing an error stating "This dbid is not user defined. Please enter the user defined". So please provide me a snippet so that I can get the exact pin location in the design using skill script.

I am trying to create NoProbeTop using skill language for the chip component.

My code snippet is :
thisNPTShape2 = axlDBCreateOpenShape(path t "MANUFACTURING/NO_PROBE_TOP" nil )

I am getting the below output values:
path = _axlPath@0x24399f41d28.

*WARNING* (axlDBCreateOpenShape): Not a floating-point number! - nil

Can you guide me on how to convert to floating-point/get out of the floating-point error?

Hello All,

Is there a SKILL function to obtain the Form path (similar to getSkillPath).

If not, is the a workaround to obtain the Form path?

Thanks All

This is the 17th installment of The Rationalist, my column for the Times of India.

One of my favourite English words comes from chess. If it is your turn to move, but any move you make makes your position worse, you are in ‘Zugzwang’. Narendra Modi was in zugzwang after the Pulwama attacks a few days ago—as any Indian prime minister in his place would have been.

An Indian PM, after an attack for which Pakistan is held responsible, has only unsavoury choices in front of him. He is pulled in two opposite directions. One, strategy dictates that he must not escalate. Two, politics dictates that he must.

Let’s unpack that. First, consider the strategic imperatives. Ever since both India and Pakistan became nuclear powers, a conventional war has become next to impossible because of the threat of a nuclear war. If India escalates beyond a point, Pakistan might bring their nuclear weapons into play. Even a limited nuclear war could cause millions of casualties and devastate our economy. Thus, no matter what the provocation, India needs to calibrate its response so that the Pakistan doesn’t take it all the way.

It’s impossible to predict what actions Pakistan might view as sufficient provocation, so India has tended to play it safe. Don’t capture territory, don’t attack military assets, don’t kill civilians. In other words, surgical strikes on alleged terrorist camps is the most we can do.

Given that Pakistan knows that it is irrational for India to react, and our leaders tend to be rational, they can ‘bleed us with a thousand cuts’, as their doctrine states, with impunity. Both in 2001, when our parliament was attacked and the BJP’s Atal Bihari Vajpayee was PM, and in 2008, when Mumbai was attacked and the Congress’s Manmohan Singh was PM, our leaders considered all the options on the table—but were forced to do nothing.

But is doing nothing an option in an election year?

Leave strategy aside and turn to politics. India has been attacked. Forty soldiers have been killed, and the nation is traumatised and baying for blood. It is now politically impossible to not retaliate—especially for a PM who has criticized his predecessor for being weak, and portrayed himself as a 56-inch-chested man of action.

I have no doubt that Modi is a rational man, and knows the possible consequences of escalation. But he also knows the possible consequences of not escalating—he could dilute his brand and lose the elections. Thus, he is forced to act. And after he acts, his Pakistan counterpart will face the same domestic pressure to retaliate, and will have to attack back. And so on till my home in Versova is swallowed up by a nuclear crater, right?

Well, not exactly. There is a way to resolve this paradox. India and Pakistan can both escalate, not via military actions, but via optics.

Modi and Imran Khan, who you’d expect to feel like the loneliest men on earth right now, can find sweet company in each other. Their incentives are aligned. Neither man wants this to turn into a full-fledged war. Both men want to appear macho in front of their domestic constituencies. Both men are masters at building narratives, and have a pliant media that will help them.

Thus, India can carry out a surgical strike and claim it destroyed a camp, killed terrorists, and forced Pakistan to return a braveheart prisoner of war. Pakistan can say India merely destroyed two trees plus a rock, and claim the high moral ground by returning the prisoner after giving him good masala tea. A benign military equilibrium is maintained, and both men come out looking like strong leaders: a win-win game for the PMs that avoids a lose-lose game for their nations. They can give themselves a high-five in private when they meet next, and Imran can whisper to Modi, “You’re a good spinner, bro.”

There is one problem here, though: what if the optics don’t work?

If Modi feels that his public is too sceptical and he needs to do more, he might feel forced to resort to actual military escalation. The fog of politics might obscure the possible consequences. If the resultant Indian military action causes serious damage, Pakistan will have to respond in kind. In the chain of events that then begins, with body bags piling up, neither man may be able to back down. They could end up as prisoners of circumstance—and so could we.

***

Also check out:

Why Modi Must Learn to Play the Game of Chicken With Pakistan—Amit Varma
The Two Pakistans—Episode 79 of The Seen and the Unseen
India in the Nuclear Age—Episode 80 of The Seen and the Unseen

The India Uncut Blog © 2010 Amit Varma. All rights reserved.
Follow me on Twitter.

This is the 20th installment of The Rationalist, my column for the Times of India.

Amit Shah’s induction into the union cabinet is such an interesting moment. Even partisans who oppose the BJP, as I do, would admit that Shah is a political genius. Under his leadership, the BJP has become an electoral behemoth in the most complicated political landscape in the world. The big question that now arises is this: can Shah do for India what he did for the BJP?

This raises a perplexing question: in the last five years, as the BJP has flourished, India has languished. And yet, the leadership of both the party and the nation are more or less the same. Then why hasn’t the ability to manage the party translated to governing the country?

I would argue that there are two reasons for this. One, the skills required in those two tasks are different. Two, so are the incentives in play.

Let’s look at the skills first. Managing a party like the BJP is, in some ways, like managing a large multinational company. Shah is a master at top-down planning and micro-management. How he went about winning the 2014 elections, described in detail in Prashant Jha’s book How the BJP Wins, should be a Harvard Business School case study. The book describes how he fixed the BJP’s ground game in Uttar Pradesh, picking teams for 147,000 booths in Uttar Pradesh, monitoring them, and keeping them accountable.

Shah looked at the market segmentation in UP, and hit upon his now famous “60% formula”. He realised he could not deliver the votes of Muslims, Yadavs and Jatavs, who were 40% of the population. So he focussed on wooing the other 60%, including non-Yadav OBCs and non-Jatav Dalits. He carried out versions of these caste reconfigurations across states, and according to Jha, covered “over 5 lakh kilometres” between 2014 and 2017, consolidating market share in every state in this country. He nurtured “a pool of a thousand new OBC and Dalit leaders”, going well beyond the posturing of other parties.

That so many Dalits and OBCs voted for the BJP in 2019 is astonishing. Shah went past Mandal politics, managing to subsume previously antagonistic castes and sub-castes into a broad Hindutva identity. And as the BJP increased its depth, it expanded its breadth as well. What it has done in West Bengal, wiping out the Left and weakening Mamata Banerjee, is jaw-dropping. With hindsight, it may one day seem inevitable, but only a madman could have conceived it, and only a genius could have executed it.

Good man to be Home Minister then, eh? Not quite. A country is not like a large company or even a political party. It is much too complex to be managed from the top down, and a control freak is bound to flounder. The approach needed is very different.

Some tasks of governance, it is true, are tailor-made for efficient managers. Building infrastructure, taking care of roads and power, building toilets (even without an underlying drainage system) and PR campaigns can all be executed by good managers. But the deeper tasks of making an economy flourish require a different approach. They need a light touch, not a heavy hand.

The 20th century is full of cautionary tales that show that economies cannot be centrally planned from the top down. Examples of that ‘fatal conceit’, to use my hero Friedrich Hayek’s term, include the Soviet Union, Mao’s China, and even the lady Modi most reminds me of, Indira Gandhi.

The task of the state, when it comes to the economy, is to administer a strong rule of law, and to make sure it is applied equally. No special favours to cronies or special interest groups. Just unleash the natural creativity of the people, and don’t try to micro-manage.

Sadly, the BJP’s impulse, like that of most governments of the past, is a statist one. India should have a small state that does a few things well. Instead, we have a large state that does many things badly, and acts as a parasite on its people.

As it happens, the few things that we should do well are all right up Shah’s managerial alley. For example, the rule of law is effectively absent in India today, especially for the poor. As Home Minister, Shah could fix this if he applied the same zeal to governing India as he did to growing the BJP. But will he?

And here we come to the question of incentives. What drives Amit Shah: maximising power, or serving the nation? What is good for the country will often coincide with what is good for the party – but not always. When they diverge, which path will Shah choose? So much rests on that.

The India Uncut Blog © 2010 Amit Varma. All rights reserved.
Follow me on Twitter.

This is the 24th installment of The Rationalist, my column for the Times of India.

Back in the last decade, I was a cricket journalist for a few years. Then, around 12 years ago, I quit. I was jaded as hell. Every game seemed like déjà vu, nothing new, just another round on the treadmill. Although I would remember her fondly, I thought me and cricket were done.

And then I fell in love again. Cricket has changed in the last few years in glorious ways. There have been new ways of thinking about the game. There have been new ways of playing the game. Every season, new kinds of drama form, new nuances spring up into sight. This is true even of what had once seemed the dullest form of the game, one-day cricket. We are entering into a brave new world, and the team leading us there is England. No matter what happens in the World Cup final today – a single game involves a huge amount of luck – this England side are extraordinary. They are the bridge between eras, leading us into a Golden Age of Cricket.

I know that sounds hyperbolic, so let me stun you further by saying that I give the IPL credit for this. And now, having woken up you up with such a jolt on this lovely Sunday morning, let me explain.

Twenty20 cricket changed the game in two fundamental ways. Both ended up changing one-day cricket. The first was strategy.

When the first T20 games took place, teams applied an ODI template to innings-building: pinch-hit, build, slog. But this was not an optimal approach. In ODIs, teams have 11 players over 50 overs. In T20s, they have 11 players over 20 overs. The equation between resources and constraints is different. This means that the cost of a wicket goes down, and the cost of a dot ball goes up. Critically, it means that the value of aggression rises. A team need not follow the ODI template. In some instances, attacking for all 20 overs – or as I call it, ‘frontloading’ – may be optimal.

West Indies won the T20 World Cup in 2016 by doing just this, and England played similarly. And some sides began to realise was that they had been underestimating the value of aggression in one-day cricket as well.

The second fundamental way in which T20 cricket changed cricket was in terms of skills. The IPL and other leagues brought big money into the game. This changed incentives for budding cricketers. Relatively few people break into Test or ODI cricket, and play for their countries. A much wider pool can aspire to play T20 cricket – which also provides much more money. So it makes sense to spend the hundreds of hours you are in the nets honing T20 skills rather than Test match skills. Go to any nets practice, and you will find many more kids practising innovative aggressive strokes than playing the forward defensive.

As a result, batsmen today have a wider array of attacking strokes than earlier generations. Because every run counts more in T20 cricket, the standard of fielding has also shot up. And bowlers have also reacted to this by expanding their arsenal of tricks. Everyone has had to lift their game.

In one-day cricket, thus, two things have happened. One, there is better strategic understanding about the value of aggression. Two, batsmen are better equipped to act on the aggressive imperative. The game has continued to evolve.

Bowlers have reacted to this with greater aggression on their part, and this ongoing dialogue has been fascinating. The cricket writer Gideon Haigh once told me on my podcast that the 2015 World Cup featured a battle between T20 batting and Test match bowling.

This England team is the high watermark so far. Their aggression does not come from slogging. They bat with a combination of intent and skills that allows them to coast at 6-an-over, without needing to take too many risks. In normal conditions, thus, they can coast to 300 – any hitting they do beyond that is the bonus that takes them to 350 or 400. It’s a whole new level, illustrated by the fact that at one point a few days ago, they had seven consecutive scores of 300 to their name. Look at their scores over the last few years, in fact, and it is clear that this is the greatest batting side in the history of one-day cricket – by a margin.

There have been stumbles in this World Cup, but in the bigger picture, those are outliers. If England have a bad day in the final and New Zealand play their A-game, England might even lose today. But if Captain Morgan’s men play their A-game, they will coast to victory. New Zealand does not have those gears. No other team in the world does – for now.

But one day, they will all have to learn to play like this.

The India Uncut Blog © 2010 Amit Varma. All rights reserved.
Follow me on Twitter.

Hello,
I'm exploring VManager tool capabilities.

I launched a simulation with xrun, which terminates with a fatal error (`uvm_fatal actually).

Then I imported the flow session, through VManager -> Regression -> Collect Runs, linking the directory with ucm and ucd of just failed run.

VManager imports the test with following attributes:

Total Runs =1

#Passed =1

#Failed =0

What I'm missing here? It should be imported as failed test.

If I right click on flow name and choose Analyze All Runs, VManager brings me to Analysis tab and I can see only a PASSED tag in Runs subwindow.

Thank you for any help

Hi all,

I would like to understand if it is possible from Simvision to get the information regarding the view of a block. In principle using the Schematic Tracer Simvision is able to find the information about the config of that particular model, but I did not found a command for describing the nature of the module (for example if it is schematic or rtl or real model...)

Any functions that I can use for this purpose?

Many thanks

I'm sending encrypted HDL to a customer who will use Cadence IES for simulation and was wondering how I should go about the encryption.

Does IES support the IEEE's P1735 and if so, where can I find Cadence's public key for performing the encryption?

Or is there an alternative solution that I can use for encryption?

Hello!

I have input signal like this  ->  input  wire [ADM_NUM-1:0][1:0] m_axi_ddr_rresp.

When i want to analyze coverage from IMC  this signal not covered!

Can i collect coverage for this signal?

Hi All,

I'm trying to understand checkpoint concept. When I found save and restart concept in cdnshelp, There is just describing about "$save" and "xrun -r "~~~".

and I found also the below link about save restart and it saves your time.

But I can't find any benefits from my experiment from save&restart article( I fully agree..the article)

Ok, So I'v got some experiment  Here.

1. I declared $save and got the below result as I expected within the simple UVM code.

In UVM code...

$display("TEST1");
$display("TEST2");
$save("SAVE_TEST");
$display("TEST3");
$display("TEST4");

And I restart at "SAVE_TEST" point by xrun -r "SAVE_TEST", I've got the below log

xcelium> run
TEST3
TEST4

Ok, It's Good what I expected.(The concept of Save and Restore is simple: instead of re-initializing your simulation every time you want to run a test, only initialize it once. Then you can save the simulation as a “snapshot” and re-run it from that point to avoid hours of initialization times. It used to be inconvenient. I agree..)

2. But The Problem is that I can't restart with modified code. Let's see the below example.

I just modified TEST5 instead of "TEST3"

$display("TEST1");
$display("TEST2");
$save("SAVE_TEST");
$display("TEST5"); //$display("TEST3");
$display("TEST4");

and I rerun with xrun -r "SAVE_TEST", then I've got the same log

xcelium> run
TEST3
TEST4

There is no "TEST5". Actually I expected "TEST5" in the log.From here We know $save can't support partially modified code after $save. 

Actually, through this, we can approach to our goal about saving developing time. 

So I want to know Is there any possible way that instead of re-initializing our simulation every time we want to run a test, only initialize it once and keep developing(debugging) our code ?

If we do, Could you let me know the simple example?

Hi all,

         I want to know how to run a regressive test in cadence and merge all ncsim .trn file of each test case into a single file to view all waveform in simvision. I am using Makefile to invoke the test case.

         eg:-

               test0:

                     irun -uvm -sv -access +rwc $(RTL) $(INTER) $(PKG) $(TOP) $(probe) +UVM_VERBOSITY=UVM_MEDIUM +UVM_TESTNAME=test0

             test1:

                   irun -uvm -sv -access +rwc $(RTL) $(INTER) $(PKG) $(TOP) $(probe) +UVM_VERBOSITY=UVM_MEDIUM +UVM_TESTNAME=test1

          I just to call test0 followed by test1 or parallel both test and view the waveform for both tests case.

        I new to this tool and help me with it

Hi  all,

          I am getting this warning in while generating the coverage report, can you help me to clear this warning?

ncsim: *W,COVOPM: Coverage configuration file command "set_covergroup -optimize_model" can be specified to improve the performance and scalability of coverage model containing SV covergroups. It may be noted that subsequent merging of a coverage database saved with this command and a coverage database saved without this command is not allowed.

Hi

     I want develope basic circuit of DC motor which consist of resistor, inductor and back emf in capture and check its simulation in pspice, for reference I have attached image and link.

https://www.precisionmicrodrives.com/content/ab-025-using-spice-to-model-dc-motors/ .

xmsim is not exiting the simulation for this error. It is unusual for the simulator to not exit for an error. I have just started using uvm and this is occurring during the randomization step for a sequencer item.

xmsim: *E,RNDCNSTE

I am using -EXIT on the command line.

I am using Xcelium 19.03-s013.

Any insights are appreciated. Thanks.

-Jim

Hello folks,

Greetings.

One of my customer claims that he is using Cadence IES version 18.09.011 with Vivado 2019.2. The version of IES that we officially support with Vivado 2019.2 is 15.20.073. Though the tool is forward compatible, I am not sure what are the versions of IES that are released after 15.20.073. Could you please give me a list of the versions of Cadence IES released after 15.20.073 and which is the latest version as of now ?

Best regards,

Chinmay

Specman *search* command allows searching in all loaded modules, but only for a string.

Is there a way to search for a regexp or glob?

Alternatively, is there a way to simply get a list of all loaded files somehow? Then I could use either the "shell" command, or real shell together with grep.

Thanks

I'm trying to compile a simple verilog file using xmvlog. I run the following command,

"xmvlog myfile.v"

Then I get the following error,

"xmvlog: *F,DIRDEC: Can't save decompressed versions of compressed files."

I used to use xmvlog with no issues, this error started to come up now. The message is not helpful either. How can I solve this?

I appreciate any help, thanks in advance.

When I run simulation with irun, it may use may license features. How can I know which feature(s) a product use? I get below message in cdnshelp:

-------------------------------------------------------------

Which Products Are in the License File?

One Cadence product can require more than one license (FEATURE). The product to feature mapping in the license file lists the licenses each product needs.

For example, if the license file lists these features for the NC-VHDL Simulator:

Product Name: Cadence(R) NC-VHDL Simulator
#
Type: Floating Exp Date: 31-jul-2006 Qty: 1
#
Feature: NC_VHDL_Simulator [Version: 9999.999]
#
Feature: Affirma_sim_analysis_env [Version: 9999.999]

-------------------------------------------------------------------

But, in my license file, I can't find such info. There is only "FEATURE" lines in my license file. How can I get product to feature mapping info?

Thanks!

I’m not talking about carnival funhouse mirrors, but rather the different options for mirroring symbols, vias, and bond fingers in your IC Package layout. The Allegro Package Designer Plus and SiP Layout tools have two distinct styles of m...(read more)

Sample clues

18 across: Makoto Hagiwara and David Jung both claim to have invented it (7,6)

1 down: French impressionist who rejected that term (5)

3 down: Artificial surface used for playing hockey (9)

7 down: The sequel to Iliad (7)

12 down: Adipose tissue (4,3)

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Sample clues

6 across: Franchise revived by Frank Miller (6)

13 across: What Keanu Reeves and Zayed Khan have in common (5)

18 across: What Frank Sinatra and George Clooney have in common (6,6)

19 across: Dosa mix, for example (6)

2 down: Green, in a non-environmental way (7)

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Sample clues

5 down: Torso covering (6)

7 down: Government by rogues (12)

15 across: eBay speciality (7)

18 across: Demonic (8)

20 across: Common language (6,6)

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Sample clues

17 across: Beckham speciality (4,4)

4 down: Havana speciality (5)

19 across: Infamous 1988 commercial against Michael Dukakis (9,4)

11 down: Precisely (2,3,3)

13 down: City infamously ransacked by the Japanese in 1937 (7)

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Sample clues

11 across: Chandigarh’s is 0172 (3,4)

21 across: He’s a loser, baby (4)

1 down: Garment meant to shape the torso (6)

12 down: It’s slogan: “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit” (8)

18 down: Noise made by badminton players? (6)

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Sample clues

5 across: The US president’s bird (3,5,3)

11 down: Group once known as the Quarrymen (7)

10 across: Cavalry sword (5)

19 across: Masonic ritual (5,6)

1 down: Pioneer of Ostpolitik (6)

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