COMPONENT-BASED ANALOG AND MIXED-SIGNAL SIMULATION MODEL DEVELOPMENT

The Model Editor (106) makes simulation modeling easier and more intuitive by extracting essential information and presenting it to the user, and by providing tools to investigate simulation and model robustness, in an interactive, graphical environment. Using the model editor, the user enters relationships or formulas in the equation editor (200), enters symbols in the topology editor (202), and interconnects them (1804). Relationships can be hidden for screen efficiency (1806). Selecting a symbol highlights the corresponding relationships in the equation editor through cross-coupling, and conversely selecting an equation or instance highlights the corresponding symbol in the topology editor (1808). The model editor includes parameter management tools (206) to manage equation parameters. Models or portions thereof that are reused donate the parameter management data to the new model (1810). Following editing and parameter management, the user can perform model robustness and verification. Sample point manager, newton step manager and matrix element stamp analysis are all new, interactive, graphical, intuitive tools. Finally, the user can perform a simulation on the model.