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Documentation:   MQA English Doc   >  Previous Supported Releases   >  MQA 2013.01   >  MQA 2013_01 Release Notes


Release Notes

MQA 2013.01 Hotfix Release Notes

Enhancements

Model Parse

It supports both relative path and absolute path in model file for Eldo format library.

Report

Microsoft Excel report sheet name have been improved.

RULE

Rules now support trigonometric functions in rule file.

GUI

The GUI has following enhancements:

  • Disable the limits of digits in “Additional Instance properties”.
  • “Additional instance properties” is available for compact model.
  • Map setting function is available for “Additional instance properties”.
  • Add “By Suffix” option for measurement data to filter all the data files with same suffix in all the sub-directories.
  • Add option “Disable boundary check” in Options > General. This option will disable W, L range check when running QA project.

Issues Fixed

Licensing

Fixed Hisim_HV model pulls Hisim2 license issue.

Model parse

  • Fixed AFS model parse issue.
  • Fixed ADS model parse failed issue in Lib Explorer.

Others

  • Fixed dc sweep variable in benchmark rule can be only put in the first line of Loops issue
  • Fixed HSPICE level 70 vth_eff calculation errors
  • Fixed ADS flatten model run failed issue
  • Fixed Eldo flatten model run failed issue
  • Fixed listmd parse VBIC MDM file error issue
  • Fixed bin continuity check failed issue with certain models
  • Fixed TCL rule doesn’t work with HSPICE version 2012

Known Issues

“Key model parameter” rule cannot run in this hotfix. The issue fix is planned for the next major release.

MQA 2013.01 Release Notes

What's New

Licensing

If you upgrade from MQA 2012.07, continue to use the existing license file as long as it is valid. If upgrading from any earlier versions before MQA 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 MQA 2013.01 is only supported on the LINUX Red Hat and Windows® operating systems.

Supported Windows and Linux platform

OS and Version

Windows XP

Windows 7 Enterprise

RedHat Linux RHEL4

RedHat Linux RHEL5

RedHat Linux RHEL6

Solaris 10 license Server

32/64 bit
32/64
32/64
64
64
64
64

MQA 2011.2.0

 

MQA 2012.07

 

MQA 2013.01

Legend

Description

(tick)

Supported

(error)

Unsupported

Integrated Modeling Data flow

Agilent offers end-to-end turn-key device modeling flow from measurement, model extraction to model validation. MQA 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, MQA 2013.01 also allows users to query measurement data stored in IC-CAP SQL/SQLite databases and load them directly for measurement QA and model qualification.

GoldenGate Support

GoldenGate RFIC simulation and analysis software is an advanced simulation and analysis solution for integrated mixed signal RFIC designs. MQA 2013.01 supports the major analyses (DC, AC, flicker noise and thermal noise) which are commonly used for benchmark test.

FineSim Support

FineSim™, a simulator which owned by Synopsys, is a high-performance circuit simulator with built-in full SPICE and FastSPICE simulation engines. MQA 2013.01 supports the major analyses (DC, AC and transient) which are commonly used for benchmark test.

Rule-level Parallelism

There are total three different level parallelisms in MQA. In the previous versions of MQA, it has already supported two of them: one is the simulator level parallelism, which enables users submit multiple netlists in parallel for simulation as long as there are enough simulator licenses available. The other one is project level parallelism, which enables users run multiple projects in parallel in either GUI or batch mode. Now, in MQA 2013.01, it supports the rule-level parallelism. It enables users submit netlists from different rules in parallel for simulation. By enabling all these parallelisms, users will have more flexibility to make use of their hardware and license resources, thus make the tedious model QA work more efficient.

Cross-version Simulator Benchmarking

Design house and foundry users often need to qualify new versions of a simulator through cross-version regression tests. MQA 2013.01 can readily enable such a request so as to realize a fully automated simulator qualification process. Now in MQA, uses can perform automated benchmarking tests between different simulators, different model files, and different versions of a simulator.

Other Enhancements and Improvements

  • Implemented the user survey: when users launch the product for the 15th time, the online survey will popup.
  • Supported HSPICE version 2012.
  • The ADS configuration file (runads.bat) was updated so as to facilitate the new user to configure ADS simulator according to the comments in the file.
  • Supported the Math Transform function “MinusLastCurveData” in the compare QA.
  • Allowed users to specify a global working directory other than always saving the project (results, netlists, etc.) to the same path of the model.

Issues Fixed

  • Fixed the bug in the Max Parallel Number in Options > General > Preferences window: the number will increase/decrease 1 instead of the original 10 by clicking the up/down arrow.
  • Fixed the bug that there was no warning message pop-up when saving constants if the destination file was read-only.
  • Fixed the bug of inaccurate simulation results when performing noise accuracy check.
  • Fixed the bug which disabled the support of hyperlinks in PDF reports.

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). MQA 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, MQA 2013.01 cannot run simultaneously with any prior release on Linux. A user can, however, run multiple sessions of MQA2013.01 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. Does not support ‘Order and Template’ function.
  2. MQA_LICPREF_COMPUTER-NAME has the wrong value specified in the License Manager.
  3. Option to "Run MQA" after setting up the license file is not there.
    Workaround: Manually invoke MQA.
  4. New release (2013.01) gets invoked when we are invoking old release of MQA (2012.07)
    Workaround: set MQAHOME=C:\Agilent\MQA_2012_07" to solve this:
    @echo off
    set MQAHOME=C:\Agilent\MQA_2012_07
    set path=%MQAHOME%\bin;%path%
  5. Description of b_mqa_inclusive is wrong. Currently, description shows, include all mbp products.
  6. 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, MQA_LICENSE_FILE needs to be correctly specified before starting MQA. Without that being set correctly, MQA 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 MQA 2013.01 and MQA 2012.07 or earlier MQA 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 MQA_LICENSE_FILE.
    Workaround: You can use MQA_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.
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