The Designer's Guide Community Forum

The Designer's Guide Community Forum
https://designers-guide.org/forum/YaBB.pl
Other CAD Tools >> Entry Tools >> Conditional AEL in CDF (Cadence/icfb)?
https://designers-guide.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1232654842

Message started by Haydar on Jan 22^nd, 2009, 12:07pm

Title: Conditional AEL in CDF (Cadence/icfb)?
Post by Haydar on Jan 22^nd, 2009, 12:07pm

Can I have a conditional expression in the CDF to determine a device value? The AEL document lists "?:" as a valid operator but it didn't work for me.

For example, assuming p1 is already defined and I try to make the value of the resistor r dependent on the value of parameter p1.

(iPar("p1")==1) ? 10 : 20

Thanks,

-Haydar

Title: Re: Conditional AEL in CDF (Cadence/icfb)?
Post by Andrew Beckett on Jan 22^nd, 2009, 4:24pm

The ternary operator is supported in AEL, as the code below shows:

Code:

> e=aelEnvCreate("f")
aelEnv:0x08e38018
> aelEnvInterpret(e "1==1?10:20")
"10.0"
> aelEnvInterpret(e "1==2?10:20")
"20.0"
>

How did you test it? Was it for a particular netlister? For example, the spectre netlister wouldn't fully evaluate the expression (I think) - it would end up in the netlist (the iPar would get replaced), but spectre can also handle this expression.

Regards,

Andrew.

Title: Re: Conditional AEL in CDF (Cadence/icfb)?
Post by Haydar on Jan 23^rd, 2009, 1:41pm

I test this under the Tools->CDF->Edit tab, not through skill code.

I tried some more and have somewhat puzzling results:
For a resistor which has parameters p1, p2, p3 added,
I make the resistor value r dependent on parameter values via a conditional and observe these:

(iPar("p1")==1)?10:20 -> Works
(iPar("p1")==1)?iPar("p2"):20 -> Works
(iPar("p1")==1)?iPar("p2"):iPar("p3") -> Doesn't work

When it doesn't work, Virtuoso schematic shows "*Error*" on the schematic, otherwise it shows the actual evaluated value.

Thanks,

-Haydar

Title: Re: Conditional AEL in CDF (Cadence/icfb)?
Post by Andrew Beckett on Jan 27^th, 2009, 1:20pm

I did some tests, and put together a component with CDF as you describe. I got an error on the label when it tried to evaluate it, so I called

Code:

artSetDetailedLabelErrorFlag(t)

as suggested in the CIW. When I do this I get an error in the attached picture. I tried adding some extra parentheses, but it didn't help...

You should contact Cadence customer support and report this.

Regards,

Andrew.