OCEAN or SpectreMDL?

Dear all (especially Andrew ):
While I'm trying to gain some more powerful features of Spectre
simulator, I'm confused - what the difference between SpectreMDL and
OCEAN? I understand OCEAN is a scripting tool used to control the
simulation setups, but looks like SpectreMDL has similar function...
Could anyone comment on this?
thank you and have a great weekend,
Jay

 

Hi Jay,

They can both perform similar functions - there's definitely some overlap.

spectreMDL works within the simulator, and allows control over the
simulator, and doing calculations - it can influence where timesteps are
taken, and can even stop the simulator when a measurement has
been made. Obviously it only works with spectre, and I'd say the main
use is for spectre standalone users doing cell characterization - the
option to specify an MDL control file has been removed from ADE now
(because it didn't really fit in with the rest of the flow yet).

OCEAN however is really much more suited for an ADE user (since it
uses the ADE integration underneath). It works with multiple simulators
(not just spectre), and you have the full power of SKILL at your hands too.

spectreMDL is a useful language (although we've not finished implementing
it yet), and very good for cell characterisation. But for Artist users, I'd say
that OCEAN generally i smore powerful right now.

So, as they say "your mileage may vary"...

Andrew.