Makcal: An application generator for advice

With the increased sophistication of analog-circuit simulation tools comes a heavier reliance on the interfaces to these tools. Today, designers can control simulation tools through programs — a technique referred to as procedural simulation — and derive performance measures (e.g., common-mode rejection ratio, bandwidth, etc.) easily from more-basic circuit-simulation variables (i.e., voltages and currents). This technique has proved to be a valuable feature of AT&T's analog-circuit simulator, ADVICE. To enable designers to exploit procedural simulation more fully, a program called makca1 was created. Makca1 writes a procedural-simulation program that a designer can use to control ADVICE. Makca1 includes the capability to select and present performance measures in a variety of graphic and textual formats. Because makca1 streamlines the programming process, designers can concentrate more fully on designing, which reduces the product's time to market.