Verilog-AMS is a derivative of the Verilog hardware description language that includes Analog and Mixed-Signal extensions (AMS) in order to define the behavior of analog and mixed-signal systems. It extends the event-based simulator loops of Verilog/SystemVerilog/VHDL, by a continuous-time simulator, which can be used to solve differential equations in the analog-domain, as well as other problems. Both domains are coupled: analog events can trigger digital actions and vice versa.
Overview The Verilog-AMS standard was created with the intent of enabling designers of analog and mixed signal systems and integrated circuits to create and use modules that encapsulate high-level behavioral descriptions as well as structural descriptions of systems and components. Verilog-AMS is an industry standard modeling language for mixed signal circuits. It provides both continuous-time and event-driven modeling semantics, and so is suitable for analog, digital, and mixed analog/digital circuits. It is particularly well suited for verification of very complex analog, mixed-signal and RF integrated circuits. Verilog and Verilog/AMS are not procedural programming languages, but event-based hardware description languages (HDLs). As such, they provide sophisticated and powerful language features for definition and synchronization of parallel actions and events. On the other hand, many actions defined in HDL program statements can run in parallel (somewhat similar to threads and tasklets in procedural languages, but much more fine-grained). However, Verilog/AMS can be coupled with procedural languages like the ANSI C language using the Verilog Procedural Interface of the simulator, which eases testsuite implementation, and allows interaction with legacy code or testbench equipment. The original intention of the Verilog-AMS committee was a single language for both analog and digital design, however due to delays in the merger process it remains at Accellera while Verilog evolved into SystemVerilog and went to the IEEE.
Code example Verilog/AMS is a superset of the Verilog digital HDL, so all statements in digital domain work as in Verilog (see there for examples). All analog parts work as in Verilog-A. The following code example in Verilog-AMS shows a DAC which is an example for analog processing which is triggered by a digital signal:
The ADC model is reading analog signals in the digital blocks:
Implementations While the language was initially only supported by commercial companies, parts of the behavioural modeling subset, "Verilog-A" was adopted by the transistor-modeling community. The ADMS translator supports it for open-source simulators like Xyce and ngSPICE. A more complete implementation is now available through OpenVAF. The post-SPICE simulator Gnucap was designed in accordance with the standard document, and its support for Verilog-AMS for both the simulator level and the behavioral modeling is growing.
See also VHDL-AMS
References
External links I. Miller and T. Cassagnes, "Verilog-AMS Eases Mixed Mode Signal Simulation," Technical Proceedings of the 2000 International Conference on Modeling and Simulation of Microsystems, pp. 305–308, Available: https://web.archive.org/web/20070927051749/http://www.nsti.org/publ/MSM2000/T31.01.pdf
General Accellera Verilog Analog Mixed-Signal Group verilogams.com — User's manual for Verilog-AMS and Verilog-A The Designer's Guide Community, Verilog-A/MS — Examples of models written in Verilog-AMS EDA.ORG AMS Wiki Archived 2011-02-14 at the Wayback Machine - Issues, future development, SystemVerilog integration
Open Source Implementations OpenVAMS, an Open-Source VerilogAMS-1.3 Parser with internal VPI-like representation V2000 project - Verilog-AMS parser & elaborator OpenVAF Verilog-A compiler Xyce Gnucap
