Re: Proposal for two additional environment parameter functions

Hi Bob,
That is how I currently do it, but it means that models that we implement using 
this feature are non-portable which I want to avoid. I was thinking that this 
function is useful enough that it can be part of the language.
Note that although the examples I show are Verilog-AMS, the main need for this 
function is to retrieve values from spice primitive and sub circuit devices. We 
currently have no way in the language to get values from the Spice engine apart 
from $simparam() which is too limited.

Cheers...
Dave

Bob Floyd wrote:
> Why not implement $simprobe as your own VPI function, thus minimizing
> clutter in the language?
> 
> -------------------------------------------  
> 2. $simprobe(instance, param_name [, expression])
> Similar to $simparam(), this function will retrieve the value  of a given
> parameter from a given instance. If the instance/parameter does
> not exist, it
> will stop with an error. If the optional argument <expression> is
> specified, it
> will return this value in lieu of the error. This function is not
> limited to
> retrieving values from Spice elements, but also Verilog-AMS instances.
> 
> [LRM TEXT]
> $simprobe() allows the user to query the value of an element within the
> specified instance. The function returns a real scalar value.
> The general form of the $simprobe function is:
> 	$simprobe(instance, param_name [, expression])
> 
> <instance> is a string constant (either a literal or string
> parameter). If the
> string is prefixed with a '.' character, then the characters
> following the '.'
> character make up the full hierarchical name of the instance to
> query. If the
> first character of the instance string is not a '.', then the
> string is the
> local name of the instance to query. It is a compilation error to use a
> hierarchical instance name where the string is not prefixed with
> a '.' character.
> 
> <param_name> is the name of the parameter whose value is required. It is a
> string constant (either a literal or string parameter). A
> parameter can be any
> valid scalar or indexed vector output parameter for the instance
> in question.
> 
> <expression> is an optional argument. It can be any valid Verilog-AMS
> expression. When specified, its value will be returned in case of
> an error.
> 
> When <instance> is specified in the hierarchical form,
> <param_name> will be
> retrieved from <instance>. If <instance> or <param_name> does not exist an
> error will be raised. If <expression> has been specified, it's
> value will be
> returned in lieu of raising the error.
> 
> Example:
> module grandchild();
>    parameter string inst = ".atop.ch";
>    analog $strobe("%m: Value of '%s' is %g", inst, $simprobe(inst,"x"));
> endmodule
> module child();
>    real x;
>    grandchild gc();
>    analog x = 10;
> endmodule
> module top();
>    real x;
>    child ch();
>    analog x = 5.0;
> endmodule
>     
> 
> 
> 

-- 
=====================================
-- David Miller
-- Design Technology (Austin)
-- Freescale Semiconductor
-- Ph : 512 996-7377 Fax: x7755
=====================================

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