Comparison of SPICE and Network C simulation models using the CAM system

The performance of SPICE and Network C (NC) circuit simulator when simulating MOS transistor circuits has been investigated and compared. SPICE analog model, NC analog model and NC MOS_PWL model are the three MOS transistor models being used. The comparison between SPICE and NC includes five areas. They are MOS transistor model, circuit analysis and computational methods, limitation on the ability to simulate circuits containing the MOS transistor diode configuration, run time and the ability to build new circuit component models using derived equations. The prototype circuit being used is the Content-Addressable Memory (CAM) circuit. The CAM circuit is a good example because its component circuits such as priority resolver circuit and CAM cell circuit can bring out the significant differences when using 2 SPICE and NC. The priority resolver circuit in CAM is designed to contain MOS transistors connected to behave like diodes so as to show the limitation of the NC MOS_PWL model. The CAM cell circuit has a p-n junction leakage problem which can be modeled using derived equations. The building of new circuit components using derived equations will be demonstrated through this leakage problem.