Virtuoso

I’ve been doing some work this term with the Cadence Virtuoso analog design software and thought this would be a good chance to relay some things that I’ve learned.

Virtuoso is an extremely powerful circuit analysis and simulation tool and among the most widely used software tools for VLSI and IC design in industry as well as academia. Accessing Virtuoso requires users to connect to a linux workstation through VNC, which OSU provides a guide for at:

https://it.engineering.oregonstate.edu/encrypting-vnc-ssh-proxy.

There are several libraries included within Virtuoso that contain a wide range of components with the added ability to specify characteristics generically. Once the design is complete and the schematic is created, there is a Design Rule Check feature that will run to help point out any obvious errors or inconsistencies in the design.

Below are a few videos that illustrate the process of accessing Virtuoso via VNC, creating schematics and running simulations.