SILAS: a knowledge-based simulation assistant

A knowledge-based shell for circuit simulation has been developed as a part of a design environment for analog circuits. This shell offers circuit-specific simulation support exploiting expert knowledge for dealing with problems like test function generation and simulation clustering. Furthermore, it provides worst-case analysis capabilities as well as automatic documentation facilities like data sheet generation and a design database. The prototype implementation, SILAS, has been realized as an expert system with blackboard architecture. Knowledge and knowledge execution are strictly separated to allow an easy extension of the incorporated knowledge bases. SILAS is organized as a simulation assistant, which means the user may specify a specific task by a work plan while the task organization and control are taken over by the system. Application areas are all domains which require automated circuit characterization such as synthesis or cell library maintenance