Agilent Technologies Inc. announced availability of the Update 3 release of its Advanced Design System (ADS) high-frequency electronic design automation (EDA) software. The addition of serializer/deserializer (SERDES)/Verilog analog mixed-signal (AMS) co-simulation, and other signal integrity capabilities, gives designers a more complete signal integrity design flow for serial links, and confidence that analog and digital components will work together.

"This is the third consecutive ADS release where we have added new capabilities for signal integrity designers," said Sanjeev Gupta, product marketing manager with Agilent's EEsof EDA division. "The ability to co-simulate and use SERDES models in ADS along with digital components lets designers simulate serial links from end to end, and helps ensure that the analog and digital parts of their circuit will work together and behave as expected."

ADS is an industry-leading EDA platform for microwave and RF circuit and system design. It offers complete design integration to designers of products such as cellular and portable phones, pagers, wireless networks, radar, satellite communications systems and high-speed digital wireline designs.

The Agilent ADS Update 3 enables designers to perform true mixed-signal simulations of high-speed digital boards by co-simulating with Verilog-AMS based SERDES models, providing complete analysis of serial links. It also allows designers to use ADS to examine designs with NCSim and ModelSim as well as high-frequency SPICE simulators. Signal-integrity designers can use ADS transient/convolution, EM and Ptolemy simulators in a co-simulation with digital simulators to gain more insight into complex designs.