Before You Begin Windows Installation

Before you begin, please take the time to go over the guidelines for installing Advanced Design System (ADS) on a PC running Windows (XP/Vista). For last-minute program and documentation information, refer to the Release Notes document on our website at:

http://www.agilent.com/find/eesof-docs

Choose Advanced Design System > Release Notes: 2008

Note the Changes in ADS 2008

Note If you have systems running older versions of ADS, see the following table for a brief description of changes in recent ADS versions and their impact on systems with older versions installed.

Update and Maintenance Software Releases

Update releases provide specific new features plus all the defect repairs normally found in a Maintenance Software Release (MSR). Since the Update release contains all the defect repairs of the MSR, MSRs will no longer be available.

An Update release is an entirely new installation of ADS and is installed in its own directory. Therefore, if disk space is an issue, uninstall your previous version of ADS before installing an Update. If disk space is not an issue, you can install an update release in its own directory. Although your ADS 2008 licenses will work with ADS 2008 Update releases, you may need additional licenses to run multiple releases concurrently.

Check the System Requirements

Be sure your hardware and software configuration meets the following minimum hardware and system requirements to install and/or run ADS, including RAM, disk space, operating systems, service packs and updates, etc. Keep in mind that minimum requirements are just that, and they may not provide adequate performance and responsiveness. For the latest system requirement information, refer to the Windows Installation document on our website at:

http://www.agilent.com/find/eesof-docs

User Complied Models

For dynamic User Compiled Models, recompilation is only required if the compiler has been upgraded. If you are doing 32-bit models, going from 2006 Update to 2008, the compiler was upgraded so recompilation is required.

For static User Compiled Models, recompilation is required for every upgrade.

The following table shows the supported compilers for the current release and the previous 3 releases:

Checking the Operating System Version

To determine the version of your operating system, double-click the My Computer icon. Choose Help > About Windows.

Check the Supported Instrument Interfaces

For details on configuring and using the various instrument interfaces supported by ADS, please refer to the latest list of supported instruments at:

http://www.agilent.com/find/eesof-docs

Choose Advanced Design System > Complete Documentation > 2008 > Translation and I/O > Instrument Server

Get Codewords for ADS 2008

You must have new FLEXnet license codewords to run ADS 2008. You will be able to run only those items for which you have codewords. The codewords will be tied to the FLEXid of your hardware key or the Ethernet MAC address of your PC's Ethernet LAN card.

Note As with most EDA software, each copy of Agilent EEsof software operating simultaneously requires a license for the features being used. This is true whether the software is being run on separate computers, different processors within one computer, or different cores within a processor: each concurrent copy requires a license.

You can request codewords on the Web at:

http://www.agilent.com/find/eesof-support

Scroll to Business Support/EEsof Codewords and select EEsof Codeword Request.

The codewords are then emailed to you in a license file called license.lic.

If you choose to tie your codewords to a hardware key or dongle, the hardware key is generally shipped with the software disks. If you do not have one, contact Agilent EEsof Business Support at 1-800-507-6274.

For details on both methods of securing codewords refer to Installing Your Licenses in Setting Up Licenses.

For details about license codewords required for simulators, design libraries, components, and other ADS products, see the following table.

License Codewords

Back Up Data from Previous ADS Installations

You can retain earlier installations of ADS and ADS 2008 in separate directories on the same machine, but you cannot install version 2008 over a previous ADS installation. This also applies to an Early Access (Beta) 2008 version.

Before you delete a previous installation:

• Copy your projects, customized configuration files, and other data.
• Copy your license file from the <install_directory>\licenses folder.

For details on running multiple ADS versions, refer to Using Multiple ADS Versions.

Check Available Memory

You need a minimum of 512 MB of memory installed on your system. More memory results in better overall system performance for some design work. However, since ADS is compiled on a 32-bit operating system, its processes cannot use more than 2 GB regardless of the maximum addressable memory available on your system. To check the amount of memory on your system without rebooting, double-click the My Computer icon. Choose Help > About Windows.

Checking Virtual Memory

The recommended minimum virtual memory is 300 MB. Very large designs and designs with many hierarchical levels could require more. To check the current amount of virtual memory:

Select Start > Settings > Control Panel > System

On the Advanced tab, choose Performance Options. Under Virtual memory, choose Change. You can choose to use the current setting or change it.

Check Available Disk Space

The amount of disk space required depends on the ADS products that you want to install. As you run the Setup installation program, the amount of space for various installation items is indicated, so you are aware of these requirements before you select the items to install.

To check the amount of disk space on your system without rebooting, double-click the My Computer icon. Select View > Details. Look in the Free Space column for each of your drives. (You might have to use the bottom scroll bar to see this column.)

Defining an Install Folder

Be sure you have permissions to write to the disk drive on which you want to install ADS. The installation also adds entries to your PC's Windows Registry. Make sure you have permissions to do so.

Important The installation path for ADS software cannot contain any folder names that use a space (don't try to install to c:\Program Files ). If you include a space in a folder name, you will get an error when you try to run a simulation. You will have to uninstall ADS and then install it again.

Dataset Types

Owing to a change which removes the former limitation on dataset file sizes, datasets created by ADS 2008 software (and subsequent releases) are not readable by earlier versions of the ADS software. However, two new command-line programs are available which can be used to identify (and if necessary to change) the type of a given dataset.

dstype

The dstype program identifies the type of one or more specified datasets.

Usage:

dstype <dataset_filename> ...

This program displays the type of the specified dataset filename(s). The filenames must include the ".ds" dataset file extension. More than one filename can be specified on the command-line. Example:

$ dstype test.ds hbtest.ds junkfile.ds
test.ds: Agilent EEsof dataset, Release 2008 format
hbtest.ds: Agilent EEsof dataset, Release 2006A format
junkfile.ds: unknown file type (not a valid dataset)

The types are referred to for brevity as Release 2006A format and Release 2008 format. Release 2006A format applies to a dataset produced by any version of software earlier than 2008. The Release 2008 format applies to a dataset produced by Release 2008 or by later software versions.

dsconvert

The dsconvert program performs type-conversion between the two data set types.

Usage:

dsconvert [-f] <from_dataset> <to_dataset>

Where "<from_dataset>" and "<to_dataset>" are the source and destination dataset filenames, respectively, including the ".ds" extension. Only one dataset can be converted at a time.

To prevent accidental overwriting, the destination dataset must not exist, unless the "-f" option is given. The "-f" option forces the overwrite/deletion of an existing destination dataset.

Conversion can be in either direction:

• If "<from_dataset>" is in the Release 2008 format, the program converts it to the Release 2006A format.
• If "<from_dataset>" is in the Release 2006A format, the program converts it to the Release 2008 format. (However, it is not actually necessary to perform this type of conversion, as the Release 2008 software is capable of reading datasets created by earlier software versions.)

Supported Features on Windows 64-bit

The following simulators are supported when ADS is installed on a Windows XP Professional x64 or Windows Vista 64-bit operating system:

• 64-bit Analog/RF
• 64-bit Momentum
• 64-bit ADS Ptolemy

If you want to run these simulators in 32-bit mode or you want to use features that are not available on a 64-bit operating system, you can launch ADS in 32-bit mode. See Running Advanced Design System.

The following tables provide details about the supported features when ADS is installed on a Windows XP Professional x64 or Windows Vista 64-bit operating system.