Waveform viewer
A waveform viewer is a software tool for viewing the signal levels of either a digital or analog
circuit design.[1]
Waveform viewers comes in two varieties:
1. simulation waveform viewers for displaying signal levels of simulated design models, and
2. in-circuit waveform viewers for displaying signal levels captured in-circuit while debugging or
testing hardware boards (Also, See Waveform monitor)
Simulation waveform viewers[
In integrated circuit design, waveform viewers are typically used in conjunction with a simulation. A
waveform view allows an IC designer to see the signal transitions over time and the relation of those
signals with other signals in an IC design, which is typically written in a hardware description language.
Simulators can be used to interactively capture wave data for immediate viewing on a waveform viewer;
however, for integrated circuit design the usage model is typically to save the output of simulation runs by
running batch jobs and to view the waveforms off-line as a static database.[1]
Waveform viewers allow you to zoom in and out over a time sequence, and take measurements between
two cursor points. In addition, the waveform view has many ways of displaying signal information, such as
in hexadecimal, binary, or a symbolic value.[1]
Most waveform viewers can read an industrial standard waveform database known as Value Change
Dump (VCD) or a proprietary wave format. The proprietary wave formats usually have faster record and
playback speeds or require smaller memory store space, or save additional signal information for viewing,
such as bus transactions.[1]
List of the best-known viewers[
Wavefor
m
Viewer
VcdView
EZwave
Tool
Suite
NA
Questa
ADMS
Develop
er
Platform
Ted Rossin Windows
Mentor
Graphics
Features
digital
analog, RF,
Linux,Solaris,W
digital and
indows
mixed-signal
Wave Formats
*.vcd
*.wdb, *.tab, *.cou,
*.sti, *.tr%, *.ac%,
*.sw%, *.vcd, *.fsdb,
*.csv, *.swd, *.dofile,
*.dof, *.do, *.tcl
Screenshot
Wavefor
m
Viewer
Tool
Suite
Develop
er
Simvision
NCSim
Cadence
Design
Systems
Linux,Solaris,W digital, analog,
indows
transactions
*.trn, *.shm, *.vcd
vsim
Modelsim
Mentor
Graphics
Linux,Solaris,W
digital, analog
indows
*.wlf, *.vcd
finewave/Po
FineSim
werView
Platform
Magma
Design
Linux,Solaris
Automation
Features
digital, analog
Wave Formats
*.fsdb, *.vcd
digital, analog,
works
*.btim, *.csdf, *.tdml,
SynaptiCA Linux,Solaris,W test equipment,
WaveViewer with:Veri
*.vcd, 20+ other
D
indows
free, high
Logger
formats
capacity
Wave VCD
works
Interconnec
with: CVe t Systems
Windows
r
Solutions
digital, Free,
good-quality
*.vcd
WaveProbe
LogicSim Zeemz
Windows
digital, analog
*.wave
vwave
Undertow Veritools
Linux,Solaris,W digital, analog,
indows
transactions
nWave
Verdi
Linux,Solaris
digital, analog,
transactions,
assertions
Mac OS
digital, analog,
TLM
transaction
*.vcd, *.scnx
viewer, native
Mac application
Scansion
NA
SpringSoft
Logic Poet
*.vcd
fsdb, *.vcd
Screenshot
Wavefor
m
Viewer
Tool
Suite
Develop
er
Platform
Features
Wave Formats
*.lxt (Icarus Verilog),
*.lxt2 (Icarus
Verilog), *.vzt, *.ghw
(GHDL), *.vcd,
*.evcd *.fst (Icarus
Verilog, CVC,
CVER_FST), *.fsdb
GTKWave
NA
Tony
Bybell
digital,
Linux,Windows,
free/open
Mac OS,Unix
source
Styx
Hades
Norman
Hendrich
Unix
Dinotrace
Veripool
Wilson
Snyder,
Allen
Gallotta
digital,
Linux,Solaris,W
free/open
indows
source
*.vcd, *.ascii
Waveform
Window
DVE
Synopsys
Inc
Linux,Solaris
VCD,eVCD,VPD
Electric
M1
Waveform
Viewer
Electric
N/A
digital,
free/open
source
digital,analog
?
Static Free
Software
All (Java)
(staticfrees
oft.com)
tr0, pa0, sw0, ac0,
mt0 (Hspice), out
Integration of
(Nanosim), spo
schematics and
(Spice/GNUCap), txt
layout with
(PSpice), raw
waveform
(SmartSpice,
viewer.
LTSpice), dump
(Verilog).
ASA Corp
Windows
(m1ot.com)
No-cost,
acquire live
data from
scopes and
digitizers,
analog and
digital, view
multiple
waveforms at
once, 22
parameter
measurements,
simple
collaboration
tr0, txt, csv, wfm
(Tek), isf (Tek), bin
(Agilent)
Screenshot
Wavefor
m
Viewer
iWave
Waveform
Viewer
Custom
WaveView
Tool
Suite
AetherAeolusiWave
Develop
er
Empyrean
Inc.
Discovery
Synopsys
AMS
Platform
linux
Features
Analog, RF,
digital and
mixed-signal,
A->D and D>A conversion,
analog/mixsignal
waveform
comparisons,
commonly used
calculation,
commonly used
measurement,
Eye-diagram,
histogram, TCL
support session
save/load,
Aether-iWave
cross probable
support
Analog, RF,
digital and
mixed-signal,
scripting/batch
mode, jitter
measurements,
DAC toolbox,
FFT/iFFT, A>D and D->A
conversion,
Synopsys/Cade
nce/Mentor
Graphics/JEDA
Linux,Solaris, H T/Silicon
P,Windows
Canvas
integration into
schematic
capture, reusable
measurement
templates,
HSPICE
.measure GUI,
digital
waveform
comparisons,
parametric
analysis, 3D
plots, extremely
Wave Formats
Synopsys: HSPICE
tr0, sw0, ac0, mt0,
hb0, nw0, lis
(Binary/ASCII);
Novas fsdb files
(binary, v4.1);
Verilog VCD
(ASCII);
Synopsys: HSPICE
tr0, sw0, ac0, mt0,
hb0, nw0, lis
(Binary/ASCII);
StarSim wdb, wv, xp
(binary);
HSIM/NanoSim/XA
wdb (binary);
HSIM/NanoSim/Tim
eMill/Powermill out,
vector, .mt file
(ASCII); Saber AI/PL
(binary/ASCII);
VCS/Magellan/DVE
VPD (binary); WDF
format (binary).
Cadence: Spectre
PSF, WSF
(binary/ASCII);
runObjFile; PSPICE
DAT (binary),
Allegro SIM (ASCII);
Verilog VCD
(ASCII); ModelSim
WLF (binary).
Mentor Graphics:
ELDO/ADMS COU,
WDB (binary), AdiT
TR0/TB0.
SPICE3/SmartSpice
Screenshot
150 px
Wavefor
m
Viewer
Tool
Suite
Develop
er
Platform
Features
fast.
ICD
Impulse
SMASH
Eclipse
analog, digital
Dolphin
Linux,Windows and mixedIntegration
signal
toem
Wave Formats
Screenshot
raw format
(binary/ASCII).
Agilent ADS .ds
format (binary),
TouchStone Sparameters (ASCII).
CSDF (Common
Simulation Data
Format) (ASCII).
Novas fsdb files
(binary, v4.1). Text
file, CSV (comma
separated values)
format. Other inhouse simulator
formats: SDIF,
MICS, TI-punch
(binary). Data from
oscilloscopes.
Dolphin: SMASH
.tmf, .bwf, .amf, .dmf,
.mmf, .nmf;
Synopsys: HSpice
.sw0, .tr0; Verilog
VCD (ASCII,
compressed);
SPICE3/SmartSpice
raw format
(binary/ASCII);
CSDF (Common
Simulation Data
Format) (ASCII);
Tabulated text file
format;
*.vcd, *.xml,
digital/analog/tr *.tab(AMS tabular
Linux,Windows,
ansactions, free, trace),*.scv
Mac OS,Unix
Eclipse plug-in (Transactions), *.scnx
(experimental)
In-circuit waveform viewers[
These are built into most logic analyzer, data acquisition cards, and automatic test equipment. In-circuit
waveform viewers are included with products from:

Tektronix

LabWindows/CVI

Teradyne