Mentor Standard Licensing v2013_2 is now available for download on SupportNet. This release contains a number of important benefits and key changes detailed below.

Reasons to update your license server:

• Update from FlexNet v11.10.0.3 to v11.11.1.1. As applications that build with Mentor Standard Licensing (MSL) v2013_2 ship, they will require license servers running 11.11.1.1 or newer. It's advisable to update your license servers in advance of these product releases. You do not need to update anything if you are using Mobile Compute (uncounted) licenses.
• Support added for AIX v6.1, Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012. Note: This applies to the licensing software only. For support information regarding specific product releases, please refer to the System Requirements on SupportNet. 
• Support added for Consistent Network Device Naming (em0, em1, p1s3, etc...) on Linux
• Stability improvements
• Numerous defect fixes

Key Changes:

• Red Hat EL 4 and SuSe SLES 9 are no longer supported. MSL v2013_2 will not run on these platforms.
• Support for some hardware keys (dongles) has been  discontinued. If you are using a hardware key as your  license server's hostid, you may need to request a replacement key.  Please refer to http://supportnet.mentor.com/news/Discontinued-Legacy-HW-Keys.cfm for more information. As of MSL v2013_2, only the Aladdin USB FLEXid 9- key is supported. This is the teal-colored USB key.

Information about downloading MSL v2013_2 can be found in TechNote MG66951.*

*Requires SupportNet login.

Generally, the 64-bit version of HyperLynx 8.2 offers an important advantage over the 32-bit version: it can utilize much more memory, which may be important for large designs or simulations. However, some features in HyperLynx 8.2 are not available in the 64-bit version.

On Windows, the 32-bit version is automatically installed when you install the 64-bit version. You can start the 32-bit version specifically from the Windows program menu Start > Mentor Graphics SDD > HyperLynx 8.2 32-Bit > HyperLynx Simulation Software. On Linux, you must install the 32-bit version separately. i.e., it is not installed automatically with the 64-bit version.

Features not supported in the 64-bit version of HyperLynx 8.2:
•File > Run eDxD / eExp View (i.e., viewing of Mentor CCE layout or schematic files)
•File > Open, for file type eDxd/eExp Files (*.cce) (i.e., loading of CCE files into BoardSim)
•In BoardSim, Export > HyperLynx 3D EM Topology (i.e., exporting from BoardSim to the HyperLynx 3D EM full-wave solver). See Technote MG567226 for more details.
•In BoardSim, in the generic batch wizard’s Net Selection Spreadsheet, the Import from CES button (i.e., importing CES constraints into BoardSim)
•In BoardSim, Models > Assign Models/Values by Reference Designator > Import from CES (i.e., importing CES model assignments into BoardSim)
•In LineSim, Export > Constraint Template with Update CES with Generated Template enabled (i.e., pushing a constraint template directly from LineSim into CES)
•IBIS-AMI models that are compiled as 32-bit libraries must run in the 32-bit version of HyperLynx.

Two weeks ago, my colleague posted a tip of the week about how to combine licenses from two software vendors into one license file.  This week I will look at how to use two licenses from the same vendor - but created for different server IDs.

Background Information:

• If you have two sets of licenses for one server, they can only be combined into one license file if the SERVER IDs are the same.
• Only one instance of a vendor daemon (the Mentor daemon is "mgcld") can run on one machine.

This means that if you have two sets of licenses for the same daemon, but created for different IDs (for example a MacAddress and a Hardware Key) then:

• They cannot be combined into one license file (because the server IDs are different).
• You cannot run two servers (because only one "mgcld" can run at any time).

How to use both sets of licenses:

If your license server machine is running Windows, then by following the instructions below, you can use both sets of licenses.  Note - this will not work for other operating systems.  (The instructions below assume you already know how to set up a license server using lmtools.)

1) Create a folder to contain all the licenses, and save each license as a separate file with a .lic extension.  For example:

C:\Licenses\modelsim.lic - this file contains:

SERVER put_server_name_here 001234567890 1717

DAEMON mgcld path_to_mgcld

INCREMENT msimhdlsim mgcld 2013.120 31-dec-2013 ...

C:\Licenses\pads.lic - this file contains:

SERVER put_server_name_here FLEXID=9-87654321 1717

DAEMON mgcld path_to_mgcld

INCREMENT padses_c mgcld 2013.090 30-sep-2013 ...

2) Edit the licenses so that they contain the name of your server, and the location of the vendor daemon.  (The SERVER and DAEMON lines will be the same for each license, apart from the server ID which must not be changed.)  So in the example above:

C:\Licenses\modelsim.lic - after changes:

SERVER my_pc 001234567890 1717

DAEMON mgcld C:\MentorGraphics\Licensing\mgcld.exe

INCREMENT msimhdlsim mgcld 2013.120 31-dec-2013 ...

C:\Licenses\pads.lic - after changes:

SERVER my_pc FLEXID=9-87654321 1717

DAEMON mgcld C:\MentorGraphics\Licensing\mgcld.exe

INCREMENT padses_c mgcld 2013.090 30-sep-2013 ...

3) In the "Config Services" tab within "lmtools", in the box entitled "Path to the license file" - enter the folder name containing the licenses, instead of the path to a license file.  So in the example above:

Path to the license file = C:\Licenses

4) Check "Use Services", and "Save Service" as usual, then start the server in the "Start/Stop/Reread" tab.

Your license server should now show that both sets of licenses are available.

If you are experiencing slow invocation times with one or more of your Mentor Graphics applications - here are some general tips and techniques, as well as application-specific options (for Expedition PCB and PADS Layout), that are available for use:

1. Check your licensing environment for any invalid or duplicate license server (port@host) references.
   

• If you find any, remove them.
  
• A quick and easy tool for editing your licensing environment is the Mentor License Utility:
  

Using the Mentor License Utility to query and edit the licensing environment (video)

Note: Before making any changes to the environment you can back-up your current settings via the 'File>Export Environment' menu-pick. To import previously saved settings navigate to 'File>Import Environment'.

2. Check your licensing environment for any license files containing un-edited lines starting with "SERVER put_server_name_here"

3.  If you have any non-Mentor Graphics (mgcld daemon) license files or port@host references in your environment

• Make sure all your Mentor Graphics (mgcld daemon) licenses and port@host references reside under the MGLS_LICENSE_FILE environment variable
  • If not, you can use the Mentor License Utility to move them
    

3b. If you have any non-Mentor Graphics (mgcld daemon) license files or port@host references set in the LM_LICENSE_FILE environment variable or registry entry

• Set the MGLS_LICENSE_SEARCH environment variable to a value of 1. When set, Mentor Graphics licensing will ignore the LM_LICENSE_FILE values (and other vendor licenses) if it finds that the MGLS_LICENSE_FILE is set.
  

How to set or edit an environment variable on Windows

4. Use any application-specific license options/dialogs to reduce the number of licenses that get checked during the invocation

• Two good example applications are Expedition PCB and PADS Layout, both of which check for many licenses on invocation in order to enable as many options as possible.
  
• 
  
  • Note: This information only applies to users pointing to a license server for licenses
    
  • The reason it's not necessary to take these measures with a local Mobile Compute (a.k.a. Nodelocked Uncounted) license file, is because the checkouts are much quicker (no network latency), so any additional checks shouldn't add any noticeable delays to the invocation.
    

Expedition PCB

• The default behavior is to check for all the options licenses in order to display the following dialog. In this example only the base licenses for Expedition Pinnacle, Ascent LX, and Ascent.
  

• If it is taking a long time for the above dialog to appear, there are two options available:
  

     A). Set the MGC_DISABLE_PRESPLASH_CHECKS environment variable to 1.

• The MGC_DISABLE_PRESPLASH_CHECKS variable changes the number of licenses the Expedition checks for on invocation. Instead of checking for every option license it only looks for a base license (for Pinnacle, Ascent LX, or Ascent).
  
• When the license selection dialog appears, all options are selectable regardless of whether or not a license exists and is available.
  
  • If you select an option that you don't have a license for (or it's not available) you will get a licensing warning after you click OK (and before Expedition comes up)
    
  • This option works well if you just want to select one of the first 4 radio buttons (for Pinnacle, Ascent LX, Ascent, or Xtreme Design Client), and checkout (and in) any option licenses via the 'Setup>Licensed Modules' menu-pick (on-demand licensing).
    

     B). Add one of the following switches to the Expedition PCB Start Menu shortcut target path:

     /pinnacle

     /ascentlx

     /ascent

• Right click on the Expedition PCB shortcut, and select "Properties".
  
• Add the switch to the end of the "Target" field (add a space in-between)
  
• Click Apply and OK.
  

• With any of these switches in place, Expedition will bypass the license selection dialog and go directly into the requested mode (for Pinnacle, Ascent LX, or Ascent), provided the licenses are available.
  
  • You can then checkout (and in) any option licenses via the 'Setup>Licensed Modules' menu-pick
    

PADS Layout

• By default PADS Layout checks for all available options as seen in the 'Help>Installed Options...' dialog.
  

• To change the behavior and have PADS Layout look for only those licenses that you have available, you can uncheck the 'Checkout all available options' and then uncheck the 'Not Available' options.
  
  • Note: If you add option licenses to your license server, PADS Layout will not pick these up (it's no longer looking for all available licenses). You would need to set the 'Checkout all available options' again, temporarily, to see what new options have become available.
    

It is important to know what platform and operating system you have in order to verify that your system configuration is supported. On Linux platforms, this is not immediately obvious. This week’s Tip of the Week will help you get that information.

There are two key pieces of information you need to put this together: The release name and the kernel version.

To get the release name, login to the system you want to verify and cat the release information file:

cat /etc/redhat-release (Red Hat Enterprise Linux)

cat /etc/SuSE-release (Novell SuSE Enterprise Linux)

This will give you the base release information.

To get the kernel version, run the command ‘uname –a’. The kernel version is the third field of the output:

Linux envlsf1 2.6.18-8.el5 #1 SMP Fri Jan 26 14:15:14 EST 2007 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Once you have these key pieces of information, it is easy to determine which specific version of Linux you have using a search on the internet. Below are links to a few useful documents that list the version information for Red Hat and SuSE Linux.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux#RHEL5

http://www.novell.com/support/kb/doc.php?id=3594951

If you're not sure whether your license file will run the latest release of PADS Flow, or maybe you want to check the minimum license version date requirement for an older release, refer to the information in the following document.

Which PADS Flow release am I entitled to use?

If you're running into system performance problems, a useful tool on Windows 7 is the Performance Monitor utility (Perfmon). The fastest way to run this utility is by running 'perfmon.exe' from the command prompt or from the 'Start >Run' area.

In Perfmon, you can run a pre-defined 'System Performance' report available under the 'Data Collector Sets > System' area; just right click on 'System Performance' and click 'Start', as shown in Figure 1. The report can take a minute or more to complete, and after that a time stamped report is available over at 'Reports > System  > System Performance', as shown in Figure 2. In the report you will find a plethora of CPU/Network/Disk/Memory information, but more importantly a Performance/Resource overview section highlighting any issues that Windows might have detected that could be triggering the performance problems. In Figure 2 the system was running slow due to excessive paging resulting from available memory being too low.

Figure 1

Figure 2