initial commit

1 files changed, 376 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Windows/spice/doc/FAQ b/Windows/spice/doc/FAQ
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e137c93c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Windows/spice/doc/FAQ
@@ -0,0 +1,376 @@
+  Ngspice F.A.Q.Version 2.0 (ngspice 26 release)
+  Maintained by Paolo Nenzi, Holger Vogt
+  Last update: 02-01-2014
+
+  This document contains the Frequently Asked Questions (and Answers)
+  for ngspice project.
+  __________________________________________________________________________
+
+  Table of Contents
+
+
+  1. INTRODUCTION AND GENERAL INFORMATION
+     1.1 What is ngspice?
+         1.2 What is sharedspice?
+     1.3 What is tclspice ?
+     1.4 Why resurrecting Berkeley's Spice?
+     1.5 What is the project's goal?
+     1.6 What you are going to do?
+     1.7 Legal issues
+     1.8 What mailing lists exist for ngspice?
+     1.9 Are the mailing lists archived anywhere?
+     1.10 What newsgroups exist for ngspice?
+     1.11 Where can I get a copy of ngspice?
+     1.12 Where should I look on the World Wide Web for ngspice stuff?
+     1.13 Where should I look on the World Wide Web for Spice documentation?
+
+  2. DEVELOPMENT
+     2.1 What is the current version?
+     2.2 What are the latest features in the current release?
+     2.3 What does it look like?
+     2.4 Who are the authors of ngspice?
+     2.5 How can I report a bug/request for a feature?
+     2.6 How can I join the development?
+
+  3. SOLUTIONS TO COMMON MISCELLANEOUS PROBLEMS
+     3.1 What systems are supported?
+     3.2 I get errors when I try to compile the source code, why?
+     3.3 This document didn't answer my question. Where else can I look for
+         an answer?
+
+  4. ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
+     4.1 Feedback
+     4.2 Formats in which this FAQ is available
+     4.3 Authorship and acknowledgements
+     4.4 Disclaimer and Copyright
+
+
+  ______________________________________________________________________
+
+  1.  INTRODUCTION AND GENERAL INFORMATION
+
+
+
+ 1.1 What is ngspice ?
+
+  Ngspice is a mixed-level/mixed-signal circuit simulator, based on three
+  open source software packages: Spice3f5, Cider1b1 and Xspice, and
+  including many bug fixes and enhancements:
+
+  - Spice3 is a widely used circuit simulator. It was developed by the
+    University of California at Berkeley (UCB), by "a cast of thousand"
+    (as they say) initially under the guide of Donald O. Peterson.
+
+  - Cider is a mixed-level simulator that already includes Spice3f5 and
+    adds a device simulator to it: DSIM. Cider couples the circuit level
+    simulator to the device simulator to provide greater simulation
+    accuracy (at the expense of greater simulation time). Critical
+    devices can be described with technology parameters (numerical
+    models) and non critical ones with the original spice's compact
+    models.
+
+  - Xspice is an extension to Spice3 that provides code modeling support
+    and simulation of digital components through an embedded event
+    driven algorithm.
+
+  The NG prefix has lot of meanings: Next Generation, New Good, etc.
+  Choose or invent the one you prefer. The heart of the project is the
+  ngspice program, with its tremendous advancements.
+
+
+ 1.2 What is sharedspice ?
+
+  Sharedspice is an interface option to ngspice. It compiles the simulator
+  into a shared object (or dynamic link library), providing full control
+  of ngspice to any suitable controlling program (GUI, optimizer,
+  development system, etc., to be provided by the user).
+
+
+ 1.3 What is tclspice ?
+
+  Tclspice is a another interface option of ngspice, providing a tcl/tk
+  interface to the user. Tclspice is both a batch and interactive simulator
+  and a building block for simulator applications. Analyses can be run
+  from a tcl script and vector plotted or post processed using tcl. A small
+  GUI may be built by the user to analyze a circuit or a set of circuits.
+  Tclspice is obtained compiling ngspice activating an additional option.
+
+
+ 1.4 Why resurrecting Berkeley's Spice?
+
+  Berkeley's Spice can be considered the father of most circuit
+  simulators available today. It is an old but still good piece of
+  software, it may not be the fastest or the most reliable but it's
+  free, it's available in source code and most of the electrical
+  simulators inherited it's syntax. Spice3 is based on proven numerical
+  algorithms (most commercial implementations have only strengthened
+  them), implements most of the models for MOSFET submicron design
+  and has a powerful set of analyses. The readily availability of
+  its source code in the past made this simulator the de-facto standard.
+
+
+ 1.5 What is the project's goal?
+
+  Ngspice is both a maintenance and enhancement project. It is a maintenance
+  project because it aims to provide the free EDA community the best spice3
+  simulator available. This means fixing bugs, adding new features but always
+  in the spice3 framework. Achieving compatibility with commercial spice based
+  simulators and provide users the latest devices models are important goals
+  of the project. Improvements in the postprocessing (data handling
+  capabilities) and user interface are other goals.
+
+
+ 1.6 What you are going to do?
+
+  An official roadmap for ngspice was never drawn. Contributions made by
+  developers drive ngspice development and the roadmap is built day by
+  day by developers writing on the lists. Ngspice development activity
+  can be summarized in 3 points:
+
+  + Compatibility: Ngspice should be compatible with commercial products,
+    thus allowing people to use the netlist generated for such tools. As
+    most of the commercial simulators available tracked each other in netlist
+    language, this should not be an impossible task. The most important goal
+    here is to provide a reliable support for model libraries coming from
+    foundries.
+
+  + Compact models:  The interest in using ngspice is intimately connected
+    to the available models. To provide the latest models available for
+    active and passive devices is a fundamental goal of the project. In
+    this direction we are integrating ADMS model compiler into ngspice.
+
+  + Documentation: Commercial simulators come with very good manuals
+    containing tutorials, description of models equations, example of
+    use, suggestions, etc. Spice came with little documentation. The
+    Spice3f manual, available on the Internet has been used as the basis
+    for the new manual. It will be constantly improved during ngspice
+    development and integrated with the documentation accompanying Xspice
+    and Cider. The ngspice manual today contains description of all
+        features ngspice is offering. It is however not a tutorial of ngspice
+        usage, but there are now several good ones available on the internet
+        (see http://ngspice.sourceforge.net/tutorials.html).
+
+
+ 1.7 Legal issues
+
+  The ngspice base license is new BSD, as provided by UCB. For some parts
+  of the code other compatible licences apply. Please see file COPYING
+  for details.
+
+
+ 1.8  What mailing lists exist for ngspice?
+
+  There are two general mailing lists dedicated to the ngspice project.
+
+  Users mailing list: <ngspice-users@lists.sourceforge.net>
+  This list is for ngspice users. Examples, problems, bug reports
+  and general discussion on ngspice can be sent here.
+
+  Developers mailing list: <ngspice-devel@lists.sourceforge.net>
+  The list is dedicated to ngspice development. Developers should
+  subscribe here, to follow the program development. May be used
+  to send patches, and technical discussion on ngspice.
+
+  Send an empty message with Subject "help" to the following addresses
+  to get instructions.
+
+  <ngspice-users-request@lists.sourceforge.net>
+  <ngspice-devel-request@lists.sourceforge.net>
+
+  Send an empty message to the following address to Subscribe.
+
+  <ngspice-users-join@lists.sourceforge.net>
+  <ngspice-devel-join@lists.sourceforge.net>
+
+  Documentation about the user interface of
+  these mailing lists can be found at:
+     http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member
+
+
+ 1.9   Are the mailing lists archived anywhere ?
+
+  Yes, the lists are archived. There are two places where to look for
+  archives. The project started on the IEEE Central and South Italy
+  web server and then moved to sourceforge. Sourceforge provides an
+  archiving service that cam be accessed via the summary page:
+
+  http://sourceforge.net/p/ngspice/mailman/
+
+
+
+ 1.10  What newsgroups exist for ngspice?
+
+  There is no ngspice specific newsgroup. Sourceforge offers additional
+  discussion groups for ngspice, please see
+
+  http://sourceforge.net/p/ngspice/discussion/
+
+  ngspice threads may appear on newsgroups dedicated to circuit
+  simulation and electronic design.
+
+
+ 1.11  Where can I get a copy of ngspice?
+
+  You can download ngspice from:
+
+  http://sourceforge.net/projects/ngspice/files/ng-spice-rework/
+
+
+ 1.12  Where should I look on the World Wide Web for ngspice stuff?
+
+  Look at the official Ngpice Web Page:
+
+  http://ngspice.sourceforge.net
+
+
+ 1.13  Where should I look on the World Wide Web for Spice documentation?
+
+  There is a detailed ngspice manual available at:
+  http://ngspice.sourceforge.net/docs.html
+
+  Others docs are assembled at:
+  http://ngspice.sourceforge.net/literature.html
+
+
+
+  2.  DEVELOPMENT
+
+
+ 2.1.  What is the current version?
+
+  The latest version released is:
+
+  * ngspice-26 (released on 04/01/2013)
+
+
+ 2.2.  What are the latest features in the current release?
+
+- New features:
+        + add temperature coefficients for B source
+        + commands "mdump", "mrdump" to dump matrix to file
+        + allow `time', `temper', and `hertz' in expressions with behavioral R, L, C
+        + Enable ctrl-c to interrupt a simulation also for Windows GUI
+        + tests/bsim4: use the standard CMC model check
+        + implement exit code for command "quit"
+        + .nodeset all = value
+        + memristor code model in extradev
+        + new scalable diode model including tunnel component
+        + variable xtrtol may override the XSPICE reduction of trtol
+        + XSPICE example: delta-sigma converter
+        + XSPICE: new d_source model
+        + new option noopac
+        + bsim3: make additonal parameters accessible with @mxx[par]
+        + enable Mac OS X compilation
+        + option reseries = val
+        + commands "snsave", "snload"
+        + update hisim to version 2.7.0, new qa tests
+        + hisimhv update to version 1.2.3, new qa tests
+        + allow Ctrl-d to quit
+        + jfet model temperature extension, tcv and bex parameter
+        + speed up vector handling by hash table for vector address storage and retrieval
+        + update PSS code
+
+
+- Bug fixes:
+    + many, many ... please see
+          http://ngspice.git.sourceforge.net/git/gitweb.cgi?p=ngspice/ngspice;a=shortlog;pg=0
+    + remove memory leaks
+    + update tclspice for MS Windows
+    + adms3 removed due to licensing issues
+    + Many small bugs
+
+
+
+ 2.3.  What does it look like?
+
+  Ngspice, as the original Spice3 (and Xspice and Cider) is a command
+  line simulator, but with a graphics output capability.
+
+
+ 2.4.  Who are the authors of ngspice?
+
+  The development is open to anyone who wish to contribute. If the
+  original Spice3 was made with the contribution of "a cast of
+  thousand", ngspice can only increase that number. An incomplete
+  list of contributor makes the "acknowledgements" page of the ngspice
+  manual.
+
+
+ 2.5.  How can I report a bug/request for a feature?
+
+  The ngspice summary page (hosted on Sourceforge) has bug-reporting,
+  feature-request and bugs trackers. You can use them or subscribe to
+  mailing lists and post there. The former is preferred since almost
+  it allows to track all necessary actions upon a bug. The web site at
+  http://ngspice.sourceforge.net/bugrep.html will give you more details.
+
+
+ 2.6.  How can I join the development?
+
+  To join the development just code the feature you want to add and send
+  your patch in the mailing list.  Before you start coding check the
+  latest development release of ngspice from our git repository.
+  It might be that your feature has already been implemented.
+
+  There is no bureaucracy here.
+
+
+
+  3.  SOLUTIONS TO COMMON MISCELLANEOUS PROBLEMS
+
+
+ 3.1.  What systems are supported?
+
+  Ngspice is written in C, and uses some GNU extensions, then you need
+  a GNU C compiler and a UNIX environment to compile it. Ngspice can
+  be compiled under Windows using the mingw or cygwin environment as
+  well as MS Visual Studio.
+
+
+ 3.2.  I get errors when I try to compile the source code, why?
+
+  This is a one-million-euros question :).
+
+  Write a mail to the user's list describing the problem and providing
+  information on the type of hardware, the flavour of operating system.
+
+
+ 3.3.  This document didn't answer my question. Where else can I look
+        for an answer?
+
+  Read old messages from the mailing list archive, search the web site
+  or read the docs.  Upgrade to the latest version of ngspice, many
+  problems are fixed in the new versions.  If you still can't find an
+  answer, post your question to the mailing lists.
+
+
+
+  4.  ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
+
+
+ 4.1.  Feedback
+
+  Send your comments about this F.A.Q. to:
+
+  Paolo Nenzi <p.nenzi@ieee.org>.
+
+  Send your comments about ngspice to:
+
+  Paolo Nenzi <p.nenzi@ieee.org>.
+
+
+ 4.2.  Formats in which this FAQ is available
+
+  This document is available only in ASCII format in the ngspice source
+  package.
+
+
+ 4.3.  Authorship and acknowledgements
+
+  Parts of the questions and answers are originate from Paolo Nenzi.
+
+
+ 4.4.  Disclaimer and Copyright
+
+  This document is provided as is. The information in it is not
+  warranted to be correct: you use it at your own risk.