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diff --git a/Windows/spice/docs/FAQ b/Windows/spice/docs/FAQ deleted file mode 100644 index 7a1fcf65..00000000 --- a/Windows/spice/docs/FAQ +++ /dev/null @@ -1,360 +0,0 @@ - Ngspice F.A.Q.Version 2.3 (ngspice-31 release) - - Maintained by Holger Vogt - Last update: 09-14-2018 - - 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 Discussion groups - 1.9 What mailing lists exist for ngspice? - 1.10 Are the mailing lists archived anywhere? - 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 (and) 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. - This has not been used and tested for some time. - - - 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. All licenses are DFSG - compatible. Please see file COPYING for details. - - - 1.8 Discussion groups - - Vivid discussion are going on in the ngspice discussion groups. - They are found at https://sourceforge.net/p/ngspice/discussion/ - A new group 'ngspice tips and examples' will present interesting - ngspice tips (your input is welcome!) - - - 1.9 What mailing lists exist for ngspice? - - Mailing lists have somewhat lost importance compared to the - discussion groups described above. - - 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 - - - 1.10 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/ - - - 1.11 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-31 (released on 22/09/2019) - - - 2.2. What are the latest features in the current release? - -- New features: - + configure flag --with-fftw3 If set to 'no', internal fast fourier is used - instead of fftw - + command setseed to set the seed value for the random number generator - + option seed=[val|random] - + variable inputdir to remeber and retrieve the last input file directory - + example directory 'digital' with analog, behavioral and digital example input files - + new XSPICE filesource, d_source, and state-machine examples - + +, - maybe part of instance name - + Quasi-saturation VDMOS example - + add environmental variable SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH to allow reproducible executables - + new parameters to command setplot: setplot next, setplot previous - + updates to commands cd, rusage, print - + update to bipolar and diode temperature equations - -- Bug fixes: - + several bug fixes - + lots of memory leaks removed, especially when XSPICE circuits are called several - times in a loop. - - - 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 to the user's discussion group 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: - https://sourceforge.net/p/ngspice/discussion/127605/ - - - 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 originate from Paolo Nenzi - and are updated by Holger Vogt. - - - 4.4. Disclaimer and Copyright - - Copyright: Holger Vogt, 2018 - License: Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (CC-BY-SA) v4.0. - This document is provided as is. The information in it is not - warranted to be correct: you use it at your own risk. |