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Updated FAQ.

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FAQ
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@ -49,16 +49,15 @@
1.1 What is ngspice ?
1.1 What is ngspice?
Ngspice is the name of a project and of a program in the project.
The idea behind the project is to improve the capabilities of the
Ngspice is the name of a project and of a program in the project. The idea behind the project is to improve the capabilities of the
Spice 3f5 circuit simulator. Spice is the most famous circuit
simulator, developed at the University of California at Berkeley
(UCB), by "a cast of thousand". The NG prefix has a lot of meanings:
Next Generation, New Good, etc. Choose or invent the one you prefer.
The heart of the project is the ngspice program, a circuit simulator
derived from spice3f5.
(UCB), by "a cast of thousand" (as they say). 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, a circuit
simulator derived from spice3f5.
1.2 Why resurrecting Berkeley's Spice?
@ -85,11 +84,11 @@
Spice and since a new simulator was already under development:
ACS (Al's Circuit Simulator), now GNUCap (GNU Circuit Analyis
package), the goal of nspice became less utopical: merge
spice, xspice and cider into a mixed-signal/mixed-level simulator
that can be used as a reliable engine.
Spice3f5, Xspice and Cider into a mixed-signal/mixed-level simulator
that can be used as a reliable engine.
1.4 What you are going to do?
1.4 What you are going to do?
We are going to develop a mixed-signal/mixed-level circuit simulation
program integrating three different spice based simulators:
@ -111,7 +110,7 @@
The merging process is done in parallel with bug fixing and improvement
of the three simulators. The improvements are concentrated into 6
directives:
directions:
+ Compact models: the improvements in compact models will address
@ -121,7 +120,7 @@
tarball.
Improvements that affects all devices already implemented are:
"dtemp" option to set instance's temperature relative to the circuit
one, "m" parallel multiplier to simulate an arbitrary number of
one and "m" parallel multiplier to simulate an arbitrary number of
instances of the same kind connected in parallel.
Planned improvements are the development of a dynamic loading
@ -168,18 +167,17 @@
here.
+ Documentation: Commercial simulators have very good manuals with
tutorials, models equations explained, example of use, suggestions,
etc. Spice came with little documentation. The Spice3f manual,
available on the Internet will be constantly improved during
ngspice development and integrated with the documentation
accompanying Xspice and Cider. This is a very time consuming task
and probably the documentation will always be left slightly
behind.
+ Documentation: Commercial simulators comes woth 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 base
fot the new manual. It will be constantly improved during ngspice
development and integrated with the documentation accompanying Xspice
and Cider. This is a very time consuming task and probably the
documentation will always be left slightly behind.
1.5 Legal issues
1.5 Legal issues
Ngspice merges three different simulators: spice and cider are covered
with the "old" BSD license, Xspice by its own license. The ngspice
@ -191,174 +189,201 @@
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/bsd.html
The group developing ngspice has written to Berkeley's copyright holders
asking to change the license to the new BSD, which has the
incompatibility removed, but without success. Ngspice will probably
never be relased under the GPL license.
The group developing ngspice has written to Berkeley's copyright
holders asking to change the license to the new BSD, which has the
incompatibility removed, but without success.
Ngspice will not be released under GPL license and, no GPL code can be
linked into ngspice (as in the original Spice3f) without breaking GPL.
1.6. What mailing lists exist for ngspice?
There are three mailing lists dedicated to the ngspice project.
11..66.. WWhhaatt mmaaiilliinngg lliissttss eexxiisstt ffoorr nnggssppiiccee??
There are three mailing lists dedicated to the ngspice project. Send
an empty message to the following addresses to get information on
subscription. <ngspice-users-help@lists.sourceforge.net>
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 dedicated to ngspice development. Developers shold
subscribe here, to follow the program development. May be used
to send patches, and technical discussion on ngspice.
Frontend mailing list: <ngspice-frontends@lists.sourceforge.net>
Almost orphaned, this list should be used to discuss issues about
the realization of a graphical frontend to ngspice.
Send an empty message to the following addresses to get information
on subscription.
<ngspice-users-help@lists.sourceforge.net>
<ngspice-devel-help@lists.sourceforge.net>
<ngspice-frontends-help@lists.sourceforge.net>
1.7. Are the mailing lists archived anywhere ?
11..77.. AArree tthhee mmaaiilliinngg lliissttss aarrcchhiivveedd aannyywwhheerree??
Yes, the list are archived. Look at the project's web site to access
archives.
Yes, the lists are archived. There are two places where to look for
archives. The project stareted 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/projects/ngspice
(look for the "Lists" link). Old messages from the pre-sourceforge
age are available at:
http://ngspice.sourceforge.net/lists.html
11..88.. WWhhaatt nneewwssggrroouuppss eexxiisstt ffoorr nnggssppiiccee??
1.8. What newsgroups exist for ngspice?
None. Sorry.
There is no ngspice specific newsgroup. Anyway ngspice threads appear
on newsgroups dedicated to circuit simulation and electronic design.
An (incomplete) list is:
sci.electronics.cad
comp.lsi.cad
11..99.. WWhheerree ccaann II ggeett aa ccooppyy ooff nnggssppiiccee??
1.9. Where can I get a copy of ngspice?
You can download ngspice from:
<http://sourceforge.net/projects/ngspice>
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ngspice
11..1100.. WWhheerree sshhoouulldd II llooookk oonn tthhee WWoorrlldd WWiiddee WWeebb ffoorr nnggssppiiccee ssttuuffff??
1.10. Where should I look on the World Wide Web for ngspice stuff?
Look at the official NG-Spice Web Page
<http://ngspice.sourceforge.net>
Look at the official Ngpice Web Page:
http://ngspice.sourceforge.net
11..1111.. WWhheerree sshhoouulldd II llooookk oonn tthhee WWoorrlldd WWiiddee WWeebb ffoorr SSppiiccee ddooccuummeennttaa--
ttiioonn??
1.11. Where should I look on the World Wide Web for Spice documenta-
tion?
50 Circuits analyzed with SPICE
<http://www.dacafe.com/DACafe/EDATools/EDAbooks/SpiceHandBook/01_TOC.html>
There are a lot of Internet sites that have information on spice, the
best way is to point to your prefererred search engine. Some interesting
sites are:
The Spice Home Page:
http://bwrc.eecs.berkeley.edu/Classes/IcBook/SPICE/
Xspice Page:
http://users.ece.gatech.edu/~mrichard/Xspic
<http://www.dacafe.com/DACafe/EDATools/EDAbooks/SMPS/SMPS.htm>
Cider Page:
http://www-cad.eecs.barkeley.edu/Software/cider.html
Spice benchmarks:
http://www.cbl.ncsu.edu/pub/Benchmark_dirs
22.. DDEEVVEELLOOPPMMEENNTT
2. DEVELOPMENT
2.1. What is the current version?
22..11.. WWhhaatt iiss tthhee ccuurrrreenntt vveerrssiioonn??
rework-14 (released on 10/12/2001)
The latest version released is:
* ngspice-rework-14 (released on 10/12/2001)
The development vesrion is:
* ngspice-rework-15pre1 (in CVS)
22..22.. WWhhaatt aarree tthhee llaatteesstt ffeeaattuurreess iinn tthhee ccuurrrreenntt rreelleeaassee??
2.2. What are the latest features in the current release?
New features:
+o New functions for vectors: vecmax (find max element in a vector),
+ New functions for vectors: vecmax (find max element in a vector),
vecmin (find minimum element in a vector), vecd (differentiate a
vector).
+o BSIM 4 and support EKV models.
+ BSIM 4 and support EKV models.
Bug fixes:
+o Some memory leaks closed.
+ Some memory leaks closed.
+o Error reporting more verbose
+ Error reporting more verbose
2.3. What does it looks like?
22..33.. WWhhaatt ddooeess iitt llooookk lliikkee??
This is a command line utility, no screenshots!
Ngspice, as the original Spice3 (and Xspice and Cider) is a command
line simulator.
22..44.. WWhhoo aarree tthhee aauutthhoorrss ooff nnggssppiiccee??
2.4. Who are the authors of ngspice?
The development is open to anyone who wish to contribute.
People who contributed are (in alphabetical order):
+o Daniele Foci <dfoci@ieee.ing.uniroma1.it>
+o Paolo Nenzi <pnenzi@ieee.ing.uniroma1.it>
+o Arno Peters <A.W.Peters@ieee.org>
+o Serban-Mihai Popescu <serbanp@ix.netcom.com>
+o Emmanuel Rouat <emmanuel.rouat@wanadoo.fr>
+o Michael Widlok <twidlok@uci.agh.edu.pl>
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 ngspice
documentation.
This list is surely incomplete (due to open development group), there
are many people who contributed with improvements, pieces of code, bug
fixes, etc. If you have contributed and do not appear, write to:
2.5. How can I report a bug/request for a feature?
<ng-spice@ieee.ing.uniroma1.it>
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 latter is preferred since almost
all developers/contributors read the lists but only a few of them
use trackers.
and ask to be included.
22..55.. HHooww ccaann II rreeppoorrtt aa bbuugg//rreeqquueesstt ffoorr aa ffeeaattuurree??
Look at the projects summary page: ngspice summary page
22..66.. HHooww ccaann II jjooiinn tthhee ddeevveellooppmmeenntt??
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 CVS. It might be that
your feature has already been implemented.
33.. SSOOLLUUTTIIOONNSS TTOO CCOOMMMMOONN MMIISSCCEELLLLAANNEEOOUUSS PPRROOBBLLEEMMSS
There is no bureaucracy here.
33..11.. WWhhaatt ssyysstteemmss aarree ssuuppppoorrtteedd??
This is the updated list:
Hardware O.S. Version Compiler Functional?
---------------- ----------------------- -------------- -----------
???? HP-UX 10.10 gcc 2.95.2 yes
IBM Risc 6000 ??? lcc no
i386 Debian GNU/Linux 2.1 gcc 2.7.2 yes
i386 Red Hat Linux 5.2 gcc 2.7.2 yes
i386 SuSE Linux 6.0 gcc 2.7.2 yes
i386 Linux (SuSE) gcc yes
UltraSPARC Solaris 7 gcc yes
UltraSPARC Solaris 7 SUN Workshop ?
3. SOLUTIONS TO COMMON MISCELLANEOUS PROBLEMS
3.1. What systems are supported?
MS-Dos, VMS and MacOS are no longer 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 cigwin environment.
In the future a compatiblity table will be written.
33..22.. II ggeett eerrrroorrss wwhheenn II ttrryy ttoo ccoommppiillee tthhee ssoouurrccee ccooddee,, wwhhyy??
[not written yet]
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.
33..33.. TThhiiss ddooccuummeenntt ddiiddnn''tt aannsswweerr mmyy qquueessttiioonn.. WWhheerree eellssee ccaann II llooookk
ffoorr aann aannsswweerr??
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 list.
answer, post your question to the mailing lists.
44.. AADDMMIINNIISSTTRRAATTIIVVEE IINNFFOORRMMAATTIIOONN AANNDD AACCKKNNOOWWLLEEDDGGEEMMEENNTTSS
4. ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
44..11.. FFeeeeddbbaacckk
4.1. Feedback
Send your comments about this F.A.Q. to:
@ -369,21 +394,18 @@
Paolo Nenzi <p.nenzi@ieee.org>.
44..22.. FFoorrmmaattss iinn wwhhiicchh tthhiiss FFAAQQ iiss aavvaaiillaabbllee
4.2. Formats in which this FAQ is available
This document is available only in ASCII format in the ngspice source
package.
44..33.. AAuutthhoorrsshhiipp aanndd aacckknnoowwlleeddggeemmeennttss
4.3. Authorship and acknowledgements
Parts of the questions and answers are originate from Paolo Nenzi.
44..44.. DDiissccllaaiimmeerr aanndd CCooppyyrriigghhtt
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.