Updated FAQ.

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Ngspice F.A.Q.Version 1.2
Ngspice F.A.Q.Version 1.4
Maintained by Paolo Nenzi <p.nenzi@ieee.org>
Last update: 02-11-2003
Last update: 27-01-2004
This document contains the Frequently Asked Questions (and Answers)
for ngspice project.
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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
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" (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.
Ngspice is a mixed-level/mixed-signal circuit simulator based on three
open source software packages: Spice3f5, Cider1b1 and Xspice:
- Spice3 is the most famous and used circuit simulator. It was
developed University of California at Berkeley (UCB), by "a cast of
thousand" (as they say).
- 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.
1.2 Why resurrecting Berkeley's Spice?
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The latest version released is:
* ngspice-rework-14 (released on 10/12/2001)
* ngspice-rework-15 (released on 10/12/2001)
The development vesrion is:
The development version is:
* ngspice-rework-15pre1 (in CVS)
* ngspice-rework-15pre3 (released on 28/01/2004)
2.2. What are the latest features in the current release?
New features:
+ New functions for vectors: vecmax (find max element in a vector),
vecmin (find minimum element in a vector), vecd (differentiate a
vector).
+ BSIM 4 and support EKV models.
+ Improved bipolar devices (Diode and bjt)
+ Improved BSIM3 and BSIM4
+ VBIC and HiSIM compact models
+ Cider and Xspice inclusion
+ More flexibility in net names
+ Parameter substitution in netlist
Bug fixes:
+ Some memory leaks closed.
+ Error reporting more verbose
+ Many memory leaks closed
+ Control language works as expected
2.3. What does it looks like?