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Spice is the de-facto standard for circuit simulation. It was first
developed here at Berkeley. Over the years, many people have added to it
and, eventually, companies began to create there own versions (much like the
development of Linux). Today, there are many flavors of Spice. The
two most popular (that I am aware of) are:
 | PSpice
 | Pros:
 | Great graphical interface |
| Easy-to-use |
| Can download at home |
|
| Cons:
| Have access only to student version |
| Limited to 10 transistors and 64 nodes |
|
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| HSpice
| Pros:
| We have access to the full version |
| No limitations |
|
| Cons:
| User interface sucks |
| Graphics are hard to use |
| Manuals are poor |
|
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The Other Resources section below gives some
real helpful links for the different Spices.
PSpice is developed and maintained by Cadence. The graphical interface
and ease-of-use makes this software a great tool. However, we do not have
access to the full version (unless you are in an EECS class, in which case you
can use the full version in 353 Cory ... and possibly elsewhere). You can
get a free
student version from Cadence. Simply download it and install it (make
sure you are logged in as an Administrator). The Student Version is
limited. For example, you can use only 10 transistors and 64 nodes.
For a full list of the limitations, see the release
notes.
HSpice is developed and maintained by Avanti. It is more difficult to
use because of its poor design. However, we have access to a full version
that you can install on your computer.
These instructions were only tested under Windows 2000, and were created by Brett Warneke
(warneke@eecs.berkeley.edu) on October 9, 2001:
- log in as administrator (the installation just disappears after unpacking the files if it is run as administrator from an EECS domain account)
- run \\winsww\sww\private\cad\hspice\hspice.exe (you will need to enter your EECS domain username and password)
- follow the installation instructions
- copy /usr/eesww/share/HSPICE/98.2/license.dat to the installation directory (e.g. C:\Program Files\avanti\Hspice2001.2).
NOTE: when copying, do NOT simply open the file, copy it, and paste it to
your machine. You must preserve the page breaks of the file. So,
secure-FTP the file with the SSH Secure Shell (Start > Programs > SSH
Secure Shell > Secure File Transfer Client).
- go to Start->Settings->Control Panel->System, select the 'Advanced' tab, and click on 'Environment Variables'
- delete the 'installdir' user variable that was automatically created
- add two new system variables called 'installdir' and 'LM_LICENSE_FILE' and set the first to the installation directory and the second to the path and filename of the license.dat file copied from /usr/eesww/
- restart the system
- log in as a user. Four programs are added to the start menu. 'Hspui 2001.2' is a little GUI for Hspice that allows you to launch multiple simulations and Avantwaves waveform viewer. The Hspice program itself is a lame GUI for hspice (there doesn't seem to be a command line version).
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