[SI-LIST] Re: Historical question: HSpice from Avant! ?

I agree with Andrew, but would like to add that Meta succeeded
specifically with chip vendors. The specialized models allowed
accurate circuits to be extracted automaticaly from silicon
designs. Plus, they added encryption which gave chip vendors
the confidence to ship libraries to system designers.

For those who are not chip vendors there are other good simulators
with features like a UI, and links to analog/RF design environments.
But you probably will have to use HSPICE to work with chip
library models.

The W element is an "indirect numerical integration" transmission
line model, which is now common to most PCB signal integrity
simulators. It is not called a W element in other simulators,
but the way they work is substantially the same. Avant! has
done a good job of keeping up with improvements on their
of the model.

Mike LaBonte

"Ingraham, Andrew" wrote:
> 
> > wondering... how did HSpice by Avant! seem to become the industry
> > standard?
> > (Many simulators advertise themselves as "HSpice compatible.")  Since
> > Avant!
> > has only been around since 1995, where did HSpice come from?
> >=20
> HSPICE came from Meta Software (I think that was the one ... it was one
> of a few companies called Meta-something) before Avant! acquired it.
> HSPICE had already been around for years.
> 
> I think that one of the things that made it a defacto industry standard,
> is that they seem to have bent over backwards to add feature after
> feature.
> 
> Among those features, were dozens of proprietary transistor models
> (MOSFET LEVEL=3D*), which exist nowhere else but HSPICE.  Some of them =
> are
> unique to a company's FAB line, many have since been dropped.  Others,
> like the BSIM3 level=3D47, have themselves become defacto standards; not
> just because it's BSIM3, but because the level=3D47 implementation =
> "caught
> on."  If I am an IC vendor and I use HSPICE's level=3D47 models, and you
> are one of my many customers and you want to simulate around my IC, you
> are forced to use HSPICE for those simulations.
> 
> Unfortunately, HSPICE's feature-laden characteristics also make it
> difficult to learn and understand (compare how many .OPTIONS choices
> HSPICE has vs. traditional Berkeley SPICE).  Furthermore, Meta and
> Avant! have a habit of tweaking the algorithms every few releases which
> can cause plenty of problems.  But since you're already locked in to
> using HSPICE (on account of its proprietary models), you learn to put up
> with them, to be on the lookout for subtle (and not-so-subtle!) changes,
> and to work around them.
> 
> Some of the descriptions in my HSPICE manual are flat-out wrong, because
> Meta/Avant! changed the algorithm so many times, it doesn't work that
> way anymore.
> 
> >   What was 'the
> > industry standard' prior to HSpice?
> >=20
> That was probably Berkeley SPICE, and/or a handful of close derivatives.
> But unless I'm mistaken, fewer people were running SPICE back then.
> 
> But sooner or later it all comes down to model creation.  You can't get
> good SPICE results without good models, and if the experts who create
> the device-specific models for their FAB line, need to use better MOS
> models than those that come with Berkeley SPICE 2g6 or even 3f5, then
> they move on to something newer.
> 
> > -- What's attractive about HSpice vs. the competition?
> >=20
> The models my vendor supplies are HSPICE proprietary, so I have little
> if any choice.
> 
> W-line models are nice.
> 
> Regards,
> Andy
> 
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