> 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------ To unsubscribe from si-list: si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field or to administer your membership from a web page, go to: //www.freelists.org/webpage/si-list For help: si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'help' in the Subject field List archives are viewable at: //www.freelists.org/archives/si-list or at our remote archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/si-list/messages Old (prior to June 6, 2001) list archives are viewable at: http://www.qsl.net/wb6tpu