Re: [ng-spice] spice3f5 benchmark


To ng-spice@ieee.ing.uniroma1.it
From jvercamm@roam.agfa.be (Jan Vercammen)
Date Tue, 21 Mar 2000 10:31:07 +0100
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Reply-To ng-spice@ieee.ing.uniroma1.it

Reid,

thank you for your comments. I have a few questions:

-1- you mention that the spice3f5 code is quite bad. Can you quantify this?
    What about the kernel code: stamp generation, sparse matrix code, 
analysis code?
    Is this easy to structure and optimize these specific parts? 
-2- It is nice to know that we are on the same wavelength with respect to the 
    wrapping of the simulator kernel. I also agree for 100% that python has 
all
    the features for the front and back-end. I MUST admit that 1/2 year ago I
    did not would have stated this, however, I have become much impressed by 
python lately.
    Python is simple and efficient and has modules for parsing, internet 
interfacing,
    plotting facilities, GUI and numerical analysis.  
-3- I think it is in everybody's interest to seperate the kernel code from the
    from and back-end. This will allow many specialists to work on various 
parts of
    the simulator. Some people are interested in GUI and post-processing, 
whereas
    others are more interested in simulator issues. Personally I would 
suggest that
    the ng-spice team should draw up a specification of the kernel code 
interface,
    which could address:
        - a minimal and efficient syntax/grammer for the input specification 
(input string)
        - address multiprocessing issues (for efficient monte carlo analysis, 
sweep , ...)
        - error reporting
        - output vector structures
    I think there is a synergy with your work/product. What are the view 
points of the ng-spice team?
-4- Maybe ng-spice should keep on supporting spice3f5, but parallel work out 
a new kernel
    code with a wel specified interface. The old spice3f5 could be improved 
for memory
    leaks and other small bugs without putting into much effort. Personnally 
I think that the
    ng-spice team allready made a very nice effort to structure the code 
under autconf, which will
    allow more users to install the code succesfully (it took me three days 
to get spice3f5 running
    under solaris, ngspice took only 1 hour!). Reid, could you help to remove 
the memory leaks?

I think that your 'pipe dream' is a very fascinating idea, because it could 
help liberalize
the simulator market!

regards,

Jan Vercammen

    

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