gEDA-dev: New diagram (attempt at UML)

[al davis]

On Wednesday 11 April 2007 00:01, John Doty wrote:
> We used HSpice for interchange. I used a modified spicepp.pl
> to convert to ngspice for my simulations. Not without bumps,
> but it got the job done without too much wasted time or
> money. A part-timer like me can't afford expensive commercial
> tools. I was spending more time doing spacecraft operations
> and gamma ray astronomy than IC design.

Do you want a real up to date simulator or don't you?  

The purpose of gnucap is be a real up to date simulator with all 
the stuff you see only in the expensive ones, and more.  I am 
not interested in "me-too".

>
> > I don't know what the priorities of the other developers
> > are, but for me the people doing free/open-source hardware
> > development are the top priority. We are the enabler for
> > that, in the same sense that gcc was the enabler for the
> > whole free/open-source software movement.  Another priority
> > for me is a base for researchers, so they can build on free
> > tools rather than proprietary ones.
>
> Well, I am a researcher. One of my collaborators is the
> publisher of OpenIP (http://research.kek.jp/people/ikeda/).
> But those netlists are all SPICE.

Because it is all they can get.  I am looking forward.  When we 
develop new stuff, we need to think of leading the way into the 
future, not following everyone's mistakes of the past.

Gnucap will continue to support the Spice formats.  (notice the 
plural).  With plugins, it should be able to get exact 
compatibility.  Previously, compatibility and moving forward 
were mutually exclusive.

> Even researchers need to make money. I provide services to
> universities doing sponsored research. I've also done work
> for NASA.

Even developers of free software need to make money.....

> I have no axe to grind here, but I've little clue as to what
> Verilog- AMS is and what it can do. Since vendors provide
> SPICE models, it's hard to understand how I could actually
> use it.

Actually now a lot of them are done first in Verilog-AMS, 
because it is easier.  Then they make a Spice model for 
everyone else.

The simplest way to put it is that Verilog-AMS is a better 
Spice.  It is really much more than that.