SPICE-PAC, a package of subroutines for interactive simulation and optimization of circuits

Zuberek, W.M.

Proc. IEEE Int. Conference on Computer Design (ICCD'84); Port Chester, NY, October 1984, pp.492-496.

Abstract:

SPICE-PAC is a package (or a set) of subroutines which is functionally equivalent to the SPICE 2G circuit simulation program, i.e., it accepts the same circuit description and performs all the analyses which are available in the SPICE 2G programs, but also provides an access to internal values of circuit elements, dynamic definitions of parameters and outputs, hierarchical naming scheme for subcircuit elements, parameterized subcircuit expansions, an interface to libraries of standard modules, and a set of run-time diagnostics to control the package actions. Two immediate applications of the package are: (1) interactive circuit simulation in which an interactive driver controls the simulation subroutines according to user commands, and (2) circuit optimization in which an optimization package is interfaced with the simulation package by user-supplied subroutines that evaluate objective functions, constrains, etc. Some results of very simple examples are included as an illustration.

Keywords:

Circuit simulation, circuit optimization, interactive simulation, SPICE-PAC, SPICE.

References:

• E. Cohen, "Program reference for SPICE 2"; University of California, Berkeley, Memo ERL-M592, 1976.
• J. Hald, "MMLA1Q, a Fortran subroutine for linearly constrained minimax optimization"; Inst. for Numerical Analysis, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark, Report NI-81-01, 1981.
• D.O. Pederson, "A historical review of circuit simulation"; IEEE Trans. on Circuits and Systems, vol.31, no.1, pp.103-111, 1984.
• A. Vladimirescu, K. Zhang, A.R. Newton, D.O. Pederson, A.Sangiovanni-Vincentelli, "SPICE Version 2G - User's Guide (10 Aug. 1981)"; Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California, Berkeley CA 94720.
• W.M. Zuberek, "SPICE-PAC 2G6a.84.05 - User's Guide"; Technical Report #8404, Department of Computer Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Canada A1C 5S7.
• W.M. Zuberek, "Numerical approximation of gradients for circuit optimization", Proc. 27 Midwest Symp. on Circuits and Systems, Morgantown WV, pp.200-203, 1984.