Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis
| Original author(s) | Laurence W. Nagel |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 1973 |
| Written in | Fortran, C |
| Type | Electronic circuit simulation |
| License | Public domain, BSD |
| Website | bwrcs |
Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis (SPICE) is a free computer program used to test electronic circuits. A person describes a circuit, and the program works out how it will behave before it is built. The name is short for "Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis".[1]
This kind of testing matters most for chips, also called integrated circuits. A chip cannot be tested by hand before it is made, and making one costs a lot of money. SPICE lets engineers check that the design works first.[1]
History
[change | change source]SPICE was made at the University of California, Berkeley. Laurence Nagel built it with help from his teacher, Donald Pederson. The first version was shown in 1973.[2]
The program became popular with its second version, SPICE2, in 1975. A third version, SPICE3, came out in 1989 and was written in the C programming language.[1] Berkeley shared SPICE for free and let people see and change the code, so it spread widely. It became the standard program for this kind of work.[3]
Later programs
[change | change source]Many other programs were built from SPICE or made to work like it. Some are free, such as Ngspice. Others are sold by companies, such as HSPICE, owned by Synopsys, and PSpice, owned by Cadence Design Systems.[1]
References
[change | change source]- 1 2 3 4 Nagel, Laurence W. "The Origins of SPICE". omega-enterprises.net. Archived from the original on May 9, 2024. Retrieved February 21, 2024.
- ↑ Nagel, Laurence W.; Pederson, D. O. (April 1973). SPICE (Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis) (Technical report). University of California, Berkeley. UCB/ERL M382.
- ↑ Pescovitz, David (May 1, 2002). "1972: The release of SPICE, still the industry standard tool for integrated circuit design". Lab Notes: Research from the Berkeley College of Engineering. Archived from the original on July 9, 2015.