SpiTran - A GUI for s2ibis2
SpiTran (Spice Translation) offers a convenient way to produce IBIS
buffer models from Spice buffer models. You can already produce IBIS models
from Spice models using the public domain s2ibis2 program, from NCSU. SpiTran
provides:
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A GUI editor for preparing the control files that s2ibis2 requires.
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Checking of the Spice model files, and a GUI for preparation of the top
level test fixture circuit for s2ibis2 to use.
This distribution contains SpiTran version 1.0.
Requirements
To use SpiTran you must have installed:
-
Java 2
A version 1.2 Java Runtime Executable is also required. As a minimum,
a JRE kit must be installed. The full Software Developers Kit (SDK) may
optionally
be installed, and will serve just as well. Obtain the latest Java installers
for Solaris and Windows
or for other platforms.
-
s2ibis2
Several versions of s2ibis2 can be obtained from links on the EIA/IBIS
"FREE Tools for IBIS modeling"
web page. You must install one of these and setup the path variable on
your system so that s2ibis2 may be run by invoking it's name.
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Spice
A Spice simulator capable of simulating your Spice model files. The
s2ibis2 program currently supports:
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SPICE2 - From the University of California, Berkeley
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SPICE3 - From the University of California, Berkeley
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HSPICE - From Avant! (formerly MetaSoft)
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PSPICE - From Cadence (formerly OrCad, formerly MicroSim)
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SPECTRE - From Cadence
Using SpiTran
To start SpiTran in Microsoft Windows, double-click the spitran.bat icon.
To run in any Unix OS or Linux, type "spitran.csh".
Consult the SpiTran User Guide
for information on how to use SpiTran once it is running. See the SpiTran
Troubleshooting Guide if you have trouble. To help you get going, some
example Spice circuits have been provided, found in the examples
subdirectory:
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The Spice model in the iobuff directory
requires the Spectre simulator. The SpiTran Introduction presentation document
(HTML or PowerPoint
format) was created using this example.
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Four examples "ex1" through "ex4" are from the s2ibis2 kit. These are configured
to run with Spectre, but can be reconfigured to run with HSPICE. The Readme.txt
file has instructions for this.
You will also need to have a working knowledge of the s2ibis2 translator,
to understand the usage of s2ibis parameters that SpiTran accepts. A copy
of the s2ibis2 documentation is included,
and is worth reading before you first use SpiTran. It is best to consult
the documentation for the particular version of s2ibis2 that you are using.
To verify the correctness of the IBIS models that s2ibis will produce,
you should use either the ibischk3
program developed by the IBIS
committee, or use the WinIBIS
viewer program provided by HyperLynx.
Limitations
SpiTran is public domain software. There is no guarantee of support. Bugs,
enhancements, and file changes may be sent to Mike
LaBonte. Please see the list of known issues in the
SpiTran
Troubleshooting Guide, and in the SpiTran Usability Report (HTML
or MSWord format) before reporting new
issues. If you know how to modify Java code you might try fixing SpiTran
yourself. Future distributions of SpiTran will occur when someone finds
the time. Hopefully all reported issues will be resolved. Unresolved issues
will be added to the issues list.
Modifying SpiTran
SpiTran was originally written in Java by Anish Malhotra of Cadence Design
Systems. Documentation for the SpiTran Java source code is available in
javadoc
format. There is also a design document
describing the architecture and flow. The Java source files and class files
are found in the java directory. The main class for
SpiTran is "s2iMain". You will need a Java 2 development kit to work with
the source code; see the web links above. If you modify the source code,
you should:
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Read the copyright notice found at the tops of the source files.
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Be sure to place data files such as toolbar icon images in the data directory.
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Run "javac *.java" in the java directory to regenerate the class files.
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Run "javadoc -author -private ../../java/*.java" in the doc/javadoc directory
to regenerate the documentation.
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Send the changes to Mike LaBonte.
Some modifications can be made in the SpiTran startup script. The
startup script is spitran.bat for Microsoft Windows or spitran.csh for
Unix platforms. The script is used to:
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Start the SpiTran GUI, when run with no parameters (double-click the icon).
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Show the SpiTran User Guide when
run with the -help parameter. SpiTran does this when the Help
menu is used. You can change the way help is displayed, if necessary.
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Run s2ibis2 when run with the -s2ibis parameter. You can change
how s2ibis2 is run, or change the IBIS file viewer that is started after
the translation. SpiTran normally opens the IBIS file in a text editor,
but you might use WinIBIS,
for example.