PSP files for SPICE subcircuits

[Joerg]

Just curious: Avago uses files ending on *.psp which used to be
PaintShop files. But it's text files, with some weird characters added
in there that SPICE will barf upon.

Anybody know why they did that and maybe an easy trick to boil them down
to regular ASCII?

 

[Joerg]

Might be encrypted device models.

Drat. Hurumph.

That would be a sales volume reduction tool. I was able to pry the
numbers out of one of the files but now have to verify it all. A lot of
people would simply move on.

 

[Joerg]

Joerg, Can you send me a copy?

Encrypted models are usually 100% gobbledygook. So what you have may
simply be some headers and footers inserted by some obscure text
editor.

Done. This one was easy but on bigger RF devices that's a pain.

 

[Joerg]

googling seems to suggest that it could be Penn State Philips models?

But that's for LDMOS and stuff, not for diodes, and AFAIR requires an
expensive special simulator:

http://www.nanotechwire.com/news.asp?nid=2718

For diodes this would be a hefty damper on sales.

 

[Joerg]

Just curious: Avago uses files ending on *.psp which used to be
PaintShop files. But it's text files, with some weird characters added
in there that SPICE will barf upon.

Anybody know why they did that and maybe an easy trick to boil them down
to regular ASCII?

Looks like it's only one character type out of place, for whatever
reason, some sort of box instead of carriage returns.

So, Avago = good company

 

[Tim Williams]

Are you opening it in Notepad? Notepad doesn't understand encoding, try
Wordpad, or another editor which does.

If you want to write a script, I'm guessing the "box character" is 0x0A,
whereas Microsoft uses 0x0D, 0x0A for CR+LF. Simple find and replace will
'fix' it.

Tim

 

[Joerg]

Are you opening it in Notepad? Notepad doesn't understand encoding, try
Wordpad, or another editor which does.

Yup, that was the problem.

If you want to write a script, I'm guessing the "box character" is 0x0A,
whereas Microsoft uses 0x0D, 0x0A for CR+LF. Simple find and replace will
'fix' it.

T'is what I ended up doing. The SPICE files run nicely, it's just coming
in a raggedy format. For some reason other mfgs don't do that, their
stuff opens correctly in Notepad.

 

[Fred Abse]

Are you opening it in Notepad? Notepad doesn't understand encoding, try
Wordpad, or another editor which does.

If you want to write a script, I'm guessing the "box character" is 0x0A,
whereas Microsoft uses 0x0D, 0x0A for CR+LF. Simple find and replace will
'fix' it.

Notepad++ (free) will automatically convert UNIX line endings to
DOS/Windows and vice-versa.

Nice piece of kit. Runs under wine, too.

 

[Joerg]

Notepad++ (free) will automatically convert UNIX line endings to
DOS/Windows and vice-versa.

Nice piece of kit. Runs under wine, too.

Notepad is what screwed up the SPICE directives in the Avago files.

 

[Fred Abse]

Notepad is what screwed up the SPICE directives in the Avago files.

No.

This is Notepad++

http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/

NOT Windows notepad

 

[Fred Bartoli]

Jim Thompson a écrit :

Notepad++ is NOT Notepad

I'll repeat my assertion that UltraEdit is the _best_ editor ever.

Uedit is the best, but Crimson editor (http://www.crimsoneditor.com/) is
better. And it's free...

 

[Joerg]

No.

This is Notepad++

http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/

NOT Windows notepad

Aha, thanks. Maybe time to switch to that one.

 

[Fred Bartoli]

Joerg a écrit :

Aha, thanks. Maybe time to switch to that one.

Also have a look at Crimson editor (http://www.crimsoneditor.com/)

 

[Joerg]

Joerg a écrit :

Also have a look at Crimson editor (http://www.crimsoneditor.com/)

Thanks, Fred, I have bookmarked that. Although I never write code which
it seems to be geared towards.

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

Aha, thanks. Maybe time to switch to that one.

Ultraedit isn't quite free ($50), but it's worth it, IMHO. It asks if
you want to convert to DOS/Windows. Trial version available:

http://www.ultraedit.com/


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

 

[krw]

Notepad++ is NOT Notepad

I'll repeat my assertion that UltraEdit is the _best_ editor ever.

Ohh, an editor war! BS, Crimson beats it hands down!

And it'll do DOS <=> Eunuchs.

As will Crimson. Mac too, for whatever that's worth.

How about column support? Language highlights?

I like it because of its macro and scripting capabilities, allowing me
to convert _huge_ Spice libraries, in every flavor (and mathematical
format) known to man, to PSpice in hours rather than days.

It's in there.


;-)

 

[Joerg]

Ultraedit isn't quite free ($50), but it's worth it, IMHO. It asks if
you want to convert to DOS/Windows. Trial version available:

http://www.ultraedit.com/

I had tried it a while ago but found that it didn't add any
functionality that I needed here. Well, until a couple of days ago when
Notepad screwed up ...

But I may just try to find an older version Notepad. Older software
often means better, just like copying an older version of Thunderbird
made the email on my wife's computer work.

 

[krw]

Column Mode? Absolutely, couldn't live without it within device
libraries... and creating N-bit-wide excitation files.

Also vertical synchronized-scroll tiling... nice!

Language highlighting... all sorts of stuff... that I don't use (take
that back, I've done html on rare occasions).

You can use language highlighting for Spice models, too. It's a
little work to set up, but is really nice. I sue it for VHDL all the
time (did my own several years ago).

http://www.ultraedit.com/

Everyone has their own favorite editor... I've even seen _recent_
proclamations that some people still think VI was wonderful... it
stunk ;-)

Of course, hence the "editor wars". ;-) VI does stink, but not
nearly as bad as EMACS. VE is almost tolerable.

 

[Jamie]

I had tried it a while ago but found that it didn't add any
functionality that I needed here. Well, until a couple of days ago when
Notepad screwed up ...

But I may just try to find an older version Notepad. Older software
often means better, just like copying an older version of Thunderbird
made the email on my wife's computer work.

You always have "Edlin"

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

I had tried it a while ago but found that it didn't add any
functionality that I needed here.

Having multiple windows open into a single large file is something I
can't live without. The syntax highlighting and code folding features
are nice if you do much programming. Even the latest versions load
pretty fast.

Well, until a couple of days ago when
Notepad screwed up ...

But I may just try to find an older version Notepad. Older software
often means better, just like copying an older version of Thunderbird
made the email on my wife's computer work.

http://www.oldapps.com/

'cause not everything has to have FTP and a web browser built in. And
it loads a lot faster if it doesn't.

ACDSee 2.2 (< 0.9M!!) ca. 1997, a photo viewing program, even runs
under Win7/64. It won't read NEF/RAW files, but does everything else,
and loads like lightning.

(apparently version 7 will, but it's 12M and the current version is in
excess of 40M (50x bigger than 2.2!).

Somehow MPLAB (the free IDE for programming Microchip's products) has
gotten up to >110M download from just a few megs in the beginning.
Even the 32-bit version 6.1 was less than 20M.



Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany