Circuit Designers Get SPICE Training.

News & Technology Editors

SAN PEDRO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 17, 2000

Master SPICE trainer Ron Kielkowski of RCG Research kicks off two new IsSpice classes for schematic and circuit designers interested in learning more about this sophisticated engineering design analysis tool.

The sessions are slated for April 4-5 in Los Angeles and April 6-7, in San Diego. These are standard IsSpice workshops aimed at beginning and intermediate users. The cost of the 2-day workshop is $995. Interested designers should contact RCG Research at 800/442-8272.

"We selected Ron because he has an excellent teaching reputation with first-time users through to those who are skilled in analog simulation," said Larry Meares, founder of Intusoft, an IsSpice developer.

"Demo and Do -- that's the most effective way I've found to teach technical concepts," said Kielkowski. Indeed, Kielkowski's hands-on training approach is so interactive and entertaining that his teaching style has received kudos from electrical engineering expert and senior editor Bob Pease.

After gaining 10 years experience developing SPICE applications with companies such as Delco Electronics, Kielkowski started in 1989 to train other developers in SPICE programming. Today he is a nationally recognized leader in SPICE training and consulting. The standard IsSpice workshop lets users build circuit schematics to simulate, run DC, AC and transient analyses, analyze the simulation output and create device models from data sheets. (more)

Within the class, each participant receives an Intusoft ICAP/4 demonstration disk, a course workbook, and a solutions disk with all the exercises and labs conducted in each session.

The ICAP/4 demo disk lets users enter, simulate and analyze their own circuit design, or one of the examples provided, offering all the features of the ICAP/4 production version, except that circuit size is limited to 20 components. RCG Research offers IsSpice training on location at a company or a major hotel within the participant's city.

Advanced workshops are also available. Topics include nonconvergence, advanced device modeling, transformer modeling with Intusoft's Power Supply Designer, Monte Carlo analysis, fault analysis and the use of Intusoft's Test Designer.

SPICE, which stands for Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis, was introduced by the Electrical Engineering Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley in 1975. Today various versions of that original engineering design tool are used to aid initial design, test, debugging and analysis.

IsSpice is an extension of the original Berkeley program developed by Intusoft to run sophisticated circuit analyses on workstations or PCs. It enables AC, transient, fourier, temperature and Monte Carlo circuit analyses.

Established in 1985, Intusoft designs, develops and markets analog and mixed signal circuit design tools worldwide, backing each product with a comprehensive service and support program. Intusoft supplies high-performance, affordable, easy-to-use circuit design and simulation solutions for the Windows 95/98 and Windows NT/2000 platforms.

Anatomy of a SPICE Trainer

When Ron Kielkowski left Purdue with a double BSEE and physics degree in 1981, he didn't think his diploma would lead him down a 15-year road as a SPICE trainer. On the clock with the Naval Avionics Center in Indianapolis, one of Kielkowski's first assignments in 1982 was to order a Berkeley SPICE program and make it run.

"I had several non-convergence problems which forced me to study the program," said Kielkowski. After spending the next three years noodling SPICE algorithms and numeric integration failures, the company named Ron their resident SPICE expert.

When Ron moved on to Delco Electronics, his experience enabled him to develop an in-house SPICE-like simulation program. Ron spend the next 4 years writing SPICE code and developing laboratory models, and running the results on a VAX mainframe in place of today's NT box or PC.

"I'd take wafers off the process line and study them in the lab to extract model parameters, " says Kielkowski. "It was difficult work then to determine how circuits vary in behavior."

Ron started describing non-convergence, model development and time control to Delco design engineers in talks over lunch. Soon Delco customers were invited to what became a formal lecture series, and in 1989 Ron started his own training firm, RCG Research in Indianapolis, to offer training classes and consulting in SPICE development platforms.

"I started with the `Successfully Simulating Circuits with SPICE' seminar," said Kielkowski. The broad, 3-day class proved popular with design engineers interested in understanding more about all aspects of working with SPICE. In 1992, Ron added a class on PSpice, Microsim's schematic capture program. He has now expanded his offerings to include new IsSpice workshops.

Standard and advanced workshops are available on-site or at a major hotel in participants' cities. The standard IsSpice workshop teaches users how to build circuit schematics, run DC, AC and transient analyses and analyze the simulation output. Standard workshops will be held April 4-5 in Los Angeles and April 6-7, 2000 in San Diego; call 800/442-8272 for information.

The advanced curriculum includes nonconvergence, advanced device modeling, transformer modeling with Intusoft's Power Supply Designer, Monte Carlo analysis, fault analysis, and the use of Intusoft's Test Designer.

The author of two SPICE books, Ron's attitude toward training mirrors his approach to publishing. His books and training classes reach beyond the basics to tackle actual problems practicing engineers encounter with SPICE.

Each training session is packed with sample circuit simulations that illustrate common problems and their solutions, providing step-by-step coverage on how to overcome such stumbling blocks as nonconvergence, numeric integration instabilities, and timestep control errors.

Kielkowski's texts INSIDE SPICE: Overcoming the Obstacles of Circuit Simulation and SPICE: Practical Device Modeling have been published by McGraw-Hill.

Editor's Note: A color photograph of Ron Kielkowski is available on http://www.intusoft.com/pr.htm