Product: SALT, OLE Modeling Kit For SPICE
Description: Design and Analysis software available from Intusoft
 SPECIAL Demonstration At Wescon/95
Price: $495, quantity one
Availability: 1st Quarter 1996
Requirements: IsSpice4, Windows95, Windows NT (x86, Digital Alpha, and MIPS)
Contacts: Charles Hymowitz - Vice President intusoft   (310) 833-0710, FAX (310) 833-9658, 
 Web Site: http://www.intusoft.com, E-mail 74774.2023@compuserve.com

New SALT Package Lets Hardware and SPICE Co-Simulate

A new software package from Intusoft, called SALT (SPICE Array
Linking Technologies) provides a variety of new functions for use
with the company's native mixed mode SPICE 3 based simulator,
IsSpice4.  Many of these functions, created with a C based High-level
Description Language, have NEVER been available in a SPICE package
before.  SALT includes array processing algorithms, hardware-SPICE
interface functions, and the first ever capability to link OLE2
models with a SPICE simulator.  The latter is accomplished with
generalized OLE 2.0 interface that lets users add their own 32-bit
OLE in-process servers to IsSpice4.  This capability is unique in the
simulation world and provides users with tremendous HDL modeling
flexibility.  With SALT, IsSpice4 can perform true mixed environment
(hardware/software) simulations that link the outside world to the
simulation world.

At Wescon/95, Intusoft demonstrated a unique "Virtual Test Bench"
consisting of SPICE, hardware, and the OLE2 interface that links them
both.  This was the first time a SPICE simulator has been interfaced
to real hardware in this manner.  The impact on hardware test and
breadboarding in the future promises to be significant.

Schematically, the SALT functions are connected together like any
other electronic device.  The kit allows you to interface real world
hardware, or sounds and images stored in files, with your circuit
designs.  Circuit signals can then be processed with a set of
supplied mathematical array processing functions (FFTs, wavelet
transforms, etc.) or the analog, digital, HDL, and sampled-data
elements included in IsSpice4.  For example, the design in the
attached figure was stimulated with sound from a .WAV file.  The
sound was compressed and processed by an analog filter and a wavelet
transform algorithm.  Then, using the interactive capability of
IsSpice4, both the electronic and algorithmic portions of the design
were varied to see their effect on the sound output to a speaker.

With SALT, users can create complex stimulus waveforms, replace
complex blocks of circuitry with algorithmic representations, and
interface hardware directly to any point in the simulation.  Instead
of having to develop a SPICE macromodel of a component, the designer
can actually integrate the real device with the simulation. 
Connection of the SALT functions to the underlying analog simulator
can also allow the user to push down into the details of a design
hierarchy in order to compare a detailed implementation with a more
abstract system view.  SALT comes with source code and OLE 2.0
in-process server DLL's for a number of functions including:

Wavelet Transforms and Matrix Math:  Transform, Inverse, Compression to sparse, Compressed inverse from sparse
Variable Radix FFTs:  FFT (complex), Inverse FFT, FFT (time to frequency)...
Hardware Interface Functions:  Interfaces to various D-A and A-D boards
Input/Output:  Sound input from .WAV file or microphone, Image input from a TIFF file
Output:  Sound output to speaker and a .WAV file, Image output to a TIFF file

Users can add their own algorithms and interfaces to SPICE by using a
C compiler capable of building OLE 2.0 32 bit in-process server DLL's
(Microsoft Visual C++ 2.1 or compatible and Windows95 or NT).  Source
code for the Intusoft developed servers is included with SALT so that
you can easily develop and debug your own interfaces, algorithms and
OLE servers.  The price of SALT is $495.  It requires the IsSpice4
simulator.