Re: gEDA: hdf5 for simulation data?

[Al Davis <ad83-at-NOSPAMfreeelectron_dot_net>]

On Saturday 03 December 2005 12:04 pm, Dan McMahill wrote:
> Has anyone looked at using hdf5 as a file format for storing
> simulation data?  I'm thinking that this might be a good way
> to go for spice/gnucap/etc results.  One thing on all of
> these tools which I think is most useful is the ability to
> run a simulation where you basiclly save all node voltages
> and optionally all currents.  Then you can pick out what to
> plot later.

It looks interesting, but someone needs to be first, and I have 
other priorities.

One problem with saving "all node voltages" is that usually I 
want something else.  Even "optionally all currents" is not 
enough.  People got accustomed to getting only that from Spice, 
but I found that a big choice of internal parameters is far 
more useful.  With that, there are too many to save them all.  
Gnucap has about 70 parameters you can directly probe on a 
MOSFET, about 60 on a BJT.  There are lots more that you can 
probe indirectly.

Another factor is that a group of tools all need to support the 
format at the same time, otherwise it has no value.

I will consider incorporating it in gnucap provided that someone 
else does the work and there are companion tools that support 
it.