Claudio Talarico
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Setting up and installing the required EDA softwares

Mac users: start from step 1
Windows 10 users: skip directly to step 5

1. Download and install the latest Oracle VM VirtualBox for Mac OS X

  • download Oracle VM VirtualBox Base Packages

  • download VM VirtualBox Extension Pack

  • download VBox GuestAdditions

2. Download the iso disk image of the latest Ubuntu Desktop LTS distribution

3. Start Virtual Box and create an Ubuntu VM

4. Setup the Virtual Box as follows

  • select View > Auto-resize Guest Display

  • select View > Virtual Screen 1 > Scale 150 % (or whatever size you prefer)

  • select Devices > Drag & Drop > Bidirectional

  • ... and don't forget to make any Mac's folder on which you will store your designs sharable

    • select Devices > Shared Folders > Shared Folders Settings

Shared Folders 


5. Let's install a few Windows/MacOS based EDA softwares

6. Download and install LTspice

7. Download and install ngspice

  • Windows Users:

    • download the zip file ngspice-<xx>_64.zip
      replace <xx> with the number corresponding to the latest version of ngspice (e.g., 38)

    • expand the zip file in some_location for which you have read and write access (example: C:\Users\claudio)

    • the ngspice executable (ngspice.exe) is in <some_location>\ngspice-<xx>_64\Spice64\bin
      (example: C:\Users\claudio\ngspice-<xx>_64\Spice64\bin\ngspice.exe)

    • NOTE: if you get complains about missing dll files, download and copy the missing dll files in the bin directory

    • Download and install the 64-bit version of the file archiver utility 7zip

    • Download and install the ngspice GUI

    • Download the zip file ngspice_start.7z

    • Expand its content in <some_location>\ngspice-<xx>_64\Spice64\bin
      (example: C:\Users\claudio\ngspice-<xx>_64\Spice64\bin)

    • The executable is DuSpiceStart.exe

    • NOTE: if you get complains about missing dll files, download and copy the missing dll files in the bin directory

  • Mac Users:

8. Download and install the ngspice GUI

  • download the zip file ngspice_start.7z

  • expand its content in <some_location>\ngspice-<xx>_64\Spice64\bin
    (example: C:\Users\claudio\ngspice-<xx>_64\Spice64\bin)

  • the executable is DuSpiceStart.exe

  • NOTE: if you get complains about missing dll files, download and copy the missing dll files in the bin directory

9. Download and install the latest version of Java

10. Install the latest “java” version of Electric VLSI Design System

  • get the GNU electric binary release, version 9.07

  • copy the file (electricBinary-9.07.jar) in a location for which you have access
    (example: C:\Users\claudio\ElectricVLSI)

11. Download and install M.H. Perrott's Hspice Toolbox
The Hspice Toolbox for matlab and Octave is a collection of matlab routines that allow the user to manipulate and view signals generated by Hspice and Ngspice

  • download the file hspice_toolbox.tar.gz

  • expand and untar the file in some_location for which you have read and write access (example: C:\Users\claudio)

12. Download and install the latest MobaXterm Home Edition (portable edition)
The goal of installing mobaXterm is to provide Unix commands and tools to the Windows desktop environment

13. Setup MobaXterm

  • start MobaXterm

MobaXterm Icon 

  • create a default User Session

    • User Sessions > New Session > Shell

    • define the Basic Shell settings
      Terminal Shell: bash
      Startup directory: browse to your home directory

    • don't forget to click OK to save the preferences

MobaXterm User Sessions 
MobaXterm Session Preferences 

  • customize your Shell preferences

    • click on the Settings icon

    • select the General Tab and make your home directory persistent

    • select the Terminal Tab and customize the various options according to your “taste”

    • select the Display Tab and customize the various options according to your “taste”

MobaXterm Settings Icon 
MobaXterm General Preferences 
MobaXterm Terminal Preferences 
MobaXterm Display Preferences 

  • Go to MobaXterm's home directory and create a .bashrc file and a .bash_profile file.
    The goal is to set the working environment so that we can use the EDA tools from MobaXterm's CLI (command line interface)
    NOTE: The MobaXterm's home directory is set (/home/claudio) to the Windows home directory (/mnt/c/Users/claudio), but in general it could be set to a different directory 

cd /home/claudio
.bashrc
#!/bin/bash
alias ll='ls -alF'
alias la='ls -AF'
alias l='ls -aCF'
alias cdwin='cd /mnt/c/Users/claudio'
alias cdmoba='cd /home/claudio'
alias lts='/mnt/c/Program\ Files/LTC/LTspiceXVII/XVIIx64 &'
alias electric='cd /mnt/c/Users/claudio/ElectricVLSI; java -jar electricBinary-9.07.jar -sdi; cd /home/claudio'
.bash_profile
# Windows home directory
export WINHOME=/mnt/c/Users/claudio
# MobaXterm home directory
export MOBAHOME=/home/claudio

# path to ngspice binaries
NGS_BIN=/mnt/c/Users/claudio/ngspice-35_64/Spice64/bin

if [ -f /home/claudio/.bashrc ]; then
source /home/claudio/.bashrc
fi

# Path
PATH=$PATH:$NGS_BIN

# Remove duplicates and export the PATH
export PATH=$(echo -n $PATH | awk -v RS=: '!($0 in a) {a[$0]; printf("%s%s", length(a) > 1 ? ":" : "", $0)}')