Multi-processor 'Direct-Method' circuit simulator

A "matrix-solver" program is under investigation. This program will be used as part of a multiprocessor version of SPICE which solves the admittance matrix concurrently on a multiprocessor platform. A circuit decomposition technique is used to facilitate multiprocessor implementation of the program. The program is implemented to run on a multitransputer system. Measured timings from working example are used to calculate the speed-ups due to the decomposition method and multiprocessing. These speedups are compared with those obtained from a multiprocessor simulator. The difficulties in implementing the program to run on multitransputer system, the overheads associated with the system, and methods to minimize the overheads are reported in this paper.<>