Revolutionary 3D nanotechnology simulation tool now available as free software

(Nanowerk News) Jean Michel Sellier, the founder of SouthNovel, has decided to make his Aeneas3 tool, a very advanced simulator for Monte Carlo quantum transport in semiconductor devices of general 3D shape for organic and inorganic materials, available to the entire scientific community as a free software tool under GPL license.

With this step, Aeneas has become the first advanced 3D simulator in the world to be released under GPL license.

Nanowerk reported about Aeneas back in early July ("Nanotechnology fabrication depends on sophisticated simulation tools").

Sellier initially had planned to distribute the software commercially. He has now decided to turn the company into a Free Scientific Software foundation.

"It has turned out that some very big companies might be interested in financially supporting SouthNovel in order to develop further features in Aeneas" says Sellier. "This of course opens the way for us to make a core version of Aeneas available to the scientific community for free, thereby drastically reducing the cost of tools needed for the design of new structures and models in advanced nanotechnology and nanoscience labs. I think that Aeneas under GPL will represent a revolutionary advance in the semiconductor community. Providing a sophisticated simulation tool such as this for free will not only contribute to the Free Software cause but hopefully also spur the design of new nanotechnology devices while at the same time drastically reducing the time required for doing so."

The Aeneas package can already be downloaded here: http://www.southnovel.eu/aeneas_sources.htm. It soon will be available through the gnu.org website as well. One of Sellier's earlier 2D software tools, Archimedes, already is available on GNU (http://www.gnu.org/software/archimedes/).

Companies interested in approaching Sellier with regard to customizing the software can reach him through the SouthNovel website.

Source: SouthNovel