Claw of Archimedes Claw of Archimedes The Claw (, "harpágē", "snatcher") of Archimedes (also known as the "iron hand") was an ancient weapon devised by Archimedes to defend the seaward portion of Syracuse's city wall against amphibious assault. Although its exact nature is unclear, the accounts of ancient historians seem to describe it as a sort of crane equipped with a grappling hook that was able to lift an attacking ship partly out of the water, then either cause the ship to capsize or suddenly drop it. These machines featured prominently during the Second Punic War in 214 BC, when the Roman Republic
GNU Archimedes a simplified version, developed for students, is available on nanoHUB.org. The Ensemble Monte Carlo method is the method that Archimedes uses to simulate and predict the behavior of a devices. Being the Monte Carlo very stable and reliable, Archimedes can be used to know the characteristics of a device even before this last is built. The physics and geometry of a device is described simply by a script, which makes, in this sense, Archimedes a powerful tool for the simulation of quite general semiconductor devices. Archimedes is able to simulate a plenty of physics effects and transport for electrons and