lots of spice simulators available

[matteo128]

There are a lot of spice simulators available, like P Sp*ce, H Sp*ce, T Sp*ce, ...

Which one is considered best for "general analog design". I am interested in analog circuits with a couple of hundred transistors. Frequency range up to VHF and perhaps low UHF, but mainly below that.

Another question, if one wants to use H SP*CE , what tools can be used to generate sp*ce deck from a schematic diagram. Manually entering circuit description is very tedious and error prone.

I know that for P Sp*ce, or*ad shematics can be used for input

 

[cadb0y]

I personally like H*S*pice, but C*a*dence Spec*tre is not bad.

 

[computer_terminator]

If you have c@dence, it would be better to use spectre, because you don't have to change tools for schematic and simulation.

 

[cadb0y]

C*@dence can simulate with HS*pice directly.

Use 0rc@d if you are runninng PC, is probably easiest.

 

[matteo128]

If one wants to use HSPICE, is there any non-Cad*nce program that can be used for drawing schematics that can be converted into spice deck? I.e. is there any program that allows conversion from, say Orc*d schematics into a spice deck?

 

[rfsystem]

First there three categories.

1. Coupled Schematic&Simulator&Waveform
2. Coupled Simulator&Waveform
3. Standalone Simulator

For the first category PSpice and AnalogArtist, both from cadence are the best if you want to have the coupling.

I used in the past Titan, HSpice, Saber, Eldo, Spectre, Smash and HSim.

I have found the least two most useful. Smash because it integrate the waveform and is the only (Spice,Verilog,VHDL,VHDL-AMS,C+,ABCD) single kernel simulator. It generate the mixed interface components implicite. HSim because it is also useful for >10k analog designs, not only 10M digital designs.

 

[synq]

Hey guys..as usual why such fray on tools..
rfsystem has shown enough intelligence to subdivide the spice into 3..
But the simple idea is all spice compilers are basically same and with bit of added extentions any spice model can be used in any package.the fact that spice is a standalone simulator with behaviovoral charectestics similar as VHdl but instead of logic based model the spice can be easy to simulate as device based model.
For a biginer circuitmaker is direct hit to start and for advanced user the level of simulation depends truly on the schematics dependence with simulation and the realtime analysis is correlated by the PCb layout and
external interference. The level of noise factor, signal debouncing, ground reflection, ground loops, rf interference, leakage factors, crosstalk, signal integrity all thess issues spice is not a good freind to trust . eventhough relative concept of stability, domain analysis and gain margin can be effectively worked out..

hey i should stop somewhere....
-------------------------------
synq was sleeping for the last 4 months

 

[Guest]

When you say spice deck, I assume you are trying to say spice netlist. spice deck is the simulation file that tells spice what you want to do.

Anyways, all the spice variants do exactly the same thing. They solve a matrix of equations. The most important thing is whether or not the spice tools you use supports the fab model that you plan to use. The most common is BSIM3.

Hspice is one of the most expensive and most widely used of them all. The reason is that it is a sign off simulator which has the blessing of many foundries. If you are a student, this probably doesn't mean much to you and it's not worth the price premium. Supposedly Hspice has better convergence than the other ones. If you have a circuit that cannot be evaluated for an operating point, this may make a difference. However, you can always play around with initializing your nodes.

 

[rfsystem]

But be caution if one simulator converge and the other not. Sometimes your circuit is ill conditioned. Image two caps in series. What happen with the intermediate voltage if one of the caps is nonlinear. Sometimes a nonconverges could indicate to think more in detail what happen physically. Or fighting current sources, nonset registers, ...

 

[Beetroots]

Nice to see some talk on tools instead of `I need that - what is it?' and `me too' posts. As well as the tools you have mentioned I would recommend S/i/m/e/t/r/i/x for analogue design. It costs a fraction of the other tools, and post sales support is excellent (it is developed and supported by a small company). I think they have a demo on their site which you could look at. As for schematic input there is allways E/C/S, which is available on Unix and Win platforms, but it probably is an aquired taste.

 

[Daneshgar]

Which Spice?

HSPICE is the industry’s “gold standard” for accurate circuit simulation and offers foundry certified MOS device models with state-of-the-art simulation and analysis algorithms. With over 20+ years of successful design taped outs, HSPICE is the industry’s most trusted and comprehensive circuit simulator.

I have experience with Tina TI, Smash, Simplorer(Ansoft), SystemVison, Protel DXT(XPSICE), Micro-Cap, Multisim,ICAP/4(IsSpice) and PSPICE 9.1.
PSPICE is ideal to start for student,I think PSPICE is best option for university program.

for professional circuit simualtion and industry purposes assuredly there aren't any succedent for HSPICE.

Regardless of price, if you learn HSPICE I am sure that there is no thing which you need to use other SPICE software.HSPICE also support IBIS model in addition to SPICE model

 

[wafer101]

Which Spice?

I never used HSPICE is it possible to download somewere demo/trial?? please...