WIN NT or Linux for IC Design

[eda_wiz]

Hi,
Can anyone tell me which platform is better for IC Design. Recently many companies stopped giving win Nt tools and continues with Linux Unix tools . Can anyone tellme why is that

thanks

 

[linuxluo]

Hi,
I think unix is the best because of its stable capability. the next is linux ,i'ts also good. the final is windoz, and on it there exist few tools.
until now, most eda tools supports UNIX (solaris), many of them support LINux. few support win.

 

[kittykat77]

Hi,
Just some comments on this issue. Yes, it is true that unix platform is better (stable) than windows. However, I would like to add another view as to why developers are starting to drop windows and move to linux.
I believe that the trend is - if any software is available on windows - somehow it can be cracked/hacked. I've seen lots of these softwares become available on the internet and streets - and all (most) are on windows because this (windows) are what people use on their computers. Now - EDA vendors cannot afford to let their investment simply be cracked after all of the effort put in. And also these tools are expensive.

I'm not saying that the tools on unix or linux cannot be compromised - on the other hand these tools are also as vulnerable as their counterparts in windows. However, not that many people use unix/linux compared to windows users. Such is so, the EDA vendors don't lose as much.

Anyway, necessity is the mother of invention. If one cannot use the tools on windows - somehow/sometime people will move on to these other OSes albeit slowly. And everywhere, even as I'm writing this - it has already begun....

 

[tlihu]

I think porting effort is another big concern to EDA vendors. Since almost all of their investment has been poured into Unix platform and the high similiarity between Unix and LINUX, it is much easier for them to provide EDA tools based upon LINUX platform than Windows, which has so many undocumented APIs while LINUX is open source product.

 

[jiang]

I think that the system stability, the system performance, and software porting are three major issues.
We compare between linux and windows and result that linux has more benefits than windows system.
System stability: I think everyone will grant that linux is more stable.
System performance: windows cannot provide flexible system configuration like linux and I observed that the capability of windows systems managed system resource is weak than unix like system.
Software porting: software porting between unix and linux is easy but
software porting between windows and unix is difficult.
Although using illegal software on windows system is a issue, I don't think that is major issue.
In large IC design, some proceedings maybe take some days or a week.
If the system crashes on the last time, can you accept that?
I prefer to using unix like system.

 

[kinysh]

well I see more and more company using linux for frontend.
for backend, unix is still dominent.

linux have outstanding advantage over unix, --- cheap&faster.
unix can never win linux just like apple can never will intel.
with intel cpu in it, linux is as fast as unix, and cheap.

I bet on linux.