Circuit simulation software

Please do. I seriously considered a career as a wordsmith, but electronics was far more interesting. I consider it an unfair trade, given what I have learned from you :)

Cheers Terry

Reply to
Terry Given
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The *only* way to be 100% sure of a prediction is actual measurement after the fact.

You stll aint listening John. You are looking at this from too low a level.

Kevin Aylward B.Sc. snipped-for-privacy@anasoft.co.uk

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SuperSpice, a very affordable Mixed-Mode Windows Simulator with Schematic Capture, Waveform Display, FFT's and Filter Design.

"There are none more ignorant and useless,than they that seek answers on their knees, with their eyes closed"

Reply to
Kevin Aylward

Sure. But I can test a production first-article, and production can test every unit before they ship. If I have a high enough confidence that a design will work, it's an expensive waste of time to breadboard or simulate. It's ideal to go from design directly to a sellable PC board. You've got to lay out and assemble and test the board eventually, so you may as well do it now. The skill is in properly calibrating the risk.

The level I'm looking at this from is the bank balance, which seems pretty high-level to me.

John

Reply to
John Larkin

Thanks ;-)

...Jim Thompson

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|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
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Reply to
Jim Thompson

Ahmmmm.. Well we are coming totally opposite directions. There is no f^%$ing chance that typical analogue i.c designs can be produced, without extensive simulation. The cost of simulation compared to mask costs and 3 month waits until it comes back from the fab is a risk *NO* semiconductor company will make. Ever. Indeed, it can be a sacking if you ship the tape without doing WC/MC.

And one never taken today, with ic design.

Kevin Aylward B.Sc. snipped-for-privacy@anasoft.co.uk

formatting link
SuperSpice, a very affordable Mixed-Mode Windows Simulator with Schematic Capture, Waveform Display, FFT's and Filter Design.

"There are none more ignorant and useless,than they that seek answers on their knees, with their eyes closed"

Reply to
Kevin Aylward

I'm putting parts on boards, and you're baking silicon, so things are a bit different. I can sell, say, 95% or more of my original board layouts, given the option to change values and maybe add a discreet kluge. And spinning a board takes as little as a week or two, and costs a couple thousand dollars. Each of us, ideally, applies the optimum amount of pre-fab verification to maximize payout, and neither of us can sensibly keep testing and simulating to get to 99.99% confidence; at some point we have to say "enough" and fab the damned thing.

But I still think that a lot of people fling out their "designs" too fast and then simulate too much. I encourage my engineers, and myself, to get it right by design and spend less, typically zero, time simulating and breadboarding, and that becomes a habit and a discipline that pays off in time and quality.

Do you run at exactly zero risk? 100% of first silicon is always right?

John

Reply to
John Larkin

This depends on your definition of "design". For me design *is* running appropiate simulations. Of course, running simulations blind is not "design", and I am not suggesting that.

For example, suppose I wanted to set the Vgs voltage on a mosfet connected diode. Do I know what the formulas are inside out? Sure I do. Do I bother to look up the spice data for K and calculate the value? Nope. Its far quicker for me to run a few sims from an initial guess from experience of knowing the approx Vgs for a given current. I know what the sensitivities are so I know what things I can wing it with. I don't even calculate 7*9 by hand.

My pen and paper is the GUI schematic. Its just far quicker to try out new connections in the virtual world.

I was referring to the risk of not simulating at all. Of course there is a risk, and many chips end up with several spins before its gotten right. IC Companies usually have a *mandatory* simulation sign off sheet.

Kevin Aylward B.Sc. snipped-for-privacy@anasoft.co.uk

formatting link
SuperSpice, a very affordable Mixed-Mode Windows Simulator with Schematic Capture, Waveform Display, FFT's and Filter Design.

"There are none more ignorant and useless,than they that seek answers on their knees, with their eyes closed"

Reply to
Kevin Aylward

You're lucky you didn't try that in my Jesus Freak days. I would have looked you straight in the eye, and said "Bring it on!" or whatever the

70s equivalent would have been....

Charlie

Reply to
Charlie Edmondson

What, luck? All I'd have to do is give you or him the Evil Eye (I can do that - I'm an empath), and either of you would have withered, because all I would do is evoke the denied essence in your own self. >:->

Cheers! Rich for further information, please visit

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Reply to
Rich the Philosophizer

Or, more likely, I would have broken out in laughter from the funny face... 8-)

Charlie

Reply to
Charlie Edmondson

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