Design/Sim/PCB Layout Package for Student Electronics Lab

[Kevin Aylward]

We're not talking about consumers here.

Of course we are.

Consumers consume
electronics, they don't design it, or learn about it... not anymore.

Oh dear...

Today, if you know anything at all about how electronic devices work,
you are labeled a geek, and shuffled off to a table near the
restrooms.

All of the significant EDA packages have *nix versions.

Simply clueless.

Kevin Aylward
[email protected]
http://www.anasoft.co.uk
SuperSpice, a very affordable Mixed-Mode
Windows Simulator with Schematic Capture,
Waveform Display, FFT's and Filter Design.

 

[Joerg]

I can second that. Most companies I worked with are using OrCAD. It seems to be a
de facto standard at least on the US West Coast. Europe is a bit more mixed.

So OrCAD will give students something they can likely use in industry right off
the bat. But then again, if you've learned one system it isn't a big deal to learn
another. I have to do that all the time because my clients use various programs.
It's almost like renting a car where you get a different brand every time.

Regards, Joerg.

 

[Joerg]

Tim, just try to call the tech support when the machine croaked. They'll walk you through all kinds of menus and will most likely drop the ball on you when those menus aren't there anymore because you don't run their pre-installed OS.

Best case in a HW fault situation would be that they agree to take the machine but then reinstall the "regular issue" stuff and I bet they'll charge you extra for that one. It's the only way they can test a repaired PC per their factory standards.

Regards,

Joerg.

 

[Chuck Harris]

If you believe that 'all of the significant EDA packages have *nix versions'
you either have a very limited experience and knowledge of such packages or
a unique understanding of the word significant.

Avant!'s Hercules, Cadence's Dracula, Mentor Graphics' Calibre and
xCalibre, Quickturn's SpeedSim Synopsys' Arcadia, Tanner, DASYS, Vale,
Synplicity, ModelSIM, Symphony EDA, Accel's PCAD, Xilinx XACT, Actel,
Alliance, ...

and, yes, gEDA and PCB.

There are alot more, but these are the ones that come to mind right now.

-Chuck Harris

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

I can second that. Most companies I worked with are using OrCAD. It seems to be a
de facto standard at least on the US West Coast. Europe is a bit more mixed.

So OrCAD will give students something they can likely use in industry right off
the bat. But then again, if you've learned one system it isn't a big deal to learn
another. I have to do that all the time because my clients use various programs.
It's almost like renting a car where you get a different brand every time.

Regards, Joerg.

I see Protela lot as well on the US West Coast.


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

 

[Joerg]

Yes, Spehro, I have seen Protel, too. Cadsoft/Eagle did not seem to have become very
popular despite its rather modest pricing. Maybe that is because you can't easily hand
off a schematic capture output to a third party layouter and then get it returned with
back annotation and all, something that is done very often. They could substantially
boost the market share if things were a little more compatible.

Regards, Joerg.

 

[R.Lewis]

Avant!'s Hercules, Cadence's Dracula, Mentor Graphics' Calibre and
xCalibre, Quickturn's SpeedSim Synopsys' Arcadia, Tanner, DASYS, Vale,
Synplicity, ModelSIM, Symphony EDA, Accel's PCAD, Xilinx XACT, Actel,
Alliance, ...

and, yes, gEDA and PCB.

There are alot more, but these are the ones that come to mind right now.

-Chuck Harris

For a start - have a look at Terry Pinnell's list.

 

[Chaos Master]

Tim Auton [tim.auton@uton.[groupSexWithoutTheY]] said while playing with a
machine gun:

Loading a new OS toasting the warranty? That's a new one on me.

Anyone know how the Linux-based software fares under cygwin?

It works but programs are sometimes tricky to compile.
There's even a port of KDE for Cygwin. Never tried it though.

And there is a native port of gEDA for Windows but it is outdated.

[]s

 

[Chaos Master]

Chuck Harris [[email protected]] said while playing with a machine gun:

If you run the utilities under Knoppix's distribution of linux, you will
simply boot off of a CDROM, and use the normal 'doze file system. No
change of operating system or other modification is required.

Or even Damn Small Linux can be considered, for those that have old PC's.

And modern distro's (like Mandrake) are easy to configure by someone with a
little computer knowledge. I had success configuring a few Winmodems like Lucent
and HSP ones with little trouble.

[]s

 

[Tom Loredo]

One comment about that gEDA package...that's linux, isn't it?

Do you really think the average student runs linux on their personal
computer at home? I mean..lets really be honest here....I personally
have my doubts...

Mac OS X users have pretty easy access to such tools via Fink:

http://www.ghz.cc/charles/fink/

-Tom Loredo