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Cheap, Cross-Platform Electronic Circuit Simulation Software?
dv82 writes "I teach circuits and electronics at the undergraduate level, and have been using the free student demo version of OrCad for schematic capture and simulation because (a) it comes with the textbook and (b) it's powerful enough for the job. Unfortunately OrCad runs only under Windows, and students increasingly are switching to Mac (and some Linux netbooks). Wine and its variants will not run OrCad, and I don't wish to require students to purchase Windows and run with a VM. The only production-quality cross-platform CAD tool I have found so far is McCad, but its demo version is so limited in total allowed nets that it can't even run a basic opamp circuit with a realistic 741 opamp model. gEDA is friendly to everything BUT Windows, and is nowhere near as refined as OrCad. I would like students to be able to run the software on their laptops without a network connection, which eliminates more options. Any suggestions?"
If booting off a live DVD is OK then you may want to look at https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ElectronicLab_Spin .
Eagle is pretty good: http://www.cadsoftusa.com/
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
For simulation, you can get Spice versions for all platforms.
For the CAD part, there is the EAGLE Light Edition from CadSoft http://www.cadsoftusa.com/freeware.htm It runs on Linux, Windows and Mac.
Legally you'd still have to buy windows to run it in a VM, a professor/teacher can't advocate piracy (well they could but the carious higher ups probably won't like it).
We had finance apps that students had to use in their coursework. Trying to get them to work on a Win/Linux/Mac system would have been painful and time consuming.
So we created a terminal server environment that let anybody RDP in to use the course apps. That way nobody had to pay for a real version, we paid for the terminal license.
That might work well for you rather than finding an app to support in 3 environments.
Good luck!
My mom says I'm cool.
You might look at JMCAD. I haven't built it since v0.08.087, but v1.4 is current.
This might not be anywhere near what you need, but this application definitely helped out my friend in his intro to electronics class
Falstad Circuit Simulator Applet
Really good on rudimentary stuff, done in Java for cross platform goodness.
The law is never plain and simple.
Electronics CAD != Circuit Simulation.
Whether running Linux or Windows - aren't you going to run into some serious horsepower issues if you try to accommodate students who own netbooks?
I don't see why. Most student level electronics simulation just shouldn't be all that CPU intensive. When I was an EE student 10 years ago, people did just fine with 150MHz machines running SPICE.
"Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado!"
LTSpice is free as in beer and works nicely even with more complicated problems. There is only a windows version available, but Linux support with wine should not be a problem. http://www.linear.com/designtools/software/
For simple circuits SolveElec runs on windows and mac, has a very nice user interface and is a good tool for teaching. http://www.physicsbox.com/indexsolveelec2en.html
Professionally, I use Capilano's DesignWorks schematic capture on a Mac (they also support Windows). They have demos and some educational deals . (I use MacSpice for analog simulation and Osmond for PCB layout.) HTH.
Look, it's trying to think - Albert Rosenfield
Isn't this the reason we have computer labs at schools? So what if they can't work on their own computer. P
Lots of universities have license deals with Microsoft. I know at my particular university, one in Africa no less, gives Windows XP out to any student that asks. Same goes for Office 2007, student edition or something. This is what you pay a university for. To not only teach you, but to provide you with the _tools_ to learn.
There is a nice applet at http://www.falstad.com/circuit/ - it might not be sufficiently sophisticated but it does at least handle op-amps.
I've had to use a handful of circuit simulators, and I've always found SPICE brittle. Perfectly reasonable circuits just refuse to simulate, even when good initial conditions are set. Now it's possible I've been doing something wrong. But on the whole I find SPICE deeply frustrating.
The most robust simulator I've used so far has been a demo version of SiMetrix. HSPICE also does a bang-up job... when it doesn't segfault. Unfortunately, HSPICE is very un-free (and buggy-as-hell), and although SiMetrix does have a demo, it's artificially limited in the size of circuits it can simulate.
Thoughts?
LTspice looks very cool.
I've never used it on Windows, though I see there's an installer for it. I use qucs on linux quite a lot, though.
http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/qucs/index.php?title=Main_Page
I've actually been in the same situation myself, two free (as in beer) SPICE derivatives I've found to work well are LTspice and TINA-spice (from linear and Texas Instruments respectively). They are windows binaries but function very well in WINE (in fact the developer(s) for LTspice have designed it to function as well as possible with WINE).
I've mostly used LTspice and it works very well and has a low learning threshold. Of course you can insert spice directives in the schematic to do more advanced functions like basic parameter sweeps as well as monte-carlo simulations and so on and so forth. Check out LTspice's yahoo group for a bunch of documentation.
As far as other recommendations for eagle go I doubt that's what you're looking for as eagle is solely for schematic capture and pcb design, there are no simulation capabilities in it.
FREE! It is Windows only but runs great on Wine. The author supposedly is very supportive of making sure it runs well on Wine.
http://www.linear.com/designtools/software/
It is optimized for analyzing switching power supply circuits so it probably is the fastest spice implementation out there. I have quit using all the other spice based simulators out there in favor of LTSpice. User support can be found on the yahoo group:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/LTspice/
I'm not sure why this is modded informative.
SPICE is the software that does the simulation- it is not a front-end anywhere near as good as OrCad. That's like telling someone who wants to write a formal letter to use vi (or emacs). In fact, OrCad does its simulation through SPICE.
IIEE who uses a Mac, and I have looked into this. I have not found anything usable across all platforms, which is a real pain in the butt. As the OP already knows, PSPICE is owned by Cadence so the copyrights and patents for the software are locked up in that. As a result, there really aren't any viable open source alternatives.
The only thing I could think of would be to do something with LabView but that opens up a whole other can of worms in terms of teaching students how to work.
My suggestion is to get your ECpE department to subsidize VMWare or Parallels for students so that they can run PSPICE in OrCad. The world is just kinda crappy that way.
Try Electric CAD (www.staticfreesoft.com) in combination with LTSpice (previously mentioned).
I don't know if it's been mentioned already or not, but Multisim from National Instruments is a very good software. It's been used by the professors at the school where I work for as long as I can remember.
The game.
It's not infringement if you're using it in the classroom. that's the law plain and simple.
So why does anybody buy textbooks if LEGALLY you can just copy the entire book if it's to be used in a classroom.
In other words, you're wrong.
MacOS X 10.5 ships with BootCamp which can boot a Windows partition (Parallels and Fusion can use this partition for their copy of Windows) and run it instead of MacOS X.
There are two commercially available to run Windows on MacOS X. Parallels and VMware's Fusion both require a commercial FULL RETAIL copy of Windows to run a Windows application in a virtual environment (not emulation).
There's also Crossover for Macintosh that can run _some_ Windows applications like Office without installing Windows.
The Linux users are out of luck it seems, but if you use SPICE instead of your Windows-only solution, everyone wins.
I like to use this, please don't laugh, I am an electronics novice. http://www.falstad.com/circuit/ It may be too simplistic to warrant being mentioned along the likes of OrCad, Spice, etc. but boy, does it help build intuition!
I *totally* missed that.
I'll go sit in the corner.
My mom says I'm cool.
I don't use it frequently, and I'm an uber novice at electronics, but a couple of months back I was looking for a decent simulation app as well, and out of all the ones I tried (most of them referred to above), KTechLab came out as the best option for me. Just my two cents.
Qucs is very capable.
What about Linux circuit simulation software? At least that can be run in a VM for free.
No, I will not work for your startup
http://www.logicworks5.com/
Only for windows, but I have made it run in wine with no problems. Pretty powerful, you can simulate a full datapath.
There are a number of SPICE frontends. Right now I'm using the free LTSpice from Linear Technology. It's a professional quality code that the company releases for free since their main product line is actualy electronic components. The software comes with a full library of LT components of course. BUT, it's windows only. There's a Yahoo user group that may be able to answer questions about how well it runs under VMWare or Parallels, It supposedly runs well under Wine. (Winehq.org says "Works well with wine"). So that could take care of Linux and Windows users, but no idea with Mac. I know Mac users are whiny enough, but don't they have a Wine equivalent yet?
FYI- Cost shouldn't really be a factor for acquiring Windows for your students. The Microsoft Windows operating systems are free for students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. Ask around- your university should have a MSDNAA repository for students to check out Windows for free. They're also aloud to keep their license once they graduate. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/academic/dd759402.aspx If you can't find multiple platform software that meets your needs, perhaps virtualization isn't a bad idea.
VMWare or Parallels
Or you could try VirtualBox. I have tried all three and actually prefer VirtualBox even though it is free. On that note, many post-secondary schools have access to free Microsoft software. I know I can download just about anything for free via an MSDN portal on my university webpage - you just have to be registered in computer science.
In order to keep things easy for the students (they should be learning concepts and not software) just pick the best software for the job. Should it require Windows, so be it. Those who run other operating systems can work around it. And this is from a guy who hates Windows...
Ansoft is the world's leading provider of FEM based design software. They also have circuit simulation products Designer Nexxim etc. All have free student versions. It is something your students can put on their resume. www.ansoft.com.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Hear of MSDN(AA)? Any decent school probably has access to this stuff.
I know Mac users are whiny enough, but don't they have a Wine equivalent yet?
Considering WineHQ's tagline is "Run Windows applications on Linux, BSD, Solaris and Mac OS X", I'd have to say yes.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
I ask this because IIRC you can get 90 day eval versions of Windows for free. They also have a 180 day eval version of Win2K3 server, which will run just about anything the desktop runs. There are even plenty of places around the net that will show you how to turn 2K3 server into Workstation, but for a single class this would probably be overkill.
So why don't you try contacting Microsoft? Since you are teaching a class I wouldn't be surprised if they'd be willing to send you the eval discs for Vista or 2K8 server. Or you could just go here and get the 180 day 2K3 straight from MSFT. So unless your class lasts longer than 6 months there really isn't any reason why they just can't run the software on 2K3 in a VM. With 2K3 they can easily turn off the unneeded server roles and have it run decent on pretty much anything. IMHO this would be the cheapest (free) and quickest way to fix your problem without having to learn a new software.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
I believe its called wine.
He's not exactly wrong, he's just deliberately misinterpreting the law to further his own agenda.
In this case, he's deliberately ignoring the part that says that such circumvention is legitimate for classroom purposes iff it's no longer readily available to acquire through legitimate channels, or only a small exerpt is actually required. In other words, you can photocopy a page from a textbook to use as a handout as an alternative to students forking over $150 for just that one page, or you can provide photocopies of books that are no longer in print, but you cannot hand out copies of software that people are still selling.
If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb
I did some basic simulations in Ngspice using Kjwaves as a waveform viewer and it worked pretty well for my purposes (I did end up editing a little of the Kjwaves code to fix some issues I had with autoscaling axes, but it was pretty minor). The interface is comparable to using HSPICE + Awaves in my experience. http://ngspice.sourceforge.net/kjwaves.html
Check out Capilano's Designworks. There is both Mac & Windows (no Linux) versions. I have used several different schematic capture packages, and Designworks is really very good. In all honesty, I have found Orcad to crash way too often. In fact I've had Orcad crash so bad that a reinstall was necessary. Thankfully, this was an older version (11 I think).
No, I don't trust in god. He'll have to pay up front, like everybody else.
http://www.falstad.com/mathphysics.html There's a bunch of Java applets here that I've always found useful. Not sure if it'll do EVERYTHING you want, but for circuitry the "Analog Circuit Simulator Applet" would likely be sufficient. Plus it's got a lot of other potentially related applets.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky's_Boots
There's a nice bit of software called PUFF that was written at Caltech. It is available as an MS-DOS binary, which you can run on XP or Mac through DOSBox. Also, on the PUFF website they report that the source code comes with the program, and some have had success in compiling it for Linux. Unfortunately, you can't buy the software directly. Some textbooks come packaged with it, though. I can recommend the Rutledge book as a nice overview of lab electronics.
I would say that it these students are in an engineering or science program, they must know how to use these tools, just like someone in a science/math program must know how to use Mathematica. That said, if the course in question is just a survey course, the specific tools may be less important than the exposure. For this there may be alternatives. For instance, an only breadboard simulator is available. Google circuit simulators and there may be more available. I am not sure what is available for CAD.
Here is another issue. If the class teaches the design techniques and not the application, the maybe students can use whatever they want. What distresses me is that we are no longer teaching the high level concepts, but the mouse based menu selection. Instead of teaching the concept of cut and paste, we are teaching the menu commands. The problem is when the menu changes, the students are SOL. For career training, this is fine, but I think we should be teaching at a higher level for college. For instance, in my college, we were just told to write a program to solve the problem or create a simulation. How we did it using the available tools were up to us.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Not sure if electric [1] provides all the features you want. It is free, made in java (hence cross platform).
[1] http://www.staticfreesoft.com/index.html
I remember running spice simulations on a 286. It ran slow, but it worked. A 486 would have been a dream to have. Really, Spice is not THAT demanding for simple student-style problems in the first couple of circuits classes.
I have even designed two-layer boards using a Pentium-120 laptop with 24MB if RAM (as a student, about ten years ago). It was not the fastest, but it worked fine -- and that was with a 800x600 display. Yes, the requirements for modern programs are more demanding. I would definitely want at least a 3GHz dual-core if I was doing a 16-layer board (I am glad that I do not do that anymore).
"-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
The first time I ran SPICE was on a CDC-6400 and used punched cards for the input - and this was for a course taught by Leon Chua (of memristor fame).
How about you do the students a favor and make them use the products they will be required to use when they have a real job?
If your school has Simulink, there's a physical modeling (e.g. circuits) module for it called Simscape. The circuit models are supported on and will run identically on Windows, Linux, and Mac.
At work I use Tina http://www.tina.com/English/tina/ on Linux under Wine. I put a report in the winehq app database about it. The version I have just needs to run in a Wine fixed-size virtual desktop.
Tina is currently my favorite simulation package since the license is quite cheap, it has an integrated schematic editor and is generally fast and easy to use.
I can't say if the latest and greatest version of Tina works with Wine though, since the version I have a license for is a couple of years old now.
...uranium purifier plant simulator. I have an aging client in a small asian country who will pay me. But he's cheap, though, so I need something free.
Table-ized A.I.
Most colleges have minimum system requirements, which a netbook will not meet. For example, at my school the minimum for incoming freshmen this year is a Core 2 Duo (or equivalent) 2 GHz or better; 2gb or more of RAM unless running VM on OS X, then 3gb or more; 120gb or more hard drive; 120gb or more USB hard drive; 128mb video memory; a/g/n wireless; ethernet; DVD burner; and USB flash drive. The form factor should be a laptop. While no one is going to do anything if you don't get a laptop that meets these specs, if you show up for class with only a Netbook that can't run the CAD software you need, the professor doesn't have to accommodate you. Plan on spending a lot of time in the computer lab.
A system like that can be found for $1000 or less, and it should last a good 3-4 years assuming it does not break first. Considering all the other costs of college, $1000 is not really that much.
Both Mac and Windows systems are officially endorsed, but usually Windows is easier since it is more popular. In my CS class we used Visual C+++ Express as an IDE, which is Windows only. One of the TAs got Xcode to do everything VC++ could do, but there were tiny issues that would come up (like makefiles and capitalization) that still made it necessary to use VC++, at least for final testing. In another class we used Matlab, but the Mac version is slower than the Windows one, especially to start up. Sometimes collaboration on a project is necessary, but Macs won't be able to open MS Office files properly (I haven't tried Office Mac 08 yet, though).
VM is not good enough for me because it is slow and anything graphical might not work well. This year I am bringing my desktop PC in addition to my Macbook Pro so I can have the best of both worlds. If I wasn't such a power user, I might just put Bootcamp on my MBP and use that.
Or just wine. The 'lite' version of OrCAD bundled with Allan Hambley's textbook 'Electrical Engineering; Principles and Applications" works fine with Wine. MSDN Academic Alliance also lets Software Engineering and Computer Science students (Those most likely to be using Linux) get a free Windows license.
In the course description make a statement to the effect that "this course will require you to acquire a circuit simulation package capable of <insert reasonable specification here > An example of the complexity and functionality required is the following file [take your most complex course material] which your package must be able to handle." Then go on to say " ... The course text is designed around < textbook name > which includes a free version of <package name> which only runs on the following operating systems. You may use any other circuit simulation package, provided it allows you to run the course examples and submit the course assignments."
Obviously, almost all the students will go with the recommended solution. You will get the occasional smart-arse who thinks they know better and tries something unconventional. They'll either pass, make more work for themselves and still pass, or crash and burn. However thy do, they'll have learned another valuable lesson: this time about life - which is another attribute of tertiary education.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
OK, I'm gonna bite as no-one else has so far...
Demo versions of software are just that - meant so you can test out the software to see if it fits your needs. If you're going to be using this software year after year to teach a course at university, you should get a licence, one per user. Obviously, this makes more sense if it's installed on a university machine, in which case what platform they're using is irrelevant anyway. Alternatively, if you really want the students to install it on their own machines, why not contact the vendor and ask them if they'll license it for educational use so it covers the students for the duration of the time they're on that course / degree / whatever.
If you're not willing the license the software you want to use for teaching, then you'd be best to look at open source. As numerous people have suggested, spice is an option and has been around for a long time now. It's also very widely used in this field, so not only would the students get it for free and able to keep it, you'd be teaching them skills they can re-use rather than teaching them how to use proprietary software.
I don't see why. Most student level electronics simulation just shouldn't be all that CPU intensive. When I was an EE student 10 years ago, people did just fine with 150MHz machines running SPICE.
I dunno, maybe I'm just not particularly good at using SPICE, but I've run simulations of very simple circuits that took 10-20 hours on GHz+ machines. Maybe there are workarounds (although I looked for a while and didn't find any) but it seems there are some circuits that SPICE is very poor at handling (the circuit I was designing was a high-power, high-frequency pulse width modulator, and one of the things it really struggles with is high speed switching) -- I'd guess once upon a time student courses would avoid such circuits because of the difficulty in simulating them, but nowadays it might not be so obvious.
Or you could try VirtualBox.
The poster specifically said that he does not want to force the students to purchase Windows, which would be needed with VirtualBox. In any case, if $insertOShere cannot run the software that one needs, then that OS is useless for a particular person. So why run Windows in VirtualBox when the the user could just run Windows on the hardware?
The real solution here is to contact the OrCAD developers and ask about Linux support. Here is their address:
http://www.cadence.com/products/orcad/
Specifically, their contact page is here:
http://www.cadence.com/alliances/channel_partner/pages/default.aspx
Write to them and ask about a Linux or Wine-supported version of the software. If we do not express interest in Linux software, then obviously no one is going to write it.
Thank for reading to the sig. You may stop reading now. It is safe. There is no more content. Why are you still reading?
I believe its called wine.
No, it's Whine.
Thank for reading to the sig. You may stop reading now. It is safe. There is no more content. Why are you still reading?
Documentation: We need documentation, tutorials, manuals and much more.
and you see the problem.
While this tool is being written with the best of intentions, it's nowhere near the level of support needed to teach a class. The students will spend as long trying to learn the tool as they will trying to learn the course. Any package used is merely to illustrate and support the course content - not a learning goal in it's own right. Until this (and any other package: OSS or commercial) can be useful from minute #1, rather than another thing you have to learn, then it's more of an obstruction than a help.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
The ironic thing is that the Orcad PSPICE used is usually version 9 which is ancient (and has difficulties running on Vista). This is the most recent free version as far as I know.
There is a lot of room for a good and simple OSS SPICE program with a good frontend.
A couple of years ago I used ngspice en gschem for simulation.
I had some problems getting the whole toolchain running. But after the initial effort it proved very flexible and effective.
By creating a Makefile for the whole project everything could be automated.
Use gschem to define the circuit.
gnetlist with the spice back-end to generate a circuit
ngspice for simulation
gwave for viewing graphs and gnuplot for producing images.
I use it regularly on Ubuntu, under WINE. Everything works fine, except network features (you have to update manually)
It's an excellent simulator and you can add other vendors' SPICE models to it easily.
Linear Technology makes it available for free, and they have worked to make it usable under WINE (or so the sales rep told me)
If the best software only runs under Windows, then, dammit, buy it and run it under Windows.
You don't buy a car and expect to fly it to Denver, do you? No, stupid, you buy an airplane to do that.
Fata viam invenient.
While no one is going to do anything if you don't get a laptop that meets these specs, if you show up for class with only a Netbook that can't run the CAD software you need, the professor doesn't have to accommodate you.
That't not true. When I was a university Professor Bormann would beat students to death with a spade if they turned up with underpowered machines.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
Actually it's called Darwine
Timothy,
You might find a version of your question pop up on most EE Boards at one time or another. Most people (including myself) had this sort of experience:
I started simulation with OrCAD/PSPICE/layout/ but I moved to Linux because I hated windows.
This is how it went down:
1. I refuse to use non-GPL software on my beautiful Linux box. I'll try the GPL/free stuff.
2. Damn hard road I've taken. I am writing SPICE code when I should be simulating and laying out my boards.
3. Ok, ok... GPL is out. That stuff needs a lot of work to become pro. Let me try the cheaper SPICE/Layout products.
Tried, all the cheaper stuff, http://www.islandlogix.com/ (is probably the best).
4. Ok, BIG snag need 8-10 layers with diff pairs and 30-40 multipin devices. I need a serious autorouter.
5. Eagle, Electronics workbench, all are worthless. Only Mentor and Cadence can handle this.
6. Hello OrCAD, PCB Editor and PSPICE. How have you been my old friends? Nice to be back.
7. Hello Windows. You still suck.
What I am trying to say here is: any serious EE should know Mentor/Cadence. Hate me for saying this and mod me to hell.
It is what the industry is using and your hiring manager will not give a shit about your GPL/Linux ideas. He's got a deadline and a set
of tools that work and he wants you to come in and start working.
Before I close, I would like to send out a plea to Mentor and Cadence: Please, please, PLEASE consider porting to OSX and Linux.
If you are the first one you will OWN the market.
And that's my $0.02 worth
Doesn't the department have some soft of coherent policy about software? I've taken classes at four colleges over the years (three degrees in three different fields), and the department always had a fairly narrow policy about what was acceptable and what was not. If simulation is a required part of the circuit design classes, I would expect the department to have a position on the software tools that was independent of instructors or textbooks. If for no other reason than if you got hit by a bus six weeks into the class, a substitute would be able to take over and know what tools the students were using.
The poster specifically said that he does not want to force the students to purchase Windows, which would be needed with VirtualBox.
Did you read that part about how those going to educational institutes can get free Microsoft software? I do not know if it applies to his students but there is a good chance that it does. In addition, VirtualBox does not require Windows - it requires an operating system. Should the instructor get a copy X software going via wine in Linux then the image could be released saving the students the trouble of getting wine working on their own.
So why run Windows in VirtualBox when the the user could just run Windows on the hardware?
So you can also check email, browse the web, and do all the other things you would normally do with your computer at the same time as using the specified software. Dual boot is only really good for games....
The real solution here is to contact the OrCAD developers and ask about Linux support
For a long term solution, fine. But it is not going to help out this professor come September. In addition, if you do not use Windows or MacOS it does not mean that you use Linux. Personally, I've always liked FreeBSD. Possibly the wine approach would be the better one in this situation.
You can't install just a small portion of the software... that clause has more to do with things like mp3 and dvd distribution... It's legal for your film studies prof to rip a scene from a movie so that you can analyze the symbolism therein, because it's only a small part of the whole product. It's not, however, legal for him to provide you with the whole movie under the guise of only studying the scene from 1:31-1:34 for symbolism, regardless of whether it's for academic purposes or not.
You can't install just a small portion of most software and have it still be functional, so you're left looking at the other clause, which asks whether you can acquire the software through proper channels. As the software is commercially available and supported, it can't be provided like that.
If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb
Sometimes collaboration on a project is necessary, but Macs won't be able to open MS Office files properly (I haven't tried Office Mac 08 yet, though).
I don't know what you're using for document editing, except maybe iWork, but I've never had a problem opening up Windows-created Office documents on my OSX systems (G4 and Intel-based). I've been using Office 2004 for the Mac with no problems at all. The only thing I've found that sucks in it is not being able to add animation paths in PowerPoint, but that's just a minor issue. I would assume Office 2008 would be at least as good, but then again, it is MS, so that could be a faulty assumption. ;-)
Mess not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.
http://sol.gfxile.net/atanua/
Not sure if it is what you are looking for. Hope it helps.
We apologise for the fault in this post. Those responsible have been sacked. -- Signed RICHARD M. NIXON
I've used the Multisim/Electronics Workbench package under WINE before with no problems. I've seen it used in labs for teaching students, it should do the job just fine.
I think the [MS Word] paperclip is a great idea. - Miguel de Icaza
That was for PowerPC processors.
"sudo rm -rf your-face"
Really? I would think analog simulation would be slower of the two. What makes digital so expensive to simulate?
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Darwine currently runs on Intel-based Macs.
Be as you would have the world become.
Firstly I cant understand why you need cad for circuit simulation. As for pure cad we use BRLcad and it is industrial quality for sure. Pentagan uses it too.
Your problem is your circuit. You're doing an analog circuit and you're using PWM which means you're driving the fets into and out of saturation, which means that you've just increased your simulation time 10x. Plot the actual solution points sometime and you'll see why full swing circuits like PWM, ADCs, and most synthesizers are CPU hogs. Throw in the fact that you've likely got many different time constants and you're asking for something that takes a long time to simulate.
Depending on whether you're doing this for a class or for business there are workarounds for the time constant issues, but full swing analog is always going to be slow.
Personally, I remember when an 8-MHz machine was considered fast, and 1 MB of memory was da bomb. But then again in those days you cut your own rubylith :-) These days near tapeout I'll keep 4-20 Core7 boxes busy for a couple of months. My bosses don't care too much since hardware and software are cheaper than people and time to market.
LTSpice does run quite well under WINE, I've done it.
LTSpice is by far my favorite circuit simulation software. It's easy to use and works well.
The only thing that can be hard is importing SPICE models for non-LT products (but it is possible).
Effectively, LTSpice is a marketing tool designed to sell Linear's IC products, but it is an *incredibly* high-quality tool in my opinion.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
I am using iWork and NeoOffice. iWork usually does a better job making the document look right. I just got Office 08, but I haven't tried it yet.
would Logisim (open source, cross platform) work for you?