Line driving/SI/Spice software?

[RickThompson]

I'm looking for some software for modelling signal
propagation/integrity on high-speed digital PCBs. Can anyone suggest
something? This is for hobbyist use so something free/cheap would be
preferable. I'd prefer Linux if possible, or Windows as a second
choice.

Or should I just be using Spice? My analog knowledge is currently
near-zero, so I think I'd find this difficult, but I'd be willing to
give it a go.

All suggestions gratefully received -

Rick

 

[James Meyer]

On Mon, 17 Jan 2005 09:58:20 +0000, RickThompson <nospam@nospam.com> wroth:

I'm looking for some software for modelling signal
propagation/integrity on high-speed digital PCBs. Can anyone suggest
something? This is for hobbyist use so something free/cheap would be
preferable. I'd prefer Linux if possible, or Windows as a second
choice.

Or should I just be using Spice? My analog knowledge is currently
near-zero, so I think I'd find this difficult, but I'd be willing to
give it a go.

All suggestions gratefully received -

Rick

Since your needs are based in part on mechanical PCB layout details, I
don't think you will find anything in the free/cheap category to do the job. If
you are knowledgable enough to convert PCB parasitics into equivalent LRC
models, then any spice-like simulator would work.

Jim

 

[Rick Thompson]

On Mon, 17 Jan 2005 12:54:40 GMT, James Meyer <jmeyer@nowhere.net>
wrote:

Since your needs are based in part on mechanical PCB layout details, I
don't think you will find anything in the free/cheap category to do the job. If
you are knowledgable enough to convert PCB parasitics into equivalent LRC
models, then any spice-like simulator would work.

Jim

Thanks. I'm sort-of-tempted by the combination of Eagle and B2 Spice:
it looks like I can get a hobbyist-level schematic and layout package,
plus a Spice GUI front-end that'll communicate with the layout, for
$250. The only downer is that B2 Spice appears to run only on Windows
and MacOS, although Eagle will run on Linux.

I can more-or-less do the LRC models; I'll wait and see if anyone else
has a better idea before spending all that money...

Cheers

Rick