[SI-LIST] Re: Inexpensive SI software
- From: wolfgang.maichen@xxxxxxxxxxxx
- To: Dave Pollum <david.pollum@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 18 Jan 2010 09:57:27 -0800
Hello Dave,
as far as I can tell you'll be hard pressed to find free (or inexpensive)
software that can simulate your whole board (or even larger sections
thereof), be reasonably user-friendly, etc. But you can often get pretty
far by putting a set of free tools together. I find myself using the
following quite often (note that I do not have any vested interest in
those tools/companies, and there are quite a few other free tools with
similar capabilities):
- TXLine and Polar's CITS calculator for quick impedance calculations
- TNT 2D field solver (available from Sourceforge) for homogeneous
transmission line impedance and crosstalk calculations
- Sonnet Lite to simulate isolated, small substructures like bends, breaks
in the reference plane, etc.
- PSpice 9.2 to simulate models created by the above tools
- TLinesim to generate TDR plots, VNA plots, data eyes for transmission
line (includes _causal_ loss modeling!)
The above toolset will not make a dent in your your piggybank since all
programs are free.
I don't have yet found any good, free tools that can do really complicated
3D structures like vias.
Hope that helps you in your search
Wolfgang
'
Dave Pollum <david.pollum@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent by: si-list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
01/14/2010 08:28 PM
To
si-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
cc
Subject
[SI-LIST] Re: Inexpensive SI software
All:
It doesn't have to be HyperLynx ;) It could be some other product. I
don't know anything about
Hspice, and at $12K, I can't afford it. BTW, does anyone know what
Altium's Designer product's SI
module is like.
-Dave Pollum
Joel Brown wrote:
> Although we have Hyperlynx, I find myself using Hspice instead.
> The drawback is you have to manually enter models in a text file but it
has
> a lot of flexibility. I find Hyperlynx very clumsy when it comes to
using
> different types of models such as IBIS, Hspice, RGLC, etc.
> I think Hspice costs around $12K. Often IC vendors can only provide
Hspice
> models and then you have no choice anyway.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: si-list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:si-list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On
> Behalf Of Dave Pollum
> Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2010 3:47 PM
> To: si-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [SI-LIST] Inexpensive SI software
>
> I've been doing some freelance PCB layout using a low cost PCB CAD
software
> (Cadsoft's EAGLE). I'm
> getting into situations designing denser 4 layer boards where it would
handy
> to use an SI tool. I'm
> concerned about rise/fall times of 1 - 2 ns or faster signals,
crosstalk,
> the effects of long
> traces, and switching layers (top to bottom), etc. I've download the
> HyperLynx demo (BoardSim &
> LineSIM), and it looks really cool. But I can't actually use the demo
to
> anything real. And I
> suspect I can't afford it. I'd like to spend no more than $4K(USD). As
an
> alternative, I've
> considered buying Altium's Designer software ($4K) that claims to have
> built-in SI abilities. Are
> Altium's SI features any good?
>
> Suggestions, anyone?
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