- #1
Apogee
- 45
- 1
For a traditional circuit simulator, like the free and open source versions of SPICE (i.e. ngspice), it seems to me that they can technically all simulate the same kinds of circuits. Assuming you had a portable SPICE model (either written in SPICE or compiled with ADMS), you could simulate the same circuit in ngspice that you would in a proprietary tool like HSpice.
So, my question is this... We have open source tools for physical digital/analog IC design (layout editors, circuit simulators, etc.). Why is it that anyone would pay $100k+ for a proprietary simulator when they could "theoretically" simulate the same behavior in an open source tool? Is it that the proprietary simulator performs better, or that you can't actually simulate the SAME behavior in an open source tool?
So, my question is this... We have open source tools for physical digital/analog IC design (layout editors, circuit simulators, etc.). Why is it that anyone would pay $100k+ for a proprietary simulator when they could "theoretically" simulate the same behavior in an open source tool? Is it that the proprietary simulator performs better, or that you can't actually simulate the SAME behavior in an open source tool?