Texas Instruments provides downloadable TINA-TI, a customized version of DesignSoft’s TINA Design Suite, which offers design capture, simulation, and analysis capabilities that are similar to Spice ( Fig. It is also unique in that the same designer who created it 15 years ago is still maintaining and upgrading it.
Linear Technology’s LTspice, with more than 500,000 copies downloaded, is both the oldest and the most popular free tool for PCB circuit layout and simulation. More than half a million copies have been downloaded from Linear’s site ( 1. In fact, several companies offer free downloadable Spice simulators or “Spice-like” software that provides for schematic capture and simulation.įor more than 15 years, Linear Technology has offered LTspice, internally developed and still maintained by Mike Engelhardt ( Fig.
But now that it’s possible to encode the details, most analog semiconductor companies provide Spice models of their devices. Most companies used to be concerned that models would reveal their secret intellectual property (IP).
