Mike Engelhardt's new SPICE simulator QSPICE is out

[tggzzz]

I suppose I should RTFM or RTFAQ, but...
Does QSpice support IBIS models? That is one attraction of Microcap - not that I've use that either!

I don't know either and haven't found the info with just a quick search.
But - I don't fully know QORVO's current offering, but if all, or most of their chips do not require IBIS modeling, why would they pay Mike for implementing this?

Points taken, but it would be a shame if QSpice was unnecessarily limited to a subset of application domains.

There does seem to be a tendency for different spices to be tailored to different classes of problem. On the one hand that can be positive: I like tools that do one thing well. On the other hand, having to choose between and learn conceptually similar but irritatingly different tools is a waste of brain power (e.g. trivially different word processors). On the gripping hand, it will probably remain an academic issue for me.

[SiliconWizard]

There are some simulators that support a wide range of features (including IBIS support, mixed-signal with the ability of writing user C or C++ code, etc), but they are commercial, expensive ones.
I guess the "free"/low-cost ones just don't have the teams/budgets to implement all of this.

ngspice - one of the "major" open-source Spice simulators - does implement mixed-signal sim and custom models in C but certainly the learning curve is a bit steep and the available GUIs are all pretty limited (at least compared to commercial simulators). I don't think it supports IBIS though, would have to better check. I remember that IBIS support in ngspice was a feature request for years, I don't think it has been implemented yet though, unless I missed it.

[soldar]

In the end it makes much more sense to write new software cross-platform from the start rather than relying on emulation nowadays.

I agree. I am running a few things with WINE but I have no intention of trying with more. If it ran with Linux I would give it a try but as it is I will give it a pass.

[SiliconWizard]

In the end it makes much more sense to write new software cross-platform from the start rather than relying on emulation nowadays.

I agree. I am running a few things with WINE but I have no intention of trying with more. If it ran with Linux I would give it a try but as it is I will give it a pass.

QSPICE doesn't run on Wine as I mentioned earlier, so even if you wanted to...

[SilverSolder]

You can always run it in a VM on any platform...  -  A very nice solution overall, in my experience.

[ledtester]

Has anyone tried it on a M1 Mac - perhaps by using Parallels?

https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-run-intel-windows-apps-on-an-m1-mac/

[Smokey]

Has anyone tried it on a M1 Mac - perhaps by using Parallels?

https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-run-intel-windows-apps-on-an-m1-mac/

The cross-platform thing is a directx support issue according to a post by Mike.

[huababua]

too bad that it doesnt run on linux. really really bad. feels like 1990.

[SiliconWizard]

Depending on DirectX for a new development of a Spice simulator (or just EDA stuff in general) is a bad idea these days IMO, and there are certainly many decent alternatives to get good antialiased vector graphics with good performance in a reasonably cross-platform way.

But we're not in Mike's shoes nor in Qorvo's head, and he may have had a particular reason for doing that.
That seems a bit odd, as he strived to make LTSpice run on Wine. Maybe he eventually got bitten by this (/fed up) and decided not to bother with that cross-platform compatibility at all for his new simulator.
Or maybe he thought it would take him too much dev time initially, so he strictly focused on Windows.

While IMO that was still acceptable 10 years ago, developing new software Windows-only (unless it's software that strictly concerns Windows users only) these days is a no-no and I wouldn't do that again.

[Warhawk]

Depending on DirectX for a new development of a Spice simulator (or just EDA stuff in general) is a bad idea these days IMO, and there are certainly many decent alternatives to get good antialiased vector graphics with good performance in a reasonably cross-platform way.

But we're not in Mike's shoes nor in Qorvo's head, and he may have had a particular reason for doing that.
That seems a bit odd, as he strived to make LTSpice run on Wine. Maybe he eventually got bitten by this (/fed up) and decided not to bother with that cross-platform compatibility at all for his new simulator.
Or maybe he thought it would take him too much dev time initially, so he strictly focused on Windows.

While IMO that was still acceptable 10 years ago, developing new software Windows-only (unless it's software that strictly concerns Windows users only) these days is a no-no and I wouldn't do that again.

Even though I expect that Mike has had fun developing the new simulation tool the main purpose is business for Qorvo. Providing a good simulation tool free of charge is the best marketing and the way to get some visibility. I know about Qorvo because of the QPSICE. Not the other way around. I started my professional career nearly 15 years ago. I've been in the semiconductor business last 8 years. I've been traveling worldwide visiting hardware teams. I likely met hundreds of engineers in tens of different companies. Never have I ever seen a single Linux desktop. I've seen few macs, mostly from management and procurement guys.
I occasionally use Linux myself but it is really a bad OS for getting any engineering done. No 3D cad, no 2D cad. Maybe the KiCad stands out but this has been mainly due to recent development when CERN stepped in. I don't see any reason why ANY company would invest extra efforts in Linux support. The business case is simply not there. Few exceptions and hobbyists won't bring $$$ to the table.

[huababua]

Understood. Of course there needs to be a business case behind everything.

But ever „modern“ software I am using is built on some kind of a cross platform. Shouldn’t be too much effort to set it up right and serve the three big player.

[magic]

I suspect there was little more reason than Mike being personally familiar with that API, and Qorvo not caring enough to push him away from it. For example, OpenGL would have made this software more wine-friendly and easier to port natively to OS X if a need arises.

Whether being Windows-only is a good business decision shall be seen in a few years. The position of Windows at electronics design companies is partly Microsoft's support for large scale enterprise deployments, and partly a matter of relevant software running on Windows simply because that's what customers have used so far. If Microsoft screws something up, or bean counters decide they don't want to pay for it anymore, or Apple leaves AMD and Intel in the dust, the industry may slowly shift away from Windows like others did.

If you look at software development for example, a lot of it is done on OS X or Linux and many if not most serious tools are already cross platform or "cloud" based.

[nctnico]

If you look at software development for example, a lot of it is done on OS X or Linux and many if not most serious tools are already cross platform or "cloud" based.

Indeed. It is rare for my customers to use Windows for software development. It is either Linux or Mac. FPGA development is another field where every self respecting manufacturer makes sure to have their tools running on Linux. Even small players like Gowin and Efinix. And a lot of higher end electronics software does run on Linux. Like Orcad Allegro, Sonnet, ADS, Matlab to name a few.

I suspect there was little more reason than Mike being personally familiar with that API, and Qorvo not caring enough to push him away from it. For example, OpenGL would have made this software more wine-friendly and easier to port natively to OS X if a need arises.

Using OpenGL directly won't matter much. And I don't see how drawing a few graphs would benefit from OpenGL anyway. Using a framework like wxWidgets (like Kicad does) or Qt makes it much easier to create cross-platform applications. wxWidgets is kind of like MFC (Microsoft Foundation Classes) so should be relatively easy to use for people used to programming Windows software in C++.

[magic]

I don't see how drawing a few graphs would benefit from OpenGL anyway.

First of all, you don't have to reinvent the wheel. The library is already written, you just tell it what to draw. As are GUI toolkits and frameworks, which likely use it under the hood for this kind of operations. Same for DirectX on Windows.

Secondly, GPU acceleration means faster speed and lower power consumption. OpenGL was originally developed for CAD, not for games.

[nctnico]

Using OpenGL is only benificial if you need to draw a huge amount of lines / shapes fast likes in a PCB design or mechanical CAD. There are downsides to OpenGL as well because in the end the OpenGL driver of the GPU needs to be implemented correctly (which isn't always the case). Also, not all VMs support OpenGL (like Virtualbox for example) and then you are back to software simulation (Mesa3D for example which isn't perfect). And then there is the move to Vulkan which spreads the development teams of GPU driver developers thin. All in all OpenGL is a speed optimisation but it does come at a price.

[Cyberdragon]

In the end it makes much more sense to write new software cross-platform from the start rather than relying on emulation nowadays.

I agree. I am running a few things with WINE but I have no intention of trying with more. If it ran with Linux I would give it a try but as it is I will give it a pass.

QSPICE doesn't run on Wine as I mentioned earlier, so even if you wanted to...

It does run. You need Wine Staging and set Wine Tweaks to "hide version" and it will run.

Not great though, it will simulate but it's super slow and buggy (the forground and background get set to black making the circuit invisible untill you change the color of everything). It is a graphics issue, it uses the GPU for simulating normally but on Wine it defaults to CPU only simulation and rendering making it take several seconds to even draw a trace, and the trace has artifacts in it. And yes, I tried Proton with DirectX to Vulkan conversion, and a bunch of settings, it just seems to ignore the GPU.

[SilverSolder]

On your Linux box, have a VM running Windows? -  The OS is an application, these days...   

[SiliconWizard]

On your Linux box, have a VM running Windows? -  The OS is an application, these days...   

You mean, like 60 years ago?

[SilverSolder]

On your Linux box, have a VM running Windows? -  The OS is an application, these days...   

You mean, like 60 years ago?

Nothing new under the sun...   -  I hear IBM wants to use AI to get rid of a lot of old code written in...   Cobol.

[SiliconWizard]

On your Linux box, have a VM running Windows? -  The OS is an application, these days...   

You mean, like 60 years ago?

Nothing new under the sun...   -  I hear IBM wants to use AI to get rid of a lot of old code written in...   Cobol.

The whole idea sounds like fun.