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sorry i'm a newb in this space (getting into fpga dev through chisel): is this basically ltspice? or is it more powerful? i'm guessing it's more powerful becaus

sorry i'm a newb in this space (getting into fpga dev through chisel): is this basically ltspice? or is it more powerful? i'm guessing it's more powerful because you can specify asics using vhdl/verilog and you can also export the entire circuit (netlist?) to vhdl/verilog. basically i'm wondering if i can use this to start to understand verilog/vhdl since it could function is a graphical frontend. i'm also wondering if there's more mature tool for that same purpose.

madengr 6y ago
No, it’s not LTSPICE. It’s not more or less powerful; it’s different use case. SPICE does transient and small signal AC analysis.
anta40 6y ago
Perhaps think of it as Electronics Workbench/Multisim "clone".
- etimberg 6y ago
  I worked at National Instruments on multisim for 4 years. It's fully spice based, whereas this looks like just a digital logic simulator.
retrac 6y ago
Spice is primarily an analogue simulator. It can handle audio amplifiers just as well as simulating digital logic circuits. Digital, as the name implies, doesn't deal with the analogue at all, it's a graphical logic simulator. Step-based, fixed signal values like 1, 0, not connected, high-impedance. Think visual Verilog, except somewhat limited. There is some support in Digital for defining component behaviour in Verilog or VHDL. Once defined, you will get a graphic symbol you can put in your diagram, and all the wires will behave as specified in the code. It's also possible to translate a schematic in the software to Verilog or VHDL code. Because of that, I do think it would be a good stepping stone to learning more about logic and hardware description languages. I've recommended it before to people who want to learn the basics. But it's still new, has some limits, and I don't think it would scale well to a large project.
- anon_tor_12345 6y ago
  great. thanks very much clearing that up for me.

madengr 6y ago

No, it’s not LTSPICE. It’s not more or less powerful; it’s different use case. SPICE does transient and small signal AC analysis.

anta40 6y ago

Perhaps think of it as Electronics Workbench/Multisim "clone".

etimberg 6y ago
I worked at National Instruments on multisim for 4 years. It's fully spice based, whereas this looks like just a digital logic simulator.

retrac 6y ago

Spice is primarily an analogue simulator. It can handle audio amplifiers just as well as simulating digital logic circuits. Digital, as the name implies, doesn't deal with the analogue at all, it's a graphical logic simulator. Step-based, fixed signal values like 1, 0, not connected, high-impedance. Think visual Verilog, except somewhat limited. There is some support in Digital for defining component behaviour in Verilog or VHDL. Once defined, you will get a graphic symbol you can put in your diagram, and all the wires will behave as specified in the code. It's also possible to translate a schematic in the software to Verilog or VHDL code. Because of that, I do think it would be a good stepping stone to learning more about logic and hardware description languages. I've recommended it before to people who want to learn the basics. But it's still new, has some limits, and I don't think it would scale well to a large project.

anon_tor_12345 6y ago
great. thanks very much clearing that up for me.