pSpice for TI

[Warhawk]

Hello,
I would like to just inform the community that TI released the pSpice for TI today. Refer to https://www.ti.com/tool/PSPICE-FOR-TI

Disclaimer: Yes, I am with TI but by no means, I get any credit, bonus, or benefits from promoting the tool here. I am not able to provide any support and I don't see under the hood. I am just a normal engineer at the end of the corporate food chain. Though, I may be able to forward the constructive criticism to the team. And please stay realistic - you're not getting Cadence PSpice for free.

Have fun.

[Bassman59]

Hello,
I would like to just inform the community that TI released the pSpice for TI today. Refer to https://www.ti.com/tool/PSPICE-FOR-TI

Disclaimer: Yes, I am with TI but by no means, I get any credit, bonus, or benefits from promoting the tool here. I am not able to provide any support and I don't see under the hood. I am just a normal engineer at the end of the corporate food chain. Though, I may be able to forward the constructive criticism to the team. And please stay realistic - you're not getting Cadence PSpice for free.

I requested it and just got the access key!

Is this an admission by TI that the TINA simulator kinda sucks? (I know you can't answer that.)

Like most people here, I use LTSpice and put up with the shitty user interface. But LTSpice does have an advantage, which is that it runs on Macs.

[SiliconWizard]

Tried it. Windows 7/64, if that matters.

First impressions - typical Cadence stuff. The install is huge (well, at least for what I was expecting) ~4GB on disk. As it's apparently based on Orcard, it would explain this. It embeds most of Orcad (even though you obviously only really get the schematic editor.) Lots of features. Questionable UI (never found Cadence software particularly user-friendly.)

Experienced a few crashes while doing some mundane stuff with it. (I didn't check if Windows 7/64 was fully supported by Cadence though, but if not, I guess the installer should warn about it then.)

Also a note (probably not noticed by most users): the install "hijacks" your current MSYS2 profile (if you ever use MSYS2, which I've happened to talk about recently.) I don't know what this software does with MSYS2 (it probably uses it behind the scenes for something), but screwing up an existing install/profile is not good. As there are probably (very) few users of this Cadence software package that also use MSYS2, this may never have been reported - but take it as an opportunity if you have some contacts at TI. (Some details: the installer creates a "C:\SPB_Data" directory and installs a lot of stuff in it. It also changes global MSYS2 preferences so that the current MSYS2 profile is now located in this SPB_Data directory as well, of course with default settings.) Edit: see below why.

After some looking up online, it looks like Orcad (which again this software is based on) doesnt just meddle with MSYS2, as it apparently does the same thing with VirtualBox: https://community.cadence.com/general_topics/f/feedback-suggestions-and-questions/17969/orcad-install-killed-oracle-virtualbox

Now if I got it right, this happens because the installer seems to modify the HOME environment variable and change it to "C:\SPB_Data", so any other software using it is likely to encounter the same issues. So if anyone runs into this... Oh and ("of course"), uninstalling this software 1/ won't restore the original value of HOME and 2/ will leave A LOT of files behind (even after a reboot) in the "Cadence" and "SPB_Data" directories. It will also leave a new "OrCADPS_17.4" printer.

[SiliconWizard]

Is this an admission by TI that the TINA simulator kinda sucks? (I know you can't answer that.)

Not that it sucks, but it's obviously a lot more limited. Cadence PSpice is much faster and can handle much larger circuits.

TI has been using Cadence simulation tools for a long time now for their own use, and probably managed to get a deal with Cadence to release a free, limited version of Cadence PSpice. TI is a good customer for Cadence, and Cadence probably saw this as an opportunity to give their tools more exposure.

[asmi]

I wonder if it's gonna mess up my Orcad installation if I do install it...

[SiliconWizard]

I wonder if it's gonna mess up my Orcad installation if I do install it...

I can't tell, don't have Orcad. But I would be wary. As this simulator is based on Orcad, first thing to do before trying IMO would be to look for information about just having several Orcad installs in parallel.

As a general rant, I've found it pretty common for EDA software from the big players to have really "intrusive" installs. Much more so than with lower-end EDA software actually. Never had any issue with Diptrace for instance, or many others of the same "league". But with Altium Designer for instance (AD18 at least), it just grabbed MANY file associations without any option for not doing it, such as most common programming source file extensions: after installing it, all .c, .cpp. .h, .vhdl, etc were associated with AD18. Bummer. It's as though they just assume their software will be the only thing installed on your workstation.
 

[Bassman59]

Now if I got it right, this happens because the installer seems to modify the HOME environment variable and change it to "C:\SPB_Data", so any other software using it is likely to encounter the same issues. So if anyone runs into this... Oh and ("of course"), uninstalling this software 1/ won't restore the original value of HOME and 2/ will leave A LOT of files behind (even after a reboot) in the "Cadence" and "SPB_Data" directories. It will also leave a new "OrCADPS_17.4" printer.

I ran into this exact problem. I installed TI/PSPICE, played around with it for a bit, and then went back to do real work with emacs and VHDL. And all of my emacs vhdl-mode customizations had vanished. Why? Because a fucking HOME environment variable was created and it pointed to C:\SPB_Data, and since there was no .emacs file there, emacs used its defaults. I figured this out when I saved my modifications and saw that they were being written to a file C:\SPB_Data\.emacs.

I deleted the HOME environment variable and emacs found my standard .emacs file in the usual place C:\Users\me\.emacs

I suppose this is a black mark against ever buying OrCAD.

[Marco]

Can you load non TI encrypted models?

[PeterJeppson]

Yes the user interface for LTspice is clunky, but you get used to it. I hear LTC are looking at improving it. I have tried TI's simulator... 4GB disk space??? Wow! I must say, of the two packages, LTspice is the definite winner. It is like an old overcoat: it might look strange, but I am used to it and it does the job far better than my new one!

LTspice is still the original and best - sorry!

[Warhawk]

Yes the user interface for LTspice is clunky, but you get used to it. I hear LTC are looking at improving it. I have tried TI's simulator... 4GB disk space??? Wow! I must say, of the two packages, LTspice is the definite winner. It is like an old overcoat: it might look strange, but I am used to it and it does the job far better than my new one!

LTspice is still the original and best - sorry!

No need to apologize. I find LTSpice more convenient for general work too. I even like the minimalist user interface.

However, it is not a fair comparison. PSpice for TI is based on PSpice from Cadence (previously OrCad). With all pros and cons, this product has been the industry standard for years. Semiconductor manufacturers are practically excluded from the free LTspice license (not many people read the license).
For this reason, you likely find a PSpice-compatible simulation model rather than for LTspice. I've recently seen that ONSemi has LTspice models but they likely pay royalties to ADI for the LTspice use.

PSpice for TI gives you the possibility to simulate PSpice compatible models. Not all PSpice models work in LTspice and some of them provide incorrect results.

tl;dr; LTspice is great for proof-of-the-concept type of simulations. It's qick, fast and great as long as you get the model running.
pSpice is more advanced tool with some learning curve.
 

[masterchief]

I wonder if it's gonna mess up my Orcad installation if I do install it...

You can install PSpice for TI alongside your regular OrCAD installation - they can reside together on the same machine with no issues.

[masterchief]

Can you load non TI encrypted models?

You can - check out the learning videos at https://www.pspice.com/pspice-for-ti/tutorial-videos, especially the "3rd Party Model Import" one

[Marco]

Holy shit running this on windows 10 on my laptop is a horror show, and it's not a slow laptop.

Some GUI elements seem responsive, but the part search in particular takes half a minute to redraw and respond. Unusable.