How B2 Spice v5 Professional Compares

We are often asked how B2 Spice Professional compares with other Spice products. The short answer is that B2 Spice delivers superior electronic circuit simulation design at a fraction of the cost. While there are thousands of features in almost every spice product and we can't list them all on a web page, we can look at the products that a typical competitor feels show them to great advantage, benchmark ourselves against them, and point out some of the things they omitted from their analysis. We have looked at how we would do if Intusoft included us in the competitive analysis they published on their site (as of 7/19/2005).

 

Before we give you the feature list that they chose, we'd like to shopw you a list of features that they left out:

*Red Text - Features that advantageously position ICAP/4

*Green Text - Features that advantageously position B2 Spice

Features*

Intusoft ICAP/4 Professional

B2 Spice Professional

Price:

$1,995 - $6,995

$399 ($450 with CADSTAR support)

Virtual Instruments

No

11 powerful instruments, including oscilloscope, ammeter, voltmeter, wattmeter, distortion meters,and MORE

Integration with EAGLE and CADSTAR

No

Import: Verilog,* Eagle, CADSTAR

Export: Eagle, other PCB providers

 

*Red Text - Features that advantageously position ICAP/4

*Green Text - Features that advantageously position B2 Spice

Features*

Intusoft ICAP/4 Professional

B2 Spice Professional

GUI & ease of use

Powerful/
manageable

Powerful/
manageable

Interactive schematic layering and configurations

Can wire among layers, make any layer visible from top schematic, create schematic configurations & auto change parameters thru all configurations from one base schematic

No layering. Can save circuits as parts. Can connect wires from one schematic to another.

Schematic Import, Export (other than SPICE)

Export: Edif, Mentor, PADS, Tango, Winboard

Import: Verilog,* Eagle, CADSTAR

Export: Eagle, other PCB providers

Parametric changes on schematic

Yes

Yes

Cross-probing: schematic-to-waveforms

Yes, arbitrarily after simulation + wave views on schematic Yes, Arbitrarily before and after simualtion. Voltage, current, power, db, and phase.

OP. pts. displayed throughout schematic

Yes

Yes

Convergence wizard

Yes

No

SPICE3F5/
XSPICE

Yes

Yes

Analog & A/D simulation

Yes

Yes (Verilog co-simulation coming

in version 5.2)

Script language capability

Full: simulation measurements & wave calculator: (200 commands + 100s of existing functions)

No

All SPICE analyses

Yes

Yes

Access to SPICE engine parameters

All

All, plus extra parameters to aid convergence and for A/D Bridges

Custom SPICE algorithms

Forward predicting; matrix load bypass; imp. GMIN, source stepping, sparse matrix & predictor-corrector; alternate UIC; VSECTOL; AUTOTOL; pseudo transient, ICSTEP

GMIN stepping, source stepping

Stimulus editor

Yes, not graphic entry

Yes, not graphic entry, but graphic preview

Features*

Intusoft ICAP/4 Professional

B2 Spice Professional

Waveform viewer & calculator

Full viewer and calculator + special (ex: EMI- IEC, Nyquist, Smith, filters, hanning, wavelets)

Full waveform viewer and calculator. Some 3-D capability, smith charts, polar plots, filters.

Marching waveforms during sim.

Yes, different analysis types simultaneously

Yes

Instant "previously- run waveforms" update

Configurable: Over-writes or preserves previous waves, or new plot for update

Configurable: Over-writes or preserves previous waves, or new plot for update

Probe schematic for node/comp. I/V/P numerical values

Yes, arbitrarily after simulation, displayed at schematic

Yes, arbitrarily after simulation, displayed at schematic or graphs

Monte Carlo & worst case analyses

Yes

Monte Carlo

On-the-fly component sweep w. real-time waves

Yes

Yes, including step cieling

Nested parts sweep

Yes

Yes, plus step text to select model names or subcircuits

Features*

Intusoft ICAP/4 Professional

B2 Spice Professional

Special "hotkeys" (keyboard functions)

Yes, plus user defined

Yes

Special simulation analyses

Transient sensitivity, transient DC sweep, extreme value, root-summed squares, automated pass/fail measurements full fault synthesis, IBIS-to-SPICE conversion thru v3.2

Verilog co-simulation with Spice. Interactive Lab instruments with simulations. Animated Devices for special parts.

Scheduled simulation queue

Queue different analysis types (1 run each) for sequential running

Simulations can be queued for a batch run of different simulation types.

Frequency-varying R,L,C models

Yes, via script entry to model

Yes, via behavioral block scheme

Model count
17,600+ (analog, digital, mixed)
15,000+ (analog, digital, mixed)

BSIM 3 & 4

BSIM 3 & 4

BSIM 3 & 4

MESFET

Full

Full

Mixed-engr. sys. & behav. modeling

Full

Some

RF library

Extensive

Yes

Power supply templates w. ICs

Yes, 30+ topologies for SMPS design

No

Power electronics library

Extensive count & types

Yes

Magnetics design

Cores, some magnetics, special devices & (full design & synthesis option $)

Some general magnetics

Modeling constructs for user

B-element, C-code

B- element

E,F,G,H element

Model building tools

Yes, active/passive

Yes, passive

Library manager

Yes

In CIS option $3,5K

Features*

Intusoft ICAP/4 Professional

B2 Spice Professional

Pole/zero analysis

Yes

Yes

2-port analysis and Smith charts

Yes

Yes

Assign elec. measurements & limits (ie, stddev, pk rise time) for nodes & components, + view data and pass/fail

Full capability, with auto results in chart format, viewable with different analysis types and circuit configurations

No

Component stress alarms

Yes

No

Optimization

Yes

No

Modification of component params.

Yes

Yes

Fault Injection

Full & automatic (Test synthesis available $)

Some

Filter synthesis

Resold product option $

Yes

Quarterly newsletters

More than 71

No

Lesser $$ version

Several

Several

 


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