Circuit analysis software testing

Before introducing new circuit analysis software packages into design courses, it is advisable to verify their quality and limitations. The market is currently supplied with several popular and inexpensive, sometimes public domain, software packages allowing analysis of relatively complex circuits. The popular analysis tools applied in introductory and advanced courses of electronic circuit analysis and design are PC versions of Berkeley Spice2. For example, PSpice (MicroSim Corp.), B²Spice (Beige Bag Corp.), and IsSpice (Intusoft Corp.) all fit into this category. This paper describes the methods in which some features of these three software packages are tested, and how circuits are chosen to investigate certain limitations