Electric is a sophisticated electrical CAD system that can handle many forms of circuit design, including custom IC layout (ASICs), schematic drawing, hardware description language specifications, and electro-mechanical hybrid layout.
The system includes many tools for analyzing and synthesizing circuitry.
Electric has an unusual way of doing integrated circuit (IC) layout. The system considers integrated circuits to be composed of nodes and arcs. Nodes are circuit elements such as transistors and contacts. Arcs connect the nodes. This enables layout constraints to be added to the arcs.
Key Features
- Design rule checking.
- Electrical rule checking.
- Simulation and simulation interface (many options).
- Generation (ROMs, PLAs, Pad Frames, etc.).
- Compaction – squeezes layout down to minimal design-rule spacing. It does this by doing single-axis compaction, alternating horizontal and vertical directions until no further space can be found.
- Routing – contains a number of different subsystems for creating wires. Two stitching routers can be used in array-based design to connect adjoining cells. A maze-router runs individual wires. A river-router is available for running multiple parallel wires. The sea-of-gates router handles many wires in arbitrary connection situations. The clock-router builds balanced trees that guarantee constant-length paths to each destination cell. Finally, there are six experimental routers, based on the A* and the Lee/Moore algorithms.
- VHDL compilation.
- Silicon compilation – the process of converting from a hardware description language (such as Verilog or VHDL) directly to placed and routed silicon. Electric has two ways of accomplishing this task.
- Network consistency checking (LVS).
- Logical Effort analysis.
- Project Management.
- Displays designs including:
- MOS (many CMOS and nMOS variations).
- Bipolar and BiCMOS.
- Schematics and printed circuits.
- Digital filters, Temporal logic.
- Artwork.
- Supports the following file formats:
- CIF I/O.
- GDS I/O.
- EDIF I/O.
- DXF I/O.
- SUE Input.
- VHDL I/O.
- Verilog Output.
- EAGLE, PADS, and ECAD Output.
- PostScript, HPGL, and PNG output.
- Cross-platform support – runs on all major operating system.
Website: www.staticfreesoft.com
Support: Manual, FAQ
Developer: The CAD research group
License: GNU General Public License
Electric is written in Java. Learn Java with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| CAD Software | |
|---|---|
| FreeCAD | 3D-Solid and general purpose design CAD/CAE |
| QCAD | Professional CAD System |
| LibreCAD | CAD in two dimensions |
| BRL-CAD | Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG) solid modeling system |
| OpenCASCADE | Technology, 3D modeling & numerical simulation |
| SALOME | Platform for numerical simulation |
| OpenSCAD | Programmers solid 3D CAD modeller |
| KiCad | Integrated environment for all of the stages of the design process |
| LeoCAD | Design virtual models you can build with LEGO bricks |
| SolveSpace | Parametric 3d CAD tool |
| CadQuery | Python parametric CAD scripting framework |
| Electric | The Electric VLSI Design System |
| gCAD3D | 3D CAD-CAM application which features an integrated 3D OpenGL viewer |
| XTrackCAD | CAD program for designing model railroad layouts |
| KLayout | Viewer and editor for integrated circuit and mask design |
| Dune 3D | Parametric 3D CAD |
| CAD Sketcher | Constraint-based geometry sketcher |
| build123d | Python CAD programming library |
| Design | 2D CAD software for GNOME |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
| Electronic Design Automation | |
|---|---|
| gEDA | Full suite and toolkit of Electronic Design Automation tools |
| LibrePCB | Software to develop printed circuit boards |
| Fritzing | Suited to the needs of designers and artists |
| Magic | VLSI layout editor, extraction, and DRC tool |
| KiCad | Software suite for the creation of electronic schematics |
| QElectroTech | Design electric diagrams |
| PyOPUS | Library for simulation-based optimization of arbitrary systems |
| KTechLab | IDE for electronic and PIC microcontroller circuit design and simulation |
| KLayout | GDS and OASIS file viewer and editor |
| DIYLC | Circuit layout and schematic drawing tool |
| Horizon EDA | Supports an integrated end-to-end workflow for printed circuit board design |
| xschem | Schematic editor for VLSI/Asic/Analog custom designs |
| Ringdove | EDA suite of multiple software components |
| Electric | The Electric VLSI Design System |
| FidoCadJ | Offers a large library of electronics and electronic engineering symbols |
| Lepton | Suite of software tools for designing electronics |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
 Explore our comprehensive directory of recommended free and open source software. Our carefully curated collection spans every major software category.This directory is part of our ongoing series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. It features hundreds of detailed reviews, along with open source alternatives to proprietary solutions from major corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. You’ll also find interesting projects to try, hardware coverage, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Discovered a useful open source Linux program that we haven’t covered yet? Let us know by completing this form. |