Comparison of EDA software

This page is a comparison of electronic design automation (EDA) software which is used today to design the near totality of electronic devices. Modern electronic devices are too complex to be designed without the help of a computer. Electronic devices may consist of integrated circuits (ICs), printed circuit boards (PCBs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) or a combination of them. Integrated circuits may consist of a combination of digital and analog circuits. These circuits can contain a combination of transistors, resistors, capacitors or specialized components such as analog neural networks, antennas or fuses.

The design of each of these electronic devices generally proceeds from a high- to a low-level of abstraction. For FPGAs the low-level description consists of a binary file to be flashed into the gate array, while for an integrated circuit the low-level description consists of a layout file which describes the masks to be used for lithography inside a foundry.

Each design step requires specialized tools, and many of these tools can be used for designing multiple types of electronic circuits. For example, a program for high-level digital synthesis can usually be used both for IC digital design as well as for programming an FPGA. Similarly, a tool for schematic-capture and analog simulation can generally be used both for IC analog design and for PCB design.

In the case of integrated circuits (ICs) for example, a single chip may contain today more than 20 billion transistors (which is more than two transistors for every human on Earth) and, as a general rule, every single transistor in a chip must work as intended. Since a single VLSI mask set can cost up to 10-100 millions, trial and error approaches are not economically viable. To minimize the risk of any design mistakes, the design flow is heavily automatized. EDA software assists the designer in every step of the design process and every design step is accompanied by heavy test phases. Errors may be present in the high-level code already, such as for the Pentium FDIV floating-point unit bug, or it can be inserted all the way down to physical synthesis, such as a missing wire, or a timing violation.

Comparison of proprietary EDA software

Mainstream EDA software bundles for ICs design

The world of electronic design automation (EDA) software for integrated circuit (IC) design is dominated by the three vendors Synopsys, Cadence Design Systems and Siemens EDA (Formerly Mentor Graphics, acquired in 2017 by Siemens) which have a revenue respectively of 4,2 billion US$, 3 billion US$ and 1,3 billion US$.

These vendors offer software bundles which allow to cover the full spectrum of IC design, from HDL synthesis to physical synthesis and verification.

The development of EDA software is tightly connected with the development of technology nodes. The properties of a specific semiconductor foundry, such as the transistor models, the physical characteristics and the design rules, are usually encoded in file formats which are proprietary to one or more EDA vendors. This set of files constitutes the process design kit (PDK) and it is usually developed as a joint effort between the foundry and an EDA vendor. Foundries therefore usually release PDKs which are compatible only for one specific EDA bundle. The information contained inside PDKs is usually considered confidential. PDKs are therefore usually protected by non disclosure agreements (NDAs) and may be shipped in an incomplete or in an encrypted form to the designers.

Proprietary software for electrical simulation (analog/mixed-signal/electromagnetic)

Application and developer	Platform	Latest release		Schematic?	Simulation?	PCB editing?	User Interface Language(s)	Imports	Exports	Scripting support
		Version	Date
Advanced Design System by Keysight EEsof EDA	POSIX	2019	2018-11-15	Yes	Yes, full-wave electromagnetic simulation and netlist simulation	Yes	en	HSPICE, SPICE, Spectre netlists; Gerber, Excellon, ODB++, artwork; more	HSPICE, SPICE, Spectre netlists; Gerber, Excellon, ODB++, artwork; more	Python, Application Extension Language (proprietary; "AEL")
	Windows
	SuSE
	RHEL
CircuitLogix by Logic Design	Windows	10	2019-01	Yes	Yes, netlist simulation (analog and digital)	Yes	en	SPICE, Gerber, DXF	SPICE, PDF, Gerber, DXF
LTspice by Analog Devices (free)	Windows, macOS, Wine	24.0.9	2024-02-02	Yes	Yes, netlist simulation (analog)	No	en	netlist	netlist
Micro-Cap (free, end-of-life)	Windows	12.2.0.5	2021-06-17 (end-of-life)	Yes	Yes, netlist simulation (analog and digital)	No	en, jp	HSPICE, PSPICE, SPICE3, netlists, Images, IBIS, Touchstone	SPICE text file, netlist, BOM, Protel, Accel, OrCad, PADS netlists, Schematic and Analysis Plots Images, Numeric Output Text, Excel
	Wine

Of these, LTSpice and Micro-cap are free proprietary softwares based on SPICE. Micro-Cap was released as freeware in July 2019, when its parent company Spectrum Software closed down while LTSpice has been free for a long time.

Comparison of proprietary software for PCB design

Application and developer	Platform	Latest release		Schematic?	Simulation?	PCB editing?	User Interface Language(s)	Imports	Exports	Scripting support
		Version	Date
Altium Designer (former Protel) by Altium	Windows	23.3	2023-03-16	Yes	Yes	Yes	Multilingual	OrCAD, Allegro, PADS Logic, PADS PCB, Expedition, DxDesigner, EAGLE, P-CAD, Gerber, STEP, Solidworks, IDF, more	3D PDF, Gerber, Gerber X2, Excellon, ODB++, DXF, STEP, OrCAD, EAGLE, EDB, more	Delphi, JS, VB
	Wine
CADSTAR, Board Designer, and Visula by Zuken	Windows	2022.0	2022-08-31	Yes	Yes, SI & PI	Yes	en	PADS, OrCAD, P-CAD, Protel, DXF, IDF	PDF, Gerber, Excellon, ODB++, DXF, IDF more	COM, macros
CircuitMaker by Altium	Windows	2	2021-07	Yes	No	Yes	en	Importer Removed since Last Version (1.3)	Gerber, Excellon, DXF, STEP, PDF	None
	Wine
CR-5000 by Zuken	POSIX	13	2011-05-17	Yes	Yes, SI & PI	Yes	en, jp	EDIF, DXF, IGES, IDF, BSDL, STEP, ACIS, Gerber, Excellon, more	PDF, Gerber, Excellon, ODB++ (must request), DXF, STEP, IPC D-356, IPC-2581, EPS, ACIS
	Windows
	Unix
	Linux
CR-8000 by Zuken	POSIX	2020	2020-06-30	Yes	Yes, SI & PI, IBIS-AMI/SERDES	Yes	en, jp	EDIF, DXF, IGES, IDF, BSDL, STEP, ACIS, Gerber, Excellon, more	PDF, Gerber, Excellon, ODB++ (must request), DXF, STEP, IPC D-356, IPC-2581, EPS, ACIS
	Windows
	Unix
	Linux
DesignSpark PCB by RS Components	Windows	9.0.3	2020-07-08	Yes	Yes, Spice	Yes	en	EAGLE, DXF, EDIF	Gerber, Excellon, ODB++, DXF, IDF, PDF, LPKF
DipTrace by Novarm	POSIX	4.3.0.4	2023-01-18	Yes	External (Spice netlist export)	Yes	21 languages	Altium, Eagle, KiCad, OrCAD, P-CAD, PADS, Gerber, N/C Drill, DXF, BSDL Pinlist, Netlists	Gerber, Gerber X2, Excellon, ODB++, DXF, Eagle, P-CAD, PADS, OrCAD, IPC-D-356, STEP, VRML, Pick and Place, CSV, BOM
	Windows
	Mac
	Wine
EAGLE by Autodesk/CadSoft Computer	POSIX	9.6.2	2020-05-27	Yes	Ngspice	Yes	de, en, zh, hu, ru	EAGLE (XML), ACCEL (P-CAD, Altium, Protel), ULTIBOARD, Netlists, BMP, Custom	EAGLE (XML), Protel, Netlists, Images, Gerber, Gerber X2, Excellon, Sieb & Meyer, HPGL, PostScript/EPS, PDF, Images, HyperLynx, IDF, Custom	Proprietary User Language Programming (ULP)
	Windows
	Linux
	Mac
EasyEDA	POSIX	6.4.5	2020-08-19	Yes	Ngspice	Yes	en, fr, de, pl, jp, ru, es, se, ua, zh ...	Altium, EAGLE, KiCad libraries, LTspice .asc/.asy files, JSON, Spice	PDF, PNG, SVG, JSON, Gerber, Excellon, Pick and Place CSV file, CSV-formatted drill chart, Bill of Materials CSV file, Altium netlist, FreePCB netlist, PADS Layout Netlist, Spice netlist.	JSON
	Windows
	Linux
	Mac
	ChromeOS as a Web application
NI Ultiboard and Multisim by National Instruments	Windows	14.2	2019-05-19	Yes	Yes	Yes	en	MS*, MP*, EWB, Spice, OrCAD, UltiCap, Protel, Gerber, DXF, Ultiboard 4&5, Calay	BOM, Gerber, Excellon, IGES (3D), DXF (2D & 3D), SVG
	Web application
OrCAD	Windows	17.4 - 22.1	2022-10-20	Yes	Yes	Yes	en	EAGLE, PADS, Altium, STEP, DXF, IDF, IDX, OrCAD SDT, OrCAD Layout,OrCAD	PDF, Gerber, Gerber X2, Excellon drill/route, netlist, ODB++, DXF, IDF, IDX, STEP,3D PDF, IPC2581	Tcl/TK, SKILL (Lisp)
Proteus by Labcenter Electronics Ltd	Windows	8.17	2023-12-11	Yes	Yes	Yes	en	Gerber, BMP, DXF	PDF, Gerber, GerberX2, Excellon, ODB++, DXF, IDF, PKP, testpoint file, metafile, BMP.	internal script
Pulsonix by WestDev Ltd	Windows	12.0	2018-10-01	Yes	Yes	Yes	en	Allegro, Altium, CadStar, EAGLE, OrCAD, PADS, P-CAD, Protel, Gerber, STEP, DXF, IDF, more	Gerber, Gerber X2, Excellon, ODB++, IPC-2581, PDF, DXF, STEP, IDF, BOM, more	Proprietary language, ActiveX
	Wine
TARGET 3001!	Windows	30.2.0.63	2020-12-14	Yes	Yes	Yes	en, de, fr	EAGLE, DXF, Gerber, Gerber, Excellon, BMP, CXF, STEP 3D	Gerber, Gerber X2, Excellon, EAGLE, HPGL, G-Code (Milling), CXF, STEP 3D, Excel BOMs, Pick&Place, GenCAD, FABmaster, IPC D-356, Test points, Netlists, OBJ, POV-Ray, PDF	Package generator scripts, BOM scripts, printing and PDF generator scripts, 3D scripts
	Wine
TINA	Windows	12.0	2019-12	Yes	Yes	Yes	23 languages (en, de, fr, es and 19 other languages)	VHDL, Verilog, Verilog-A, and Verilog-AMS	VHDL, Verilog, Verilog-A, and Verilog-AMS
	Linux
	MacOS
	Android
Upverter	POSIX	N/A	2019-05-10	Yes	No	Yes	en	Altium, OrCad, PDF, OpenJSON, EAGLE	PDF, Gerber, Excellon, netlist, PADS Layout Netlist, Tempo Automation, Pick and Place CSV, High-Res PNG, STL, CSV-formatted drill chart, CSV-formatted list of all parts
	Windows
	Web application
123D Circuits by Autodesk	POSIX	N/A		Yes, + breadboard	Yes	Yes	en	EAGLE	Gerber
	Windows
	Web application
Application and developer	Platform	Latest release		Schematic?	Simulation?	PCB editing?	User Interface Language(s)	Imports	Exports	Scripting support
		Version	Date

Comparison of free & open source software EDA tools

Free & open source software EDA bundles for IC design

Free and open-source (FOSS) EDA software bundles are currently under fast development mainly thanks to the DARPA and Google's openROAD project. The OpenROAD project offers a complete stack of tools from high-level synthesis down to layout generation The flow includes Yosys for logic synthesis, OpenLane for physical synthesis and targets the SkyWater 130nm PDK. The flow is currently utilized to submit design for free fabrication at Google.

Free & open source software for high-level synthesis

High-level synthesis software can generally be used for the design of both application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Most high-level synthesis software is used to edit and verify code written in one of the mainstream hardware description languages (HDL) like VHDL or Verilog. Other tools instead operate at a higher level of abstraction and allow to synthesize HDL code starting from languages like Chisel or SpinalHDL. The higher abstraction of such languages enables formal verification of HDL code.

Name	Architecture	License	Comment
Icarus Verilog	*BSD, Linux, Mac	GPL-2.0-or-later	Verilog simulator
Verilator	Posix	LGPL-3.0-only or Artistic-2.0	Verilator is the fastest free Verilog HDL simulator. It compiles synthesizable Verilog into cycle accurate C++ or SystemC code following 2-state synthesis (zero delay) semantics. Benchmarks reported on its website suggest it is several times faster than commercial event driven simulators such as ModelSim, NC-Verilog and VCS, while not quite as fast as commercial cycle accurate modeling tools such as Carbon ModelStudio and ARC VTOC.

Free software for IC physical synthesis and layout

This list does not include schematic editors or simulators since these can generally be used both for Integrated Circuits (ICs) and for Printed Circuit Board (PCB) as long as device models are available.

Name	Architecture	License	Autorouter	Comment
Electric	*BSD, Java	GPL-3.0-or-later	Yes	VLSI circuit design tool with connectivity at all levels. Can also be used for schematic entry and PCB design.
Magic	Linux	BSD license	No	A very-large-scale integration layout tool

Free software for schematic editing and analog/mixed-signal simulation

Name	Architecture	License	Comment
Gnucap	any (C++11)	GPL-3.0-or-later	Mixed-signal circuit simulator
KTechLab	Linux	GPL	KTechLab is a schematic capture and simulator. It is specifically geared toward mixed signal simulation of analog components and small digital processors.
Ngspice	Linux, Solaris, Mac, NetBSD, FreeBSD, Windows	BSD-3-Clause	SPICE + XSPICE + Cider
Oregano		GPL-2.0-or-later	Schematic capture + spice simulation
Quite Universal Circuit Simulator (QUCS)	Linux, Solaris, Mac, NetBSD, FreeBSD, Windows	GPL-2.0-or-later	Schematic capture + Verilog + VHDL + simulation. Qucs-S fork supports SPICE backends Ngspice, Xyce, & SpiceOpus.
XCircuit	Unix	GPL	Used to produce netlists and publish high-quality drawings.

Free software for PCB design

Name	Architecture	License	Autorouter	Imports	Exports	Scripting support	Comment
FreePCB	Windows	GPL	Yes				A printed circuit board design program for Microsoft Windows. FreePCB allows for up to 16 copper layers, both metric and US customary units, and export of designs in Gerber format. Boards can be partially or fully autorouted with the FreeRouting autorouter by using the FpcROUTE Specctra DSN design file translator.
Fritzing	Windows, Mac, Linux	GPL-3.0-or-later	Yes	gEDA symbols, KiCad symbols, SVG	Gerber, DIY etching, BOM, SVG, PDF, EPS		Protoboard view, schematic view, PCB view, Code (firmware) view. Includes customizable design rule checker. Includes common shaped boards like Arduino and Raspberry Pi shields. Allows spline curve traces. Only two layers (top and bottom). Outputs gerbers.
gEDA	*BSD, Linux, Mac	GPL-2.0-or-later	Yes	gschem netlists, image as background	Gerber, Excellon, SVG, PDF, EPS, PNG, GIF, JPEG, Specctra, XYRS	Guile (Scheme)	schematic, simulation, PCB editor, gerber view
KiCad	Linux, Mac, Windows	GPL-3.0-or-later	FreeRouting	Altium, CadStar, EAGLE (XML), P-CAD, Fabmaster, TinyCAD net lists, OrCAD EDIF	PDF, Gerber, Gerber X2, Excellon, netlist, VRML2, STEP, IDFv3	Python	Full package for schematic and board design, etc. Design rule checking. User-defined symbols and footprints. Gerber/ drill file creation. Graphic interface. Active user community.
pcb-rnd	*BSD, Linux, Mac, Windows	GPL-2.0-or-later	Yes	gschem netlists, Protel Autotrax, KiCad (legacy & s-expr layouts), EAGLE (XML & v3,4,5 binary layouts), eeschema netlists, mentor netlists, TinyCad netlists, Calay netlist, FreePCB/easyEDA netlist, LT-Spice, MUCS, Mentor Graphics Hyperlynx, image (BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG), HPGL, BXL, Specctra (DSN), PADS	Gerber/drill,SVG, PDF, EPS, PNG, GIF, JPEG, Specctra (DSN), PADS, Protel Autotrax, KiCad (legacy & s-expr), DXF, FidocadJ, Mentor Graphics Hyperlynx, template configurable XYRS/BOM	Python, lua, perl, tcl, AWK (multiple dialects), lisp & scheme (multiple dialects), javascript, ruby, pascal, BASIC	Circuit layout program with extended file format support, DRC, parametric footprints, query language, and GUI and command line operation for batch processing and automation

See also

• Electronic design automation (EDA)
• List of EDA companies
• List of free electronics circuit simulators
• List of electrical engineering software
• Schematic editor
• SPICE, a general purpose analog circuit simulator.
• TopoR