Xref: utzoo comp.lsi.cad:60 sci.electronics:4364 Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!mit-eddie!husc6!lownlab!kiely From: kiely@lownlab.harvard.edu (James P. Kiely) Newsgroups: comp.lsi.cad,sci.electronics Subject: CAD for ASIC's, PLD's, PAL's and PCB's Summary: Which package is decent? Keywords: DASH, ABEL, PCAD, CUPL, PADS Message-ID: <743@husc6.harvard.edu> Date: 2 Dec 88 04:43:29 GMT Sender: news@husc6.harvard.edu Reply-To: kiely@lownlab.harvard.edu (James P. Kiely) Organization: Lown Cardiovascular Laboratory, Harvard University Lines: 39 Distribution: I am planning to purchase a CAD system for designing programmable logic devices: ASIC's, PLD's, PAL's, etc. It looks to me like ABEL from DataIO/FutureNet is the best thing available for this... but... I want to be able to use the same package for Printed Circuit Board layout. DataIO/Futurenet recent dropped their PCB package so if I go with them I could use DASH for schematic capture but I would have to interface it with some other PCB package. This may seem easy but back-annotation of chip and gate swaps can become a nightmare. If I go with CUPL (originally from Personal CAD Systems, now from Logical Devices) I can interface directly with PCAD (from Personal CAD Systems). I am not convinced that CUPL is as good as ABEL and I am a little wary about the fact that CUPL has changed ownership twice in the last two years. I have also been informed by a relatively unreliable source that CUPL will not support devices with more than 1200 gates. Another factor is price. PADS from CAD Systems appears to be a good schematic capture and PCB layout& router package and is much cheaper than PCAD. But it has now direct interface with any programmable logic chip design package. Would I be best off with PADS and some interface to ABEL? Or is it that important to have a single intergated system? Does anyone out there have any suggestions? Does anyone out there have any experience with these or any other such CAD packages that they would care to recommend or warn me against? Please respond via email. I will post a summary to the net. Thanks. ============================================================================= NAME: James P. Kiely USPS: Kiely Laboratories USENET: ...!harvard!lownlab!kiely P.O. Box 624 DOMAIN: kiely@lownlab.harvard.edu Allston, MA 02134-0624 PHONE: +1 617 782 4136 USA