On Mon, 03 Dec 2007 02:22:59 GMT, (Doug White)
wrote:

"MARTHA" is a unique circuit analysis software package that was
originally developed at MIT in the early 1970's. Rather than a "canned"
analysis package that only performs pre-programmed circuit analysis
operations, it is a circuit-description extension to the APL computer
programming language. It will perform analysis of linear networks like
other CAD packages, but by coupling it with APL, it can be used to
perform custom analysis and synthesis of circuits that are difficult or
impossible to do in other CAD environments.

MARTHA was originally marketed as a mainframe time-share product. It was
used at MIT for teaching circuit theory, and by engineers at MIT Lincoln
Laboratory to design RF & microwave circuits for radar and communications
satellites. Lincoln Laboratory used the capabilities of MARTHA to create
circuit synthesis programs (mostly for microstrip and LC filters), in
addition to expanding the analysis capabilities of MARTHA.

MARTHA never caught on as a commercial product, but it continued to
thrive at Lincoln Lab even after competing PC products like Touchstone
became available. MARTHA and the other Lincoln software were ported to
the PC, and additional features (like better graphics) were added. All
of the Lincoln software was cleaned up and documented to create LLAMA
(Lincoln Laboratory Advanced MARTHA Applications), which is still in use
today.

MIT Prof. Paul Penfield (MARTHA's original author) and Doug White (prime
mover behind the LLAMA effort) have obtained permission to release
MARTHA, LLAMA and the associated manuals into the public domain. The
initial release is set up to run using a free DOS-based APL interpreter.
The APL section of the web site includes this software, along with
installation instructions and documentation on using APL. Additional
information and all of the necessary files are available at the web site:
http://www.marthallama.org.

MARTHA is NOT for everyone. It doesn't have fancy schematic capture or
PCB layout features. It also requires learning at least a little about
the APL computer language (which could be considered a worthwhile
exercise in its own right). There is no canned installation routine that
will magically get it all up & running on your computer, but there are
procedures & batch files to try to make it as painless as possible.

Doug White

Say HI to Paul for me. He was one of my instructors in VI-B at MIT,
and I knew him later as a board member of GenRad.

...Jim Thompson
--
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