It's only impossible to form a reliable conclusion when "experts"
disagree if your sole source of knowledge and information is from those
"experts". That's a bad spot to be in. There are many sources of
information available to help you learn about the topic and come to a
more informed opinion. That's the solution to your dilemma -- develop a
wider range of sources of information and decrease your dependence on
the "experts".

Originally developed at Berkeley, SPICE has been commercialized by a
number of companies, one of the most popular being PSpice by MicroSim.
It's in very wide use, and has been for decades. Do you think that a
couple of generations of engineers would have paid several thousand
dollars each for software with a reputation of unreliability?

My own experience includes about 30 years designing a variety of test
and measurement equipment for several companies, followed by several
years doing electronics design as a consultant. In that time, I and my
colleages at Tektronix and other companies used SPICE very often. (In
fact, recognizing it value, Tek spent a large amount of money and
devoted resources to development of its own internal version of SPICE,
which included schematic entry and other features before they were
available in outside commercial versions.) It's virtually impossible to
design an analog or mixed analog-digital integrated circuit without it,
and I and my colleagues found it indispensible for many other projects.

You might compare this with Reg's experience with SPICE, if he'll tell
you what it is, and see what brought him to make the unequivocal
statement about it which he did. I don't personally think he really
believes that it's unreliable, though, but was just making one of his
characteristic trolls in order to relieve boredom.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

Steve Evans wrote:

On Sat, 16 Oct 2004 16:35:00 -0700, Roy Lewallen
wrote:


Reg Edwards wrote:

. . .
The only way of accumulating confidence in a computer program is to use it
and compare results with what you are already aware of as being true. . .
. . .

SPICE has been used for decades in the design of countless products that
you undoubtedly use daily. It's an extremely useful and valuable tool,
without which many modern designs simply wouldn't be possible.


Here again, Roy I"m confused. You say its indespensible; Reg Edwards
says its' unreliable. Who am I to beleive? When the experts disagree,
its imposible to form a reliable conculsion.