EDA in GNU/Linux

As I mentioned in my previous post, I will be posting a few tutorials on EDA in GNU/Linux. EDA, Electronic Design Automation, is basically a class of tools which make an electronics engineer’s life a lot easier. (Wikipedia article). These tools are used by every company or institute. Most of you would have heard of SPICE (known popularly as PSpice), a circuit simulation tool. Many similar tools exist for analog and digital circuits, VLSI design, embedded systems and PCB (printed circuit board) design. However, most of the well known proprietary tools are very costly for an individual to buy and use. In college, students end up using cracked (which is illegal and I discourage this) versions of software. Evaluation versions do not have most of the important features or are valid for just a few days.