Tools & making · firmware emulator
SPICE
Free, open-source circuit simulator that electronics engineers use to model analog behaviour before building. Critics note weak security history and that it wasn't built for programmers.
Summarized from 13 comments.
Free, open-source circuit simulator that electronics engineers use to model analog behaviour before building. Critics note weak security history and that it wasn't built for programmers.
- recommend
- 8
- criticize
- 3
- months recommended
- 5 of 13
Why people love it
Standard tool for analog circuit simulation · 4
a 50-year-old open-source program used to design every computer you've ever used
Sep 2026 · commentit's the thing every analog EE uses to simulate their circuits
Sep 2026 · commentstill very important to people who have to design electronics
Sep 2026 · commentFree, open-source, maintained for decades · 2
maintained at a loss for many years, and is now (still) open source and available to everyone to use as they wish
Sep 2026 · commenta 50-year-old open-source program used to design every computer you've ever used
Sep 2026 · comment
What people warn about
Flaky and not built for programmers · 2
SPICE wasn't built for programmers in mind
Aug 2026 · commenta flaky spice based terminal
Mar 2026 · comment
What hackers pick instead
- DiodeBrowser-based tool to build, program and simulate circuits in 3D, valued for its visual simulation and approachability. Critics say it is clunky and hard to use.17recommend
- LTspiceFree circuit simulator that is quick, easy to use, and often has the model you need already ported. Critics say the interface is an acquired taste.10recommend
- ngspiceFree circuit simulator that people use for real engineering work. Critics call its core code dated, say it assumes outdated systems, and find switching to xschem clumsy.5recommend
Every quote
The 13 most detailed of 13 comments. Each links to the original.
maintained at a loss for many years, and is now (still) open source and available to everyone to use as they wish
Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “I refuse to let SPICE die”
a 50-year-old open-source program used to design every computer you've ever used
Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “I refuse to let SPICE die”
it's the thing every analog EE uses to simulate their circuits
Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “I refuse to let SPICE die”
still very important to people who have to design electronics
Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “I refuse to let SPICE die”
it's a tool for simulating the analog behaviour of a circuit
Mixed · Dec 2025 · in “Spice: A 40-year old open-source success story (2011)”
SPICE wasn't built for programmers in mind
Criticizes · Aug 2026 · in “Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)”
a flaky spice based terminal
Criticizes · Mar 2026 · in “Ubuntu 26.04 Ends 46 Years of Silent sudo Passwords”
It was the only thing that got using a VM on open source virtualization close to the experience of using one on vmware.
Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “I refuse to let SPICE die”
the code at the time was a massive security nightmare, written with no validation of fields in the network protocol
Mixed · Sep 2026 · in “I refuse to let SPICE die”
SPICE + scope readout is a verifier the model can't talk its way past.
Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “Show HN: Spice simulation → oscilloscope → verification with Claude Code”
With PLECS Spice, we solved our problem.
Recommends · Jan 2026
SPICE is a good first step.
Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “Reverse Engineering of the M-VAVE FM-1 Pocket Synthesizer Firmware”
problem is that even SPICE has poor default models for transformers etc
Criticizes · Jan 2026 · in “"Anyone else out there vibe circuit-building?"”
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