Is this Intel i7 machine good for LTSpice?

[Joerg]

Folks,

Need to spiff up my simulation speeds here. IIRC Mike Engelhardt stated
that the Intel i7 is a really good processor for LTSPice. According to
this it looks like the 4790 is the fastest of the bunch:

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/core/core-i7-processor.html

So, what do thee say, is the computer in the Costco link below a good
deal for LTSpice purposes?

http://www.costco.com/Dell-XPS-8700-Desktop-%7c-Intel-Core-i7-%7c-1GB-Graphics-%7c-Windows-7-Professional.product.100131208.html

It's also available without MS-Office Home & Student 2013 for $100 less
but I found that OpenOffice isn't 100% compatible in the Excel area so
that sounds like an ok deal. My hope is that it can drive two 27"
monitors but I guess I can always add in another graphics card if not.

Reason I am looking at these is that I absolutely positively do not want
any computer with Windows 8 in here and unfortunately that's what many
others come with.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

 

[Klaus Kragelund]

I have a two year old laptop. I was tired with the slow startup of programs, so I replaced the hard disk with a SSD. Amazing difference in speed. As far as I can see also for the simulations although I did not do a benchmark test.

The Kingston SSD came with a USB connected enclosure to mount the old hard disk in, so the harrdisk was mirrored and no re install of programs was needed

Cheers

Klaus

 

[Lasse Langwadt Christense]

Den sřndag den 2. november 2014 18.24.23 UTC+1 skrev Joerg:

Joerg wrote:
Carl Ijames wrote:
Don't know about computation speed, but this link says the video card will
drive 3 monitors:
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gt-720/specifications.
Looking at Dell's site I don't see any mention of expansion slots, and
looking at the one picture with the cover off I really can't see any sockets
beyond the video card, so if any further expansion is important you need to
ask Dell for clarification.


Looks like you are right:

http://www.dell.com/ed/business/p/xps-8700/pd
http://core0.staticworld.net/images/article/2013/07/1253541_sr-1160-100047019-orig.jpg
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2047487/dell-xps-8700-special-editions-review-a-little-less-performance-for-a-lot-less-cash.html

Quote "There's only one PCIe x16 slot, which means you won't be able to
add a second video card to take advantage of Nvidia's SLI technology".

No slots. There's one more card in the bottom, not sure what that is.
But if the video can drive three monitors it should be fine, I never
added any cards to my current PC either.


Only question is, how can one connect two regular OPC monitors to this?

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gt-720/product-images

I'd expect that you can connect a monitor to each of the three outputs,
VGA,DVI,HDMI. I have an old geforce and that's how that works

VGA is not much use, but unless you want to watch something from Hollywood
DVI and HDMI is the same thing


-Lasse

 

[Lasse Langwadt Christense]

Den sřndag den 2. november 2014 21.28.48 UTC+1 skrev Jan Panteltje:

On a sunny day (Sun, 2 Nov 2014 12:09:54 -0800 (PST)) it happened Lasse
Langwadt Christensen <langwadt@fonz.dk> wrote in
dc45b7d4-b977-43ae-bb08-63635c4739b2@googlegroups.com>:

VGA is not much use, but unless you want to watch something from Hollywood
VGA is still very useful,
I have one HD monitor with an extra VGA to a PC at the other side of the room.
Its faster than ssh -Y and does not load the network.
It displays lots of technical stuff that I run remote via wireless keyboard and mouse on that PC.

sure it is better than nothing, i.e. as an extra free input on a monitor
But if given a choice you wouldn't want to use VGA

-Lasse

 

[Carl Ijames]

Don't know about computation speed, but this link says the video card will
drive 3 monitors:
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gt-720/specifications.
Looking at Dell's site I don't see any mention of expansion slots, and
looking at the one picture with the cover off I really can't see any sockets
beyond the video card, so if any further expansion is important you need to
ask Dell for clarification.

-----
Regards,
Carl Ijames
"Joerg" wrote in message news:cbn0o5Fjf9kU1@mid.individual.net...

Folks,

Need to spiff up my simulation speeds here. IIRC Mike Engelhardt stated
that the Intel i7 is a really good processor for LTSPice. According to
this it looks like the 4790 is the fastest of the bunch:

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/core/core-i7-processor.html

So, what do thee say, is the computer in the Costco link below a good
deal for LTSpice purposes?

http://www.costco.com/Dell-XPS-8700-Desktop-%7c-Intel-Core-i7-%7c-1GB-Graphics-%7c-Windows-7-Professional.product.100131208.html

It's also available without MS-Office Home & Student 2013 for $100 less
but I found that OpenOffice isn't 100% compatible in the Excel area so
that sounds like an ok deal. My hope is that it can drive two 27"
monitors but I guess I can always add in another graphics card if not.

Reason I am looking at these is that I absolutely positively do not want
any computer with Windows 8 in here and unfortunately that's what many
others come with.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

 

[John Larkin]

On Sun, 02 Nov 2014 07:25:49 -0800, Joerg <news@analogconsultants.com>
wrote:

Folks,

Need to spiff up my simulation speeds here. IIRC Mike Engelhardt stated
that the Intel i7 is a really good processor for LTSPice. According to
this it looks like the 4790 is the fastest of the bunch:

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/core/core-i7-processor.html

So, what do thee say, is the computer in the Costco link below a good
deal for LTSpice purposes?

http://www.costco.com/Dell-XPS-8700-Desktop-%7c-Intel-Core-i7-%7c-1GB-Graphics-%7c-Windows-7-Professional.product.100131208.html

It's also available without MS-Office Home & Student 2013 for $100 less
but I found that OpenOffice isn't 100% compatible in the Excel area so
that sounds like an ok deal. My hope is that it can drive two 27"
monitors but I guess I can always add in another graphics card if not.

Reason I am looking at these is that I absolutely positively do not want
any computer with Windows 8 in here and unfortunately that's what many
others come with.

I have spent too many hours this weekend tweaking the transient
response of a semi-hysteretic (we call it "hysterical") switchmode
constant-current source. There are about 8 interacting knobs to turn.
At 30 seconds per run, understanding the interactions is impossible.

I want sliders on each of the part values, and I want to see the
waveforms change as I move the sliders, like they were trimpots on a
breadboard and I was looking at a scope. I need maybe 500 times the
compute power that I have now.

Mike should code LT Spice to execute on a high-end video card.


--

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc

jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com
http://www.highlandtechnology.com

 

[Phil Hobbs]

On 11/2/2014 11:00 AM, John Larkin wrote:

On Sun, 02 Nov 2014 07:25:49 -0800, Joerg <news@analogconsultants.com
wrote:

Folks,

Need to spiff up my simulation speeds here. IIRC Mike Engelhardt stated
that the Intel i7 is a really good processor for LTSPice. According to
this it looks like the 4790 is the fastest of the bunch:

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/core/core-i7-processor.html

So, what do thee say, is the computer in the Costco link below a good
deal for LTSpice purposes?

http://www.costco.com/Dell-XPS-8700-Desktop-%7c-Intel-Core-i7-%7c-1GB-Graphics-%7c-Windows-7-Professional.product.100131208.html

It's also available without MS-Office Home & Student 2013 for $100 less
but I found that OpenOffice isn't 100% compatible in the Excel area so
that sounds like an ok deal. My hope is that it can drive two 27"
monitors but I guess I can always add in another graphics card if not.

Reason I am looking at these is that I absolutely positively do not want
any computer with Windows 8 in here and unfortunately that's what many
others come with.

I have spent too many hours this weekend tweaking the transient
response of a semi-hysteretic (we call it "hysterical") switchmode
constant-current source. There are about 8 interacting knobs to turn.
At 30 seconds per run, understanding the interactions is impossible.

I want sliders on each of the part values, and I want to see the
waveforms change as I move the sliders, like they were trimpots on a
breadboard and I was looking at a scope. I need maybe 500 times the
compute power that I have now.

Mike should code LT Spice to execute on a high-end video card.

You can go quite a bit faster with a nice multicore machine--LTspice
lets you choose how many threads to run. My desktop machine (about 3
years old now) runs about 150 Gflops peak. Supermicro is an excellent
vendor.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics

160 North State Road #203
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510

hobbs at electrooptical dot net
http://electrooptical.net

 

[Jan Panteltje]

On a sunny day (Sun, 02 Nov 2014 08:00:36 -0800) it happened John Larkin
<jlarkin@highlandtechnology.com> wrote in
<0nkc5aljhec5r36ptkoaqbt0a48ud2j5vo@4ax.com>:

On Sun, 02 Nov 2014 07:25:49 -0800, Joerg <news@analogconsultants.com
wrote:

Folks,

Need to spiff up my simulation speeds here. IIRC Mike Engelhardt stated
that the Intel i7 is a really good processor for LTSPice. According to
this it looks like the 4790 is the fastest of the bunch:

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/core/core-i7-processor.html

So, what do thee say, is the computer in the Costco link below a good
deal for LTSpice purposes?

http://www.costco.com/Dell-XPS-8700-Desktop-%7c-Intel-Core-i7-%7c-1GB-Graphics-%7c-Windows-7-Professional.product.100131208.html


It's also available without MS-Office Home & Student 2013 for $100 less
but I found that OpenOffice isn't 100% compatible in the Excel area so
that sounds like an ok deal. My hope is that it can drive two 27"
monitors but I guess I can always add in another graphics card if not.

Reason I am looking at these is that I absolutely positively do not want
any computer with Windows 8 in here and unfortunately that's what many
others come with.

I have spent too many hours this weekend tweaking the transient
response of a semi-hysteretic (we call it "hysterical") switchmode
constant-current source. There are about 8 interacting knobs to turn.
At 30 seconds per run, understanding the interactions is impossible.

I want sliders on each of the part values, and I want to see the
waveforms change as I move the sliders, like they were trimpots on a
breadboard and I was looking at a scope. I need maybe 500 times the
compute power that I have now.

Mike should code LT Spice to execute on a high-end video card.

Maybe building the real thing with some pots?
But without some theory backing it up how would you know it always works?
And with the theory you do not need the sliders.

I do not see the need for insane speeds, I have used LTspice more than often
the last few days, running on an old Duron 950, fast enough.
maybe you guys are doing something wrong?


And it is always an approximation, build the real thing too,
needed tweaking with resistors in series, that is analog,
got some nice 25 turn Bourns trimpots from ebay.....

 

On Sunday, November 2, 2014 7:21:33 PM UTC+1, John Larkin wrote:

On Sun, 02 Nov 2014 16:21:32 GMT, Jan Panteltje
pNaonStpealmtje@yahoo.com> wrote:

On a sunny day (Sun, 02 Nov 2014 08:00:36 -0800) it happened John Larkin
jlarkin@highlandtechnology.com> wrote in
0nkc5aljhec5r36ptkoaqbt0a48ud2j5vo@4ax.com>:

On Sun, 02 Nov 2014 07:25:49 -0800, Joerg <news@analogconsultants.com
wrote:

Folks,

Need to spiff up my simulation speeds here. IIRC Mike Engelhardt stated
that the Intel i7 is a really good processor for LTSPice. According to
this it looks like the 4790 is the fastest of the bunch:

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/core/core-i7-processor.html

So, what do thee say, is the computer in the Costco link below a good
deal for LTSpice purposes?

http://www.costco.com/Dell-XPS-8700-Desktop-%7c-Intel-Core-i7-%7c-1GB-Graphics-%7c-Windows-7-Professional.product.100131208.html


It's also available without MS-Office Home & Student 2013 for $100 less
but I found that OpenOffice isn't 100% compatible in the Excel area so
that sounds like an ok deal. My hope is that it can drive two 27"
monitors but I guess I can always add in another graphics card if not.

Reason I am looking at these is that I absolutely positively do not want
any computer with Windows 8 in here and unfortunately that's what many
others come with.

I have spent too many hours this weekend tweaking the transient
response of a semi-hysteretic (we call it "hysterical") switchmode
constant-current source. There are about 8 interacting knobs to turn.
At 30 seconds per run, understanding the interactions is impossible.

I want sliders on each of the part values, and I want to see the
waveforms change as I move the sliders, like they were trimpots on a
breadboard and I was looking at a scope. I need maybe 500 times the
compute power that I have now.

Mike should code LT Spice to execute on a high-end video card.

Maybe building the real thing with some pots?

I am halfway through building a breadboard; I'll post pics. I'm after
extreme broadband high impedance output, which is hard to measure on a
breadboard; Spice lets me graph all sorts of currents and nodes, so
it's the best platform for development.


But without some theory backing it up how would you know it always works?

I'll have to simulate, and then test, the thing over a range of loads.


And with the theory you do not need the sliders.

I don't have sufficient theoretical skills to tune this circuit. I'm
not sure if anyone does.


I do not see the need for insane speeds, I have used LTspice more than often
the last few days, running on an old Duron 950, fast enough.
maybe you guys are doing something wrong?


At 30-50 seconds per run, iteration is slow. Worse, the time lag
wrecks my ability to acquire intuition about what's going on.




And it is always an approximation, build the real thing too,
needed tweaking with resistors in series, that is analog,
got some nice 25 turn Bourns trimpots from ebay.....


I'll have to tweak resistors and capacitors, and the cap values are
too big for variable capacitors. And, as noted, it would be hard to
instrument.

Here's the current output when the load voltage steps from about 0.5
to 3 volts.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/53724080/Circuits/Current_Sources/Hysterical_A1.jpg

I want it as flat as possible.

The fast ripple is the basic 1.5 MHz switcher frequency. The various
whoopie-doos are from loop dynamics and the chain of progressively
smaller, bias-tee-like damped inductors between the switcher and the
load. The constant-current hysterical switcher is, natively, about 4
or so orders of magnitude too slow for my application.

Everything interacts with everything else; it's like tuning a big LC
filter by hand, never a fun thing to do. Spice helps me acquire at
least some instincts for tuning. Maybe I can fix the cap values and
tune only resistors on the breadboard.

Rob, one of my guys, has a fierce Linux computer just for sims and
FPGA compiles, and he knows how to do automatic iterative parts value
tweaking in a loop around Spice. Maybe he can set up the problem and
run it for a couple of days or weeks.

I could probably step each of the six most important values, maybe 4
steps each, and pick the best waveform. That would be 4096 sims, about
60 hours of computing on my PC.

Or just plug it into Orcad PSpice, which has an optimizer option, to fit the response to whatever you need. Start simulation in the afternoon, drink beer, and show up for the solution in the morning. Not very informative theory wise, but it get the job done

Cheers

Klaus

 

[Lasse Langwadt Christense]

Den sřndag den 2. november 2014 23.03.01 UTC+1 skrev Martin Riddle:

On Sun, 2 Nov 2014 15:02:04 -0500, "Carl Ijames"
carl.ijamesXX@XXverizon.net> wrote:

"Joerg" wrote in message news:cbn7m2Fla99U1@mid.individual.net...

Joerg wrote:
Carl Ijames wrote:
Don't know about computation speed, but this link says the video card
will
drive 3 monitors:
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gt-720/specifications.
Looking at Dell's site I don't see any mention of expansion slots, and
looking at the one picture with the cover off I really can't see any
sockets
beyond the video card, so if any further expansion is important you need
to
ask Dell for clarification.


Looks like you are right:

http://www.dell.com/ed/business/p/xps-8700/pd
http://core0.staticworld.net/images/article/2013/07/1253541_sr-1160-100047019-orig.jpg
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2047487/dell-xps-8700-special-editions-review-a-little-less-performance-for-a-lot-less-cash.html

Quote "There's only one PCIe x16 slot, which means you won't be able to
add a second video card to take advantage of Nvidia's SLI technology".

No slots. There's one more card in the bottom, not sure what that is.
But if the video can drive three monitors it should be fine, I never
added any cards to my current PC either.


Only question is, how can one connect two regular OPC monitors to this?

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gt-720/product-images

DVI? You can get a Display port -> DVI adaptor. Dell sends them out
with their business laptops.

Cheers

it is HDMI, apart from encryption and audio it is the same as DVI


-Lasse

 

[Joerg]

Carl Ijames wrote:

Don't know about computation speed, but this link says the video card will
drive 3 monitors:
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gt-720/specifications.
Looking at Dell's site I don't see any mention of expansion slots, and
looking at the one picture with the cover off I really can't see any sockets
beyond the video card, so if any further expansion is important you need to
ask Dell for clarification.

Looks like you are right:

http://www.dell.com/ed/business/p/xps-8700/pd
http://core0.staticworld.net/images/article/2013/07/1253541_sr-1160-100047019-orig.jpg
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2047487/dell-xps-8700-special-editions-review-a-little-less-performance-for-a-lot-less-cash.html

Quote "There’s only one PCIe x16 slot, which means you won’t be able to
add a second video card to take advantage of Nvidia’s SLI technology".

No slots. There's one more card in the bottom, not sure what that is.
But if the video can drive three monitors it should be fine, I never
added any cards to my current PC either.

[...]

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

 

[Joerg]

Joerg wrote:

Carl Ijames wrote:
Don't know about computation speed, but this link says the video card will
drive 3 monitors:
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gt-720/specifications.
Looking at Dell's site I don't see any mention of expansion slots, and
looking at the one picture with the cover off I really can't see any sockets
beyond the video card, so if any further expansion is important you need to
ask Dell for clarification.


Looks like you are right:

http://www.dell.com/ed/business/p/xps-8700/pd
http://core0.staticworld.net/images/article/2013/07/1253541_sr-1160-100047019-orig.jpg
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2047487/dell-xps-8700-special-editions-review-a-little-less-performance-for-a-lot-less-cash.html

Quote "There’s only one PCIe x16 slot, which means you won’t be able to
add a second video card to take advantage of Nvidia’s SLI technology".

No slots. There's one more card in the bottom, not sure what that is.
But if the video can drive three monitors it should be fine, I never
added any cards to my current PC either.

Only question is, how can one connect two regular OPC monitors to this?

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gt-720/product-images

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

 

[Joerg]

John Larkin wrote:

On Sun, 02 Nov 2014 07:25:49 -0800, Joerg <news@analogconsultants.com
wrote:

Folks,

Need to spiff up my simulation speeds here. IIRC Mike Engelhardt stated
that the Intel i7 is a really good processor for LTSPice. According to
this it looks like the 4790 is the fastest of the bunch:

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/core/core-i7-processor.html

So, what do thee say, is the computer in the Costco link below a good
deal for LTSpice purposes?

http://www.costco.com/Dell-XPS-8700-Desktop-%7c-Intel-Core-i7-%7c-1GB-Graphics-%7c-Windows-7-Professional.product.100131208.html

It's also available without MS-Office Home & Student 2013 for $100 less
but I found that OpenOffice isn't 100% compatible in the Excel area so
that sounds like an ok deal. My hope is that it can drive two 27"
monitors but I guess I can always add in another graphics card if not.

Reason I am looking at these is that I absolutely positively do not want
any computer with Windows 8 in here and unfortunately that's what many
others come with.

I have spent too many hours this weekend tweaking the transient
response of a semi-hysteretic (we call it "hysterical") switchmode
constant-current source. There are about 8 interacting knobs to turn.
At 30 seconds per run, understanding the interactions is impossible.

That's exactly why I need all the speed I can get.

I want sliders on each of the part values, and I want to see the
waveforms change as I move the sliders, like they were trimpots on a
breadboard and I was looking at a scope. I need maybe 500 times the
compute power that I have now.

I use the .STEP command a lot, sometimes nested. Then I get multiple
sets of curve sets. But often I have to start it at night and see the
results the next morning. The nice thing in winter is that this
pre-heats the office.

Mike should code LT Spice to execute on a high-end video card.

There are so many variants of graphics cards that it would require tons
of work for Mike's team.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

 

[Joerg]

Phil Hobbs wrote:

On 11/2/2014 11:00 AM, John Larkin wrote:
On Sun, 02 Nov 2014 07:25:49 -0800, Joerg <news@analogconsultants.com
wrote:

Folks,

Need to spiff up my simulation speeds here. IIRC Mike Engelhardt stated
that the Intel i7 is a really good processor for LTSPice. According to
this it looks like the 4790 is the fastest of the bunch:

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/core/core-i7-processor.html


So, what do thee say, is the computer in the Costco link below a good
deal for LTSpice purposes?

http://www.costco.com/Dell-XPS-8700-Desktop-%7c-Intel-Core-i7-%7c-1GB-Graphics-%7c-Windows-7-Professional.product.100131208.html


It's also available without MS-Office Home & Student 2013 for $100 less
but I found that OpenOffice isn't 100% compatible in the Excel area so
that sounds like an ok deal. My hope is that it can drive two 27"
monitors but I guess I can always add in another graphics card if not.

Reason I am looking at these is that I absolutely positively do not want
any computer with Windows 8 in here and unfortunately that's what many
others come with.

I have spent too many hours this weekend tweaking the transient
response of a semi-hysteretic (we call it "hysterical") switchmode
constant-current source. There are about 8 interacting knobs to turn.
At 30 seconds per run, understanding the interactions is impossible.

I want sliders on each of the part values, and I want to see the
waveforms change as I move the sliders, like they were trimpots on a
breadboard and I was looking at a scope. I need maybe 500 times the
compute power that I have now.

Mike should code LT Spice to execute on a high-end video card.



You can go quite a bit faster with a nice multicore machine--LTspice
lets you choose how many threads to run. My desktop machine (about 3
years old now) runs about 150 Gflops peak. Supermicro is an excellent
vendor.

But they should work on their web site some more or get rid of scripting
or whatever. Other than a language selector it shows ... nothing.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

 

[Jim Thompson]

On Sun, 02 Nov 2014 09:28:33 -0800, Joerg <news@analogconsultants.com>
wrote:

John Larkin wrote:
[snip]

I have spent too many hours this weekend tweaking the transient
response of a semi-hysteretic (we call it "hysterical") switchmode
constant-current source. There are about 8 interacting knobs to turn.
At 30 seconds per run, understanding the interactions is impossible.


That's exactly why I need all the speed I can get.


I want sliders on each of the part values, and I want to see the
waveforms change as I move the sliders, like they were trimpots on a
breadboard and I was looking at a scope. I need maybe 500 times the
compute power that I have now.


I use the .STEP command a lot, sometimes nested. Then I get multiple
sets of curve sets. But often I have to start it at night and see the
results the next morning. The nice thing in winter is that this
pre-heats the office.

[snip]

Mostly I only use LTspice to run other's schematics or to run netlists
generated by PSpice, but I'd hazard a guess...

Either via .STEP or saving and superimposing data files I'm sure you
can generate a family of curves versus your knob twisting (though I
might make the argument that, if you "design" by knob twisting, you're
not much of a designer >:-}

Here's a trick I picked up a few years ago that allows tons of data
runs to be collected into a single postscript file:

Concatenate the following...

header.ps
yourfile1.ps
yourfile2.ps
yourfile3.ps
yourfile4.ps
| |
footer.ps

The result superimposes all your data runs into one postscript file
graph. (I then run the result thru Adobe Acrobat to convert to a
PDF.)

Here are the files you need....

header.ps:

%%
%% First things first, we set up the letter tray. Of course
%% if you wnated another tray, you could change this...
%%
[{
%%BeginFeature: *PageSize Letter
statusdict /lettertray get exec
%%EndFeature
} stopped cleartomark

%%
%% Windows drivers stick a 'control-d' at the end of jobs. This causes
%% many interpreters to think its the end of job (hang over from
serial
%% communication days). So, we define an operator called /4 which does
%% nothing.
%%
(\004) cvn {} bind def

%%
%% lettertray does different things on different interpeters. On Jaws
%% it just changesd the page size, on Adobe it seems to erase the page
%% too. Since we've already set it up once, its safe to zap the
%% definition.
%%
statusdict begin /lettertray {} bind def end

%%
%% Now we store the *original* definitions of the operators we are
%% about to change, in case we need them...
%%
/Mysetpagedevice /setpagedevice load def
/Myshowpage /showpage load def

%%
%% Now, we make sure that the job can't change our setup, which might
%% cause graphics state resets and other embarrasments.
%%
/setpagedevice {pop} bind def

%%
%% we redefine showpage so that it does nothing, this means that the
%% next 'page' will overlay the current page.
%%
/showpage {} bind def




footer.ps:

%%
%% Lastly we emit the *original* showpage definition to 'show' the
page
%%
Myshowpage




...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson | mens |
| Analog Innovations | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| San Tan Valley, AZ 85142 Skype: skypeanalog | |
| Voice480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.

 

[John Larkin]

On Sun, 02 Nov 2014 11:06:30 -0500, Phil Hobbs
<hobbs@electrooptical.net> wrote:

On 11/2/2014 11:00 AM, John Larkin wrote:
On Sun, 02 Nov 2014 07:25:49 -0800, Joerg <news@analogconsultants.com
wrote:

Folks,

Need to spiff up my simulation speeds here. IIRC Mike Engelhardt stated
that the Intel i7 is a really good processor for LTSPice. According to
this it looks like the 4790 is the fastest of the bunch:

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/core/core-i7-processor.html

So, what do thee say, is the computer in the Costco link below a good
deal for LTSpice purposes?

http://www.costco.com/Dell-XPS-8700-Desktop-%7c-Intel-Core-i7-%7c-1GB-Graphics-%7c-Windows-7-Professional.product.100131208.html

It's also available without MS-Office Home & Student 2013 for $100 less
but I found that OpenOffice isn't 100% compatible in the Excel area so
that sounds like an ok deal. My hope is that it can drive two 27"
monitors but I guess I can always add in another graphics card if not.

Reason I am looking at these is that I absolutely positively do not want
any computer with Windows 8 in here and unfortunately that's what many
others come with.

I have spent too many hours this weekend tweaking the transient
response of a semi-hysteretic (we call it "hysterical") switchmode
constant-current source. There are about 8 interacting knobs to turn.
At 30 seconds per run, understanding the interactions is impossible.

I want sliders on each of the part values, and I want to see the
waveforms change as I move the sliders, like they were trimpots on a
breadboard and I was looking at a scope. I need maybe 500 times the
compute power that I have now.

Mike should code LT Spice to execute on a high-end video card.



You can go quite a bit faster with a nice multicore machine--LTspice
lets you choose how many threads to run. My desktop machine (about 3
years old now) runs about 150 Gflops peak. Supermicro is an excellent
vendor.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

There's a setting for one or two threads. Is that all?


--

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc

jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com
http://www.highlandtechnology.com

 

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Sun, 02 Nov 2014 07:25:49 -0800, Joerg <news@analogconsultants.com>
wrote:

LTspice benchmark on various machines:
<http://fetting.se/images/PC%20Speed%20Benchmark%20running%20LTspice%20circuits.pdf>

Reason I am looking at these is that I absolutely positively do not want
any computer with Windows 8 in here and unfortunately that's what many
others come with.

Windoze 8.1 can be made semi-tolerable by putting the start menu back
in and making it look like Windoze 7.
<http://www.classicshell.net>
I've been installing it on all my customers Windoze 8.1 machines and
have had no complaints or problems. If you like wiggly icons on the
Windoze 8.1 start screen, you can do <Shift><Start>.

The damage control version of Windoze 10, that is possibly due some
time in the distant future, restores the start menu:
<http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/preview>
but otherwise currently looks like Windoze 8.1.

Incidentally, Halloween was the last day that Microsoft will ship
Windoze 7 licenses to OEM's.

The Dell XPS 8700 seems like a nice machine. However, if you want
performance, I suggest you look at an SSD drive for the OS.
<http://www.newegg.com/Internal-SSDs/SubCategory/ID-636>
I've had good luck with Samsung 840 EVO series drives (mostly 250GB).
The ritual is simple. I use Acronis True Image 2014 (not 2015) to
clone the hard disk to the SSD. I then replace the hard disk with the
SSD and test everything. When done, I wipe the hard disk, and install
it as a 2nd hard disk. If I need to return everything to stock, I
have the Acronis True Image 2014 backup image with which to recover
the initial installation. Elapsed time on a typical fast system is
about 1 hr.

Before buying anything, I suggest you try LTspice on the new machine.
This is VERY easy with LTspice which doesn't use the registry or
require admin rights. Just copy the files to a flash drive and it
should work.

One catch. LTspice saves its preferences to:
C:\windows\scad3.ini
which has to be writeable. The fix is to use the
-ini <path>
command line switch, which will:
Specify an .ini file to use other than %WINDIR%\scad3.ini
<http://ltwiki.org/LTspiceHelp/LTspiceHelp/Command_Line_Switches.htm>







--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

 

[Joerg]

Jeff Liebermann wrote:

On Sun, 02 Nov 2014 07:25:49 -0800, Joerg <news@analogconsultants.com
wrote:

LTspice benchmark on various machines:
http://fetting.se/images/PC%20Speed%20Benchmark%20running%20LTspice%20circuits.pdf

Reason I am looking at these is that I absolutely positively do not want
any computer with Windows 8 in here and unfortunately that's what many
others come with.

Windoze 8.1 can be made semi-tolerable by putting the start menu back
in and making it look like Windoze 7.
http://www.classicshell.net
I've been installing it on all my customers Windoze 8.1 machines and
have had no complaints or problems. If you like wiggly icons on the
Windoze 8.1 start screen, you can do <Shift><Start>.

Too much risk. I've heard that running legacy software is tough in Win-8
but Win-7 can mostly do it. Not as good as XP.

The damage control version of Windoze 10, that is possibly due some
time in the distant future, restores the start menu:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/preview
but otherwise currently looks like Windoze 8.1.

Incidentally, Halloween was the last day that Microsoft will ship
Windoze 7 licenses to OEM's.

Any guess how long MS will support Win-7?

The Dell XPS 8700 seems like a nice machine. However, if you want
performance, I suggest you look at an SSD drive for the OS.
http://www.newegg.com/Internal-SSDs/SubCategory/ID-636
I've had good luck with Samsung 840 EVO series drives (mostly 250GB).
The ritual is simple. I use Acronis True Image 2014 (not 2015) to
clone the hard disk to the SSD. I then replace the hard disk with the
SSD and test everything. When done, I wipe the hard disk, and install
it as a 2nd hard disk. If I need to return everything to stock, I
have the Acronis True Image 2014 backup image with which to recover
the initial installation. Elapsed time on a typical fast system is
about 1 hr.

When it comes to PCs I am lazy

I just want to plug it in and go. Re-installing all my stuff takes
enough time already.

Before buying anything, I suggest you try LTspice on the new machine.
This is VERY easy with LTspice which doesn't use the registry or
require admin rights. Just copy the files to a flash drive and it
should work.

I am quite sure Costco will not let me do this

One catch. LTspice saves its preferences to:
C:\windows\scad3.ini
which has to be writeable. The fix is to use the
-ini <path
command line switch, which will:
Specify an .ini file to use other than %WINDIR%\scad3.ini
http://ltwiki.org/LTspiceHelp/LTspiceHelp/Command_Line_Switches.htm

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

 

[Phil Hobbs]

On 11/2/2014 12:45 PM, John Larkin wrote:

On Sun, 02 Nov 2014 11:06:30 -0500, Phil Hobbs
hobbs@electrooptical.net> wrote:

On 11/2/2014 11:00 AM, John Larkin wrote:
On Sun, 02 Nov 2014 07:25:49 -0800, Joerg <news@analogconsultants.com
wrote:

Folks,

Need to spiff up my simulation speeds here. IIRC Mike Engelhardt stated
that the Intel i7 is a really good processor for LTSPice. According to
this it looks like the 4790 is the fastest of the bunch:

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/core/core-i7-processor.html

So, what do thee say, is the computer in the Costco link below a good
deal for LTSpice purposes?

http://www.costco.com/Dell-XPS-8700-Desktop-%7c-Intel-Core-i7-%7c-1GB-Graphics-%7c-Windows-7-Professional.product.100131208.html

It's also available without MS-Office Home & Student 2013 for $100 less
but I found that OpenOffice isn't 100% compatible in the Excel area so
that sounds like an ok deal. My hope is that it can drive two 27"
monitors but I guess I can always add in another graphics card if not.

Reason I am looking at these is that I absolutely positively do not want
any computer with Windows 8 in here and unfortunately that's what many
others come with.

I have spent too many hours this weekend tweaking the transient
response of a semi-hysteretic (we call it "hysterical") switchmode
constant-current source. There are about 8 interacting knobs to turn.
At 30 seconds per run, understanding the interactions is impossible.

I want sliders on each of the part values, and I want to see the
waveforms change as I move the sliders, like they were trimpots on a
breadboard and I was looking at a scope. I need maybe 500 times the
compute power that I have now.

Mike should code LT Spice to execute on a high-end video card.



You can go quite a bit faster with a nice multicore machine--LTspice
lets you choose how many threads to run. My desktop machine (about 3
years old now) runs about 150 Gflops peak. Supermicro is an excellent
vendor.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

There's a setting for one or two threads. Is that all?


That's because you only have two cores. Mine goes up to 15.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics

160 North State Road #203
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510

hobbs at electrooptical dot net
http://electrooptical.net

 

[Phil Hobbs]

On 11/2/2014 12:31 PM, Joerg wrote:

Phil Hobbs wrote:
On 11/2/2014 11:00 AM, John Larkin wrote:
On Sun, 02 Nov 2014 07:25:49 -0800, Joerg <news@analogconsultants.com
wrote:

Folks,

Need to spiff up my simulation speeds here. IIRC Mike Engelhardt stated
that the Intel i7 is a really good processor for LTSPice. According to
this it looks like the 4790 is the fastest of the bunch:

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/core/core-i7-processor.html


So, what do thee say, is the computer in the Costco link below a good
deal for LTSpice purposes?

http://www.costco.com/Dell-XPS-8700-Desktop-%7c-Intel-Core-i7-%7c-1GB-Graphics-%7c-Windows-7-Professional.product.100131208.html


It's also available without MS-Office Home & Student 2013 for $100 less
but I found that OpenOffice isn't 100% compatible in the Excel area so
that sounds like an ok deal. My hope is that it can drive two 27"
monitors but I guess I can always add in another graphics card if not.

Reason I am looking at these is that I absolutely positively do not want
any computer with Windows 8 in here and unfortunately that's what many
others come with.

I have spent too many hours this weekend tweaking the transient
response of a semi-hysteretic (we call it "hysterical") switchmode
constant-current source. There are about 8 interacting knobs to turn.
At 30 seconds per run, understanding the interactions is impossible.

I want sliders on each of the part values, and I want to see the
waveforms change as I move the sliders, like they were trimpots on a
breadboard and I was looking at a scope. I need maybe 500 times the
compute power that I have now.

Mike should code LT Spice to execute on a high-end video card.



You can go quite a bit faster with a nice multicore machine--LTspice
lets you choose how many threads to run. My desktop machine (about 3
years old now) runs about 150 Gflops peak. Supermicro is an excellent
vendor.


But they should work on their web site some more or get rid of scripting
or whatever. Other than a language selector it shows ... nothing.

Probably a NoScript issue, or something like that. Talk to Alexander at
alvio.com a primo Supermicro reseller, and tell him "Hi" from me.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics

160 North State Road #203
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510

hobbs at electrooptical dot net
http://electrooptical.net