154-Free Open-Source Software (FOSS) in Engineering

By: Raymond L. Barrett, Jr., PhD, PE

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Course Objective

This continuing education course is written specifically for professional engineers with the objective of relating to and enhancing the practice of engineering.

Course Description

154-Free Open-Source Software (FOSS) in Engineering

This course introduces the engineer to the subject of "Free Open-Source Software" (FOSS). Materials from various sources are referenced widely throughout the course. Each source of software is described along with a "screen shot" of its source from the internet. Although there is a rich history of free distribution of software, some commercial ventures have striven to eliminate the practice, providing proprietary commercial and often copyrighted software products as an alternative. Commercial software has its advantages with deep and wide support that is sometimes lacking in the open-source community. However, the price of commercial software is often a barrier-to-entry for emerging "Small and Medium Enterprise" (SME). The materials are introduced by progressing from a general case of operating system software and general-purpose documentation, modeling, and system-level examples through ever-more specialized tools. As a particular case exemplified in this course, the "Silicon Renaissance Initiative" is used to counter the high-cost of Engineering Design Automation (EDA) software tools and the design flow for that use in Integrated Circuit (IC) design. As commercial tools often require hundreds of thousands of dollars investment to support the design effort, FOSS EDA tools offer an attractive alternative. In the USA, with its copyright enforcement, the SME may face competition from foreign entities with "illegal" copies of commercial software and thus cannot compete. This course illustrates both the general tools available and useful for any computer user and professional engineer with any practice specialty, as well as the professional engineer involved in designing electronic circuits.

Questions about this course? Email the Author: raybarrett@comcast.net

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(3.7) 3 Reviews

154-Free Open-Source Software (FOSS) in Engineering

Kip Barkley

04/20/2020

Verified Buyer

A good update on what is going on with chip design.

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154-Free Open-Source Software (FOSS) in Engineering

Hector R Nazario

01/14/2019

Verified Buyer

Very limited audience

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154-Free Open-Source Software (FOSS) in Engineering

Edward Schober

05/30/2017

Verified Buyer

This was a good overview course, however there were a few very confusing sections, such as the difference between Magic and gEDA . Also some sections were too abbreviated, such as the section on Icarus Verilog which really did not explain what stage of development it was used and how it fit with the other components of EDA.

2 of 2 customers found this helpful.

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Course Code: 100206-13

Course PDH Hours: 4

Engineering Course Approvals

This course is accepted for engineering continuing education credit in all US states, territories, the District of Columbia, and Canadian provinces.
Ohio rules allow only 6-hours of unsupervised online courses such as this course per license renewal period
Kansas rules allow only 5-hours of self-study courses such as this course per license renewal period

About Course Approvals