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Silicon & EDA
Kerf vs Cadence Spectre
Spectre is the industry-standard commercial SPICE for tapeout — Kerf targets open PDK workflows and chat-driven exploration.
6/8in Kerf today
6/8in Cadence Spectre (included)
0behind a paid tier
2026-05-29last reviewed
Grouped by discipline (D1–D14), same as Kerf's own capability list. Click a section to expand it.
D6 Electronics / EDA / silicon
| Capability | Kerf | Cadence Spectre |
|---|---|---|
| SPICE — transient simulation |
yes
packages/kerf-silicon/src/kerf_silicon/bridges/ngspice_bridge.py
|
yes source ↗ |
| SPICE — PVT corner sweep (automated) |
yes
packages/kerf-silicon/src/kerf_silicon/analog/pvt.py
|
yes source ↗ |
| SPICE — Monte-Carlo mismatch |
yes
packages/kerf-silicon/src/kerf_silicon/analog/pvt.py
|
yes source ↗ |
| SPICE — commercial foundry PDK sign-off accuracy | no | yes source ↗ |
| SPICE — waveform viewer |
yes
src/components/silicon/WaveformViewer.jsx
|
yes source ↗ |
| SPICE — schematic-driven simulation |
partial
src/components/silicon/SpiceRunPanel.jsx
|
yes source ↗ |
| SPICE — license cost |
yes
LICENSE
|
no source ↗ |
| SPICE — chat-native / LLM-driven flow |
yes
packages/kerf-silicon/
|
no source ↗ |
- yes shipped
- partial works with limits
- paid tier present, but behind an add-on or meter
- no not available
Corrections welcome. These rows are read off published documentation on the date shown and go stale as products ship. If a row is wrong, open an issue — the source file is public/compare/cadence-spectre.md and every claim in it carries a link.