MICROELECTRONIC SYSTEMS NEWS
FILENUMBER: 1078
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FREE VLSI DESIGN SOFTWARE UNIX WINDOWS MACS ELECTRIC
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DATE: August 2002
TITLE: FREE VLSI DESIGN SOFTWARE FOR UNIX, WINDOWS AND MACS
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TITLE: FREE VLSI DESIGN SOFTWARE FOR UNIX, WINDOWS AND MACS
The Electric VLSI Design System was written by Steven Rubin and
is available at no charge on-line. Electric is a highly flexible
and powerful software system that can handle many different types
of circuit design (MOS, Bipolar, schematics, printed circuitry,
hardware description languages, etc.) The geometry can be at any
angle, not just Manhattan. Layout is done by placing and wiring
electrical components. Although this is standard practice for
schematics, it is unusual for chip layout. Electric has many
analysis tools, including design-rule checking, simulation, and
network comparison (LVS). It also has many synthesis tools,
including routing, compaction, silicon compilation, PLA
generation, and compensation. Artisan standard cell libraries can
be used; however, the supplied auto place and route software uses
the old style of alternating standard-cell rows with routing
rows. Electric interfaces well with SPICE, IRSIM and DRACULA and
includes a FPGA architecture which can be configured or
programmed. The software provides for 3-D visualization of a
layout which facilitates the understanding of the interaction
among layers. The user interface is quite sophisticated and runs
on all popular workstations (Windows, Macintosh, and UNIX). It
also provides interpretive languages (Lisp, TCL, and Java) for
advanced users. The most interesting feature of the system is its
global enforcement of connectivity which provides top-down design
capability and ease of post-design modifications.
In addition to extensive on-line documentation for the software,
a textbook entitled "Computer Aids for VLSI Design" is also
available at no charge on-line. For additional information,
contact:
Static Free Software
4119 Alpine Road
Portola Valley, California 94028
TEL: (650)-851-2927
FAX: (650)-851-9095
strubin@staticfreesoft.com
http://www.staticfreesoft.com
=== Added Jan. 03:
>From David Harris
I've been using Electric for three years at Harvey Mudd College.
The tool has improved remarkably over this time. It runs on
Windows, Unix, and Mac. It works fairly well for basic design
tasks: schematics, layout, DRC, ERC, LVS, switch-level
simulation (with IRSIM), and SPICE netlisting. It has
rudamentary place-and-route capability and a Java language
interface. It's biggest limitation at this point in my opinion
is the inability to read CIF or GDS into geometry that Electric
can usefully manipulate. New releases come out often, but some
are more stable than others.
I have a sequence of five labs in which students design an 8-bit
MIPS microprocessor. We are about to use the labs for the third
year at HMC. You can download them at: E158
The first lab teaches most of what you need to know to get
started with Electric. We have successfully fabricated a number
of chips with MOSIS in the AMI 1.5 and 0.6 micron processes and
have a pad frame generator for the 0.6 micron process. Sun
Microsystems Laboratories also uses Electric for research chips.
I'm happy to share our work to increase the Electric user base.
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^ Prof. David Harris email: David_Harris@hmc.edu ^
^ Department of Engineering URL: http://www3.hmc.edu/~harris ^
^ Harvey Mudd College ^
^ 301 E. Twelfth St. (909) 607-3623 (office) ^
^ Claremont CA 91711 USA (909) 621-8967 (fax) ^
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dbouldin@utk.edu