Custom IC Design - All Comments

Hi Paul, You may ...

stacyw — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:58:10 GMT

Hi Paul,

You may find what you need in my latest post:

www.cadence.com/.../things-you-didn-t-know-about-virtuoso-we-re-in-your-corner.aspx

Measurements across corners was implemented in 6.1.5 ISR6, so you should have access to it. You'll need to run your sweep as a corners run, then you can make various measurements on the results using the measured values over the swept corners variable(s).

Hope this helps.

Stacy

Hi Stacy I want t ...

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 22:26:46 GMT

Hi Stacy

I want to do what you mentioned above:

'make some measurement relating measured values from different points in a parameter sweep'

I need to sweep a variable, e.g. amplitude, and measure the step size of an output that needs skill to do the calculation (an ocean output instead of expr). I have done it the ugly way where I broke the sweep into individual tests. This very un-weildy and not very flexible.

Since it has been over a year since you made the comment ' We are planning this capability for a future enhancement.' do you know if anything has been done?

I am running IC6.1.5.500.8

Paul

IDF can be used from ...

Anonymous — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 02:36:04 GMT

IDF can be used from GXL or XL.

So, in GXL, or XL environment,

“Interactive DRC Fixing” will appear one of the items in the “Optimize” menu.

To active XL, or GXL,

Select Launch > Layout GXL (or Layout XL) from the menu bar on a layout window.

Hiroshi Ishikawa

Hi,this feature ...

Anonymous — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 05:40:20 GMT

Hi,

this feature looks very interesting. How do I start the Interactive Design violation Fixing (IDF) in Virtuoso. In the Optimize menu I do not see any menu item with that name.

Regards,

Thomas

Hi, Does anyone kno ...

micsa — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 12:18:57 GMT

Hi,

Does anyone know how to use a config file correctly with ADEXL? When I open up both the config file and the schematic, then open up ADEXL from the schematic window, it shows that I am using the config file in the top of the window. But when I make changes to the config file, ie using an extracted parastic view instead of schematic view- How do I put these changes into effect? When I netlist from ADEXL, after making changes to config view, it doesnt seem to take into account the changes to the config view for the cell.... Any help would be appreciated...

Michael

Hi, Thanks for th ...

stacyw — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 16:11:20 GMT

Hi,

Thanks for the question. I actually don't see any shortcut way to do this. Of course, you can bring the expression into the buffer and edit it there, or send it to the Expression Editor in the calculator and edit it there (or save to, edit in then load from an external file). But I don't think you can repopulate all the fields of the function to create a new instance of the function.

That said, the calculator will tend to remember the last values you used for any given function, so the next time you create, say, a slew rate function, the fields will be populated with the values you used the last time.

Stacy

Hi, No, you shouldn ...

stacyw — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 15:59:55 GMT

Hi,

No, you shouldn't need to use "save setup state". Any expressions you create in ADE XL should be saved when you hit the save button in ADE XL. They are also saved automatically when you run a simulation. As long as the expression appears in the ADE XL Output Setup panel, it should be saved. If this is not the case, please file an SR with Customer Support and I'm sure they can help you.

Thanks,

Stacy

How can i push an ex ...

rkic — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 19:39:14 GMT

How can i push an expression in the calculatior buffer into the function panel such that it auto populates the corresponding fields in the function panel with the appropriate values? My intent here is to be able to re-use some of the fields and make updates to some of them without having to create a function from scratch.

If i create an outpu ...

Anonymous — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 19:07:10 GMT

If i create an output expression (for say measuring the slew rate of my output wave) in ADEXL, and this new expression is not yet saved in any of the states. If i just save my ADEXL view as a cellview using the save button inside ADEXL, my expressions are not retained when i quit and re-load the cellview. Should i use "save setup state" to save my expressions?

Watching this was ve ...

deana — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 15:29:57 GMT

Watching this was very informative. I think many customers would like to skip the first 7:30 min of the video but all in all it was really very good. Stacy is so precise and her ability to get to the meat of the flow is terrific. Nigel is well versed and the animated slide change during the video portions of the webinar are greatly appreciated. It helps keep your attention and know when we are changing subjects.

A very informative webinar/demo

Thanks

Thanks for the quest ...

Anonymous — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 17:21:40 GMT

Thanks for the question. The probe colors are by default on drawing layers y0-y9, which you can edit in your display.drf to be whatever you like. (I usually like to make their line style as "thickLine" for better visibility).

There is also an environment variable that controls the probe layers, so you can put the following in your .cdsinit:

envSetVal("schematic" "probeHiliteLppList" 'string "mylayer1 drawing mylayer2 drawing ...")

To define the probe colors to whatever layers you like.

Regards,

Stacy

Hi Stacy, when I hig ...

Anonymous — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 16:47:54 GMT

Hi Stacy, when I highlight a net by "9", it gets highlighted by dotted line. I want to highlight it by solid bold line. Can you please let me know how can I do that?? especially can I do that by editing display.drf file? Thanks a lot.

Thanks for the quest ...

Team SKILL — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 16:12:54 GMT

Thanks for the question. It's a very good question actually. As with most simple examples used for teaching purposes, there is usually an easier way. It would be pretty easy to write this without using OO infact.

This observation is a strength of the SKILL language as a whole. You may choose to use function programming style, object oriented style, imperative style, or any mix of these as your problem demands.

-jim

How difficult will i ...

Anonymous — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 05:58:31 GMT

How difficult will it be to do this without OOP in plain SKILL?

Hi, Gosh, I'm sor ...

stacyw — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 20:45:07 GMT

Hi,

Gosh, I'm sorry I didn't see this earlier. Our comment notification system is a bit problematic at times.

Actually, ADE XL automatically saves the results of each run. If you take a look at the History tab in the Data View assistant, you'll likely see a bunch of "Interactive.X" entries representing past simulation runs. The number of entries which are saved is controlled under the Options->Save... dialog from ADE XL.

More importantly, if you RMB (right mouse button) on a history item, you can select "Lock" to make sure those results will not be deleted when you hit the maximum number of saved entries.

(If you double-click on the title of the entry--"Interactive.X"--before you lock it, you can change it's name to something more meaningful)

I hope this helps.

Stacy

Hi, Thanks. Th ...

stacyw — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 20:34:19 GMT

Hi,

Thanks.

There is an extensive set of Skill API commands useful for interacting with ADE XL. Refer to the Virtuoso Analog Design Environment XL SKILL Reference manual.

The commands you are looking involve setting up a pre-run trigger function, which can be done using the command "axlSessionConnect". This also allows you to create triggers into many other events in the ADE XL environment.

The function can be integrated into every ADE XL session using the command "axlSessionRegisterCreationCallback".

Something like (apologies to the person from whom I've plagiarized this):

(define (RegisterPreRunCallback session_name)

(axlSessionConnect session_name "preRun" 'PreRun))

;; when ADE XL creates a new session it will call the RegisterPreRunCallback

(axlSessionRegisterCreationCallback 'RegisterPreRunCallback)

(define (PreRun session_name sdb_handle mode_string test_name)

(printf "Launching a new run %L %L %L %L\n" session_name sdb_handle mode_string test_name)

;; per-run customization goes here

)

Enjoy!

Stacy

In IC615 and newer v ...

Anonymous — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 07:26:03 GMT

In IC615 and newer versions, if you select multiple signals from the graph or the browser and then click on the Calculator icon, all of these will go to the calculator (this is an enhancement to the push use model). The last signal will stay in the calculator buffer and the others will line up on the stack. This avoids selecting each signal one at a time.

In IC615, there is now a toolbar which displays the Favorites functions. So, it is now even easier to find your most commonly used functions.

Also, since IC 614, the Expression Editor has been introduced, which has all (and more) features than the Memory Editor. The Memory Editor will taken out in IC616. The Expression Editor supports dependent expressions.

IN IC 614, we also introduced the AWD favorite keys app, plot, and erplot. See if you can find these (hint: these are on a toolbar).

Hi, Nice article. ...

Anonymous — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 13:36:25 GMT

Hi,

Nice article.

Do you know what skill command I need to use for customize changes behind the green play button in ADEXL?

For Ex.

Make "hello" prompt on the CIW every play hit.

Thanks,

Alon.

Apart from the usual ...

manrajgujral — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 08:52:23 GMT

Apart from the usual GUI changes , i find the ADE XL pretty neat. I have just started a project and this would be the first time for me using corner simulations, and i have ineed found variety of tools which help the designers to great extent. similicity in using the sweep simulations (corner simulations), improved simulation result storing etc. I havnt looked back to ADE after using the XL version.

Although it has been a good experience using ADE XL , there have been few hicups and indded Cadence could improve them greatly. Specially the current probing in the schematic still reamans an issue. you can still do it, but it isnt as intutive as other tools in the market, adn designer tends to focus on the net Voltages inorder to avoid the current probing.

If you want to sort ...

Team SKILL — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 10:11:08 GMT

If you want to sort a list like the one below, with the following priorities:

1. the name in the second position ("bill" "fred" "george" "jane") in alphabetical order,

2. the ->y field of the dpl in the 3rd position in increasing order,

3. the ->x field of the dpl in the 3rd position in increasing order,

4. the element in the first position in increasing order

(sort `((10 "fred" (nil x 1.1 y 1.2))

(11 "george" (nil x 1.1 y 1.2))

(11 "jane" (nil x 1.1 y 1.2))

(14 "jane" (nil x 1.1 y 1.2))

(10 "fred" (nil x 1.3 y 1.2))

(14 "fred" (nil x 1.2 y 1.2))

(13 "fred" (nil x 1.3 y 1.2))

(11 "jane" (nil x 1.2 y 1.2))

(10 "bill" (nil x 1.1 y 1.22))

(14 "jane" (nil x 1.2 y 1.4))

(10 "bill" (nil x 1.1 y 1.24))

(10 "fred" (nil x 1.2 y 1.2))

(10 "bill" (nil x 1.1 y 1.23))

(11 "jane" (nil x 1.2 y 1.21))

(12 "fred" (nil x 1.2 y 1.2))

(13 "fred" (nil x 1.2 y 1.2))

(14 "jane" (nil x 1.2 y 1.22))

(10 "fred" (nil x 1.1 y 1.23))

(10 "bill" (nil x 1.1 y 1.2))

(10 "george" (nil x 1.1 y 1.2)))

(genCascadeCmpFunction cadr alphalessp

(lambda (obj) (nth 2 obj)->y) lessp

(lambda (obj) (nth 2 obj)->x) lessp

car lessp))

This evaluates to the following list:

((10 "bill" (nil x 1.1 y 1.2))

(10 "bill" (nil x 1.1 y 1.22))

(10 "bill" (nil x 1.1 y 1.23))

(10 "bill" (nil x 1.1 y 1.24))

(10 "fred" (nil x 1.1 y 1.2))

(10 "fred" (nil x 1.2 y 1.2))

(12 "fred" (nil x 1.2 y 1.2))

(13 "fred" (nil x 1.2 y 1.2))

(14 "fred" (nil x 1.2 y 1.2))

(10 "fred" (nil x 1.3 y 1.2))

(13 "fred" (nil x 1.3 y 1.2))

(10 "fred" (nil x 1.1 y 1.23))

(10 "george" (nil x 1.1 y 1.2))

(11 "george" (nil x 1.1 y 1.2))

(11 "jane" (nil x 1.1 y 1.2))

(14 "jane" (nil x 1.1 y 1.2))

(11 "jane" (nil x 1.2 y 1.2))

(11 "jane" (nil x 1.2 y 1.21))

(14 "jane" (nil x 1.2 y 1.22))

(14 "jane" (nil x 1.2 y 1.4)))

Another example: ...

Team SKILL — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 10:07:59 GMT

Another example:

If you want to sort a list of DPLs, first according to the ->x field,
then the ->y field, and finally the ->z field, you can use something like the following:

(sort '((nil x 1.1 y 1.3 z 1.2)

(nil x 2.1 y 1.3 z 1.3)

(nil x 3.1 y 1.2 z 1.3)

(nil x 4.1 y 1.2 z 1.3)

(nil x 2.1 y 1.3 z 1.4)

(nil x 4.1 y 1.3 z 1.3)

(nil x 2.1 y 1.2 z 1.3)

(nil x 3.1 y 1.3 z 1.4)

(nil x 1.1 y 1.3 z 1.3)

(nil x 3.1 y 1.3 z 1.3)

(nil x 1.1 y 1.2 z 1.3)

(nil x 4.1 y 1.3 z 1.4))

(genCascadeCmpFunction (getter 'x) lessp

(getter 'y) lessp

(getter 'z) lessp))

This expression evaluates to the following list.

((nil x 1.1 y 1.2 z 1.3)

(nil x 1.1 y 1.3 z 1.2)

(nil x 1.1 y 1.3 z 1.3)

(nil x 2.1 y 1.2 z 1.3)

(nil x 2.1 y 1.3 z 1.3)

(nil x 2.1 y 1.3 z 1.4)

(nil x 3.1 y 1.2 z 1.3)

(nil x 3.1 y 1.3 z 1.3)

(nil x 3.1 y 1.3 z 1.4)

(nil x 4.1 y 1.2 z 1.3)

(nil x 4.1 y 1.3 z 1.3)

(nil x 4.1 y 1.3 z 1.4))

More examples of how ...

Team SKILL — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 10:05:17 GMT

More examples of how to use sort and genCascadeCmpFunction might be helpful.

If you want to sort a list of 3-d points, first by the x-coord, next by the y-coord, and finally by the z-coord, you can use the following.

(sort '((1 2 3)

(3 2 1)

(2 1 3)

(1 1 2)

(4 1 2)

(1 1 1)

(1 2 4)

(4 2 2)

(2 1 1)

(1 1 3)

(4 1 1)

(1 2 1)

(3 1 2))

(genCascadeCmpFunction car lessp

cadr lessp

caddr lessp))

This expression returns the following list of ordered points:

((1 1 1)

(1 1 2)

(1 1 3)

(1 2 1)

(1 2 3)

(1 2 4)

(2 1 1)

(2 1 3)

(3 1 2)

(3 2 1)

(4 1 1)

(4 1 2)

(4 2 2))

Hi Stacy, Do you ...

Anonymous — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 18:17:41 GMT

Hi Stacy,

Do you know, in ADE XL, how I can save the simulation results (especially waveforms) to some other places like we used to "Results->Save..." in ADE L?

I am trying all different settings for my testbenches, and need to store the results to somewhere else to prevent it from being deleted if I rerun the sims with a different setting.

Simply going into the results/data (under adexl view directory) and changing the subdirectories' name do not seem working properly...

Hi, Thanks for the v ...

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 08:51:00 GMT

Hi, Thanks for the video , so helpful, would be good to update for 6.1.5 as well.

I just tried out the ...

Anonymous — Mon, 16 May 2011 19:15:26 GMT

I just tried out the magnifier. Really cool! The F11 assistant toggle is also a great tip. Thanks!

The thumbnails are s ...

stacyw — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 23:05:57 GMT

The thumbnails are stored as png files in the cellview directory, so you could go into the myLib/myCell/schematic directory, for example and get "thumbnail_128x128.png" for a given cell to use elsewhere. Check out the Cadence Library Manager User Guide for more details about generating thumbnails.

Also, if you just wa ...

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 21:05:26 GMT

Also, if you just want to temporarily hide the assistants to make more room, you can hit the "F11" key and that will toggle the visibility for the assistants. No need to close them permanently. Give it a try!

Hi, Is there any ...

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 09:33:09 GMT

Hi,

Is there any function that allow this new thumbnail feature to be used outside the library manager?

for example, in my GUI i would like this feature in it, is it possible? Please email me if this is possible thanks

Loking forward to se ...

Anonymous — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 01:39:10 GMT

Loking forward to see a full demo at DAC in San Diego. After that I can write my comments...

Thank you for your c ...

mrkelly — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 18:41:57 GMT

Thank you for your comments.

I work in Virtuoso Layout product management and would like to better understand the challenges you are experiencing with IC6.1 layout. I have also specifically worked with several customers on developing metrics and measuring productivity on IC6.1, so I would be interested to hear more about your method as well. Some of those working arrangements with customers started out in a similar situation as yours, after their first experience with IC6.1 and we were able to collectively and quickly make improvements. Please contact me directly at kelly@cadence.com, and I would be glad to follow up with you.

Thank you again.

Mike Kelly

Virtuoso IC 6.1 is a ...

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 13:16:13 GMT

Virtuoso IC 6.1 is a maybe a fine tool for digital schematic designers, and for sure, it is a big improvement regarding the interface capabilities and visuals. Now for analog layout designers, it is a different song as it seems that the tool was created mainly for digital designs. It still lacks some maturity and adapted flexibility to handle a custom analog design as good as the old and venerable cdb-based Virtuoso.

As a matter of fact, we have been using this version on all new projects since the beginning of the year, so we had some time to build metrics: on the layout implementation productivity, the old Virtuoso cdb based environment still outperforms the new Virtuoso by a fair 20%.

I can't say for sure ...

stacyw — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 18:26:52 GMT

I can't say for sure what the problem is, but you'll need to make sure the function definition is loaded (e.g. loaded in your .cdsinit file) and accessible when ADE XL launches the job on the remote machine using whatever job distribution mechanism you have. I'm sure Customer Support can help you with details.

Stacy

Virtuoso IC6.1.x is ...

Anonymous — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 21:17:53 GMT

Virtuoso IC6.1.x is a 24-bit true color application, whereas Virtuoso IC5.1.41 is a 8-bit color application. It is therefore necessary for all visuals, including all native Linux, or Exceed onDemand to support 24-bit planes.

We are using EOD for ...

Anonymous — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 18:33:45 GMT

We are using EOD for 6 years now and it works very well.

However with IC5 and EOD6, unless you set server visual to pseudocolor or 8bit color plane we see mouse tracks in icfb.

We tried using EOD7 but saw the issues as mentioned.

EOD8 is out now and we will be testing that soon with IC6

Vijay

I have a user define ...

_temp_3d92703f-d014-49b2-bee8-0a22d8fbb852 — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 20:49:08 GMT

I have a user defined function that works in the calculator. But when I use that in the Output Setup of ADEXL, it doesn't work. It says the function is not defined.

Please help with this.

Excellent question. ...

stacyw — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 19:01:31 GMT

Excellent question. After some investigation, I've found that blinking highlights for selected or probed objects are not supported in IC 6.1.X for performance reasons, particular with the widespread use of Virtuoso through thin clients such as Citrix, Exceed, etc. There is an outstanding request to make this an option, so you may want to file an SR with Customer Support if you feel this is crticial for you.

Regards,

Stacy

how do we let a net ...

Anonymous — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 11:27:17 GMT

how do we let a net blink (not just a color but blinking color) on probing. which layer in display.drf should be modified and is there any other step involved other than modifying display.drf ??

Mark, SpectreMDL can ...

AMSamirj — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 06:31:53 GMT

Mark, SpectreMDL can be submitted to DP. MDL can be pointed to any result directories (even ones created during a distributed run) by using the -outdir option. DP monte carlo runs are a different beast all together. If you need assistance running MDL on MC we can assist you, please open an SR with my AMS team.

@Vladimir Sorry for ...

AMSamirj — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 06:23:59 GMT

@Vladimir Sorry for the late response. I have not done any testing with hyper threading so I can't directly comment but I know that we have not received reports of performance issues with it enabled.

Hi Nazia, I'm glad ...

Team SKILL — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 11:09:45 GMT

Hi Nazia, I'm glad you liked the article. There are plenty more to come.

nice article about t ...

Anonymous — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 10:20:14 GMT

nice article about the translation i really like this and i hope that every one will like this

thanks to share with us

Hi Andrew, thanks fo ...

Team SKILL — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 20:07:59 GMT

Hi Andrew, thanks for the comments. Dynamic variables are interesting creatures. They certainly provide the SKILL language with an expert feature that few languages can match, especially co-called modern ones. They'll become even more powerful in combination with some cool upcoming features of 615 and 616.

-jim

Probably some reader ...

Andrew Beckett — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 18:28:14 GMT

Probably some readers have not grasped the difference between dynamic and lexical scoping (Jim's explanation was a little terse) - in fact most people may have assumed that the scoping was actually lexical in traditional SKILL.

Lexical scoping is probably the more natural - the extent of the binding of a variable is the block of code (or text, hence the term "lexical") that it is defined in. So you can clearly see where a name is valid, and which variable is which. As I think Jim will show in future postings, you can use this lexical scoping for some pretty neat features in SKILL++.

Dynamic scoping can be thought of as a each variable being a stack - as you declare each variable in a let() (or similar) or define it as a formal parameter of a function, it pushes the new value onto the top of the stack, and then pops it off when that let() or function has returned. What this means is that the binding of a variable may not actually be global - it will see whatever is on the top of the stack at that point in the program's execution. Now this can be extremely useful, and allow you to do some powerful things, but it's probably more of an expert feature and for most users the effects of dynamic scoping only show up when you accidentally forget to declare a local variable.

So I would suggest that lexical scoping is more intuitive and easier to grasp and take advantage of for most novice users, and that dynamic scoping (or at least taking advantage of dynamic scoping) is more of an expert feature.

The lesson is - don't be scared by the "++" in the name SKILL++! You can completely ignore the object system if that scares you (although it shouldn't), yet still take advantage of the neat features that come as a result of lexical scoping without it hurting your brain!

Andrew.

Hi Chanakaya, Ye ...

Team SKILL — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 06:27:31 GMT

Hi Chanakaya,

Yes that's right. You can also use the inSkill and inScheme macros/primitives to surround code you want evaluated with particular scoping. E.g.,

(inScheme

(defvar XYZ 42))

(inSkill

(defvar XYZ -13))

(inScheme XYZ)

==> 42

(inSkill XYZ)

==> -13

-jim

For those who want t ...

chanakaya — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 21:33:44 GMT

For those who want to try it out interactively with a REPL, type

(toplevel 'ils) in the CIW and go from there.

Does spectreMDL supp ...

MarkSummers — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 14:51:21 GMT

Does spectreMDL support distributed runs. This would be useful for monteCarlo Simulations

Hi Kari, many thanks ...

Team SKILL — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 07:24:55 GMT

Hi Kari, many thanks. I'm happy that you find the advise useful. I hope you're able to find the other references I mentioned. I'll try to include more examples from Norvig (and others) in upcoming articles.

Great article. I oft ...

Anonymous — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 17:50:32 GMT

Great article. I often start my programs with an English description, but have never thought of translating the code back to English to check the clarity. I like it!

Not really. The num ...

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 02:33:25 GMT

Not really. The number of simulation licenses is dictated by the "Max Jobs" setting in the Job Policy Setup form. The "run in series/parallel" options just control how those "Max Jobs" get distributed.

Licenses / Tokens - ...

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 14:48:41 GMT

Licenses / Tokens - If I'm running standard Spectre simulations. Is is correct that setting the "Runs in series" option will only pull 1 spectre license OR 1 MMSIM token and use it each time a new run starts, but "Runs in parallel" will pull licenses/tokens for however many runs I'm trying to do at once? So, for say 3 simulation runs, series only takes 1 license/token, but parallel would pull 3.