Article View: comp.lsi
Article #696comp.lsi.cad Frequently Asked Questions With Answers (Part 2/2) [LONG]
From: Michael Altarriba
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 18:00
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 18:00
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45295 bytes
Archive-name: lsi-cad-faq/part2
synthesis
- De Micheli, G.: "HERCULES - A System for High-Level Synthesis", Proceedings
of the 25th ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference, pp. 483-488, IEEE 1988
SEHWA
- University of Southern California, USA
- pipeline-realizations from behavioral descriptions
- Park, N. "SEWHA: A Program for Synthesis of Pipelines", Proc. 23rd ACM/IEEE
Design Automation Conference, pp. 454-460, IEEE 1986.
SIEMENS' SYNTHESIS SYSTEM
- Siemens, Germany
- partitioning, data path allocation and scheduling
- Scheichenzuber, J. et al.: "Global Hardware Synthesis from
Behavioral Dataflow Descriptions", Proc. of the 27th DAC, pp. 456-461,
June 1990.
SOCRATES
- General Electric, University of Colorado, USA
- expert system
- logic optimization and mapping for different technologies
- de Geus, A.J., "The Socrates Logic Synthesis and Optimization System",
Design Systems for VLSI Circuits, pp. 473-498, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers,
1987.
SPAID
- Universty of Waterloo, Canada
- DSP-synthesis for silicon compiler realizations
- Haroun, B.: "Architectural Synthesis for DSP Silicon Compilers", IEEE
Transactions on Computer-Aided Design, pp. 431-447, Vol. 8, No 4, April 1989.
SYNFUL
- Bell-Northern Research, Canada
- RTL and FSM synthesis for a production environment
- G. Ward, "Logic Synthesis at BNR: A SYNFUL Story", Proceedings
Canadian Conference on Very Large Scale Integration, October 1990.
SYSTEM ARCHITECT'S WORKBENCH
- Carnagie-Mellon University, USA
- behavioral synthesis
- Thomas, D. "The System Architect's Workbench", Proceedings of the 25th
ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference, pp. 337-343, IEEE 1988
UCB'S SYNTHESIS SYSTEM
- UCB, USA
- transformations, scheduling and data path allocation
- Devadas, S.: "Algorithms for Hardware Allocation in Data Path
Synthesis", IEEE Trans. on CAD, pp. 768-781, July 89
SPLICER
- University of Illinois, USA
- scheduling and data-path allocation
- Pangrle, B.M.: "Splicer: A Heuristic Approach to Connectivity
Binding", Proc. of the 25th DAC, pp. 536-541, June 1988.
V COMPILER
- IBM, USA
- scheduling and data path allocation from V-language
- Berstis, V: "The V Compiler: Automatic Hardware Design", IEEE Design
and Test, pp. 8-17, April 1989.
VSS
- Univ. of California at Irvine, USA
- transformations, scheduling and data path allocation from VHDL to
MILO
- Lis, J. et al.: "Synthesis from VHDL", Proc. ICCD'88, pp. 378-381,
October 1988.
YORKTOWN SILICON COMPILER
- IBM T.J.Watson Research Centre, USA
- data path synthesis, logic synthesis etc.
- Brayton, R.K., et al. "The Yorktown Silicon Compiler", Silicon Compilation,
pp. 204-311, Addison-Wesley, 1988
17: What free tools are there available, and what can they do?
(This section can be viewed as a cross reference to the detailed descrip-
tion of software that follows.)
Analog VLSI and Neural Systems: Caltech VLSI CAD Tools
Automated place and route: octtools, Lager
Digital design environment: Galaxy CAD
Lsi (polygon) schematic capture: magic, octtools(vem)
Layout Verification: caltech tools (netcmp), gemini (Washington
Univerity), wellchk (MUG)
PCB auto/manual place and route: PADS pcb, PCB (Just for testing lsi
designs, of course :)
Simulation: irsim(comes with magic), esim, pspice, isplice3, watand,
switcap2
Synthesis: octtools, blis, Lager, item, (see section on synthesis)
Standard schematic capture: PADS logic, PSPICE for windows
18: What Berkeley Tools are available for anonymous ftp?
available from ic.berkeley.edu: (pub)
adore: switched capacitor layout generator. (Requires Octtools 5.1 to
compile.)
bdd:
road: analog layout router
sis: simplifies both sum-of-products and generic multi-level boolean
expressions; it includes many tools including espresso, bdd
ext2spice: enhanced ext2spice for use with magic
available from gatekeeper.dec.com: (pub/misc)
espresso: simplifies sum-of-products boolean expressions
19: What Berkeley Tools are available through ILP?
(From MUG 20 Contributed by Carol Block of U. C. Berkeley)
A new version of the popular circuit simulator, Spice3F2, is now avail-
able from the Industrial Liaison Program (ILP) Office at the University
of California, Berkeley. A new release of Octtools will be forthcoming
in 1993. Enclosed is a list of software distributed by this office.
Adore, BBL.2, Berkeley Building-Block Layout System, Berkeley Computer
Integrated Manufacturing System, Parameter Extraction Program for BSIM,
Parameter Extraction for BSIM2, Bear-FP, Bert, BLIS, Spice 2G with BSIM
Implementation, Cider, Ditroff/Gremlin, Ecstasy, EDIF 2 0 0, Elogic,
ES1:Electrostatis 1-Dimensional Periodic Plasma, Franz Lisp, Gabriel,
Glitter, IBC: Traveling-Wave-Tube Simulation, IEEE-754 Test Vector, Jsim,
Jspice, Lanso, Magic-X11R3-Patch, Magic 1990 Decwrl/Livermore Release,
Mahjong, Mighty, Octtools, Parmex Pix-Parmex, Plasma Device Simulation
Codes, PLA Tools, Proteus, Ptolemy, Relax, Ritual, Sample, Sample-3D,
Additional SAMPLE Documentation, Simpl-IPX and Simpl System 5, SIS, SPAM,
Sparse, Spectre, Spice 2G6, Spice 3F2, Additional SPICE Documentation,
Splat, Splice 3.0, Supercrystal, SWEC, Tempest, TimberWolf 3.2, Tsize,
1986 VLSI Tools, Wombat.
Within a few weeks, a new catalog will be available via anonymous FTP.
Users will also be able to obtain forms, ordering instruc- tions and some
software via this means. Generally, recipients will have to com-
plete an Agreement Form and pay a documentation and handling fee of about
$250 per program.
ILP can now distribute most of its programs in a variety of media,
including: QIC-120, QIC-150, QIC-320, 8mm (2.2 gig), TK 50 (DEC tape for-
mat), 9-track 1600 bpi and 9-track 6250 bpi. Visa and Mastercard ord-
ers will be accepted on-line by 1993. Most of the software may be freely
redistributed either within an organi- zation or to other organiza-
tions, both within the United States and abroad, subject to the certain
restrictions, including all U.S. Government restrictions, particu-
larly those concerning ex- port.
For additional information, contact:
Industrial Liaison Program
205 Cory Hall
Software Distribution Office
University of California at Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720
TEL: (510) 643-6687
FAX: (510) 643-6694
ilpsoftware@hera.berkeley.edu
20: Berkeley Spice (Current version 3f2)
(From spice_info on ic.berkeley.edu)
Acquiring Spice 3f2
For more information on how to acquire Spice3f2, please send your physi-
cal mailing address to "ilpsoftware@berkeley.edu" and request a software
catalog. This will give you all of the necessary information for order-
ing Spice3f2 and other Berkeley CAD software, including an order form and
use agreements. At last check, the cost for spice3f2 was $250.00 (this
price may change without notice).
Systems supported and Formats Supplied
Spice3f2 has been compiled on the following systems:
Ultrix 4, RISC or VAX
SunOS 4, Sun3 or Sun4
AIX V3, RS/6000
HP-UX 8.0, 9000/700
MS-DOS on the IBM PC, using MicroSoft C 5.1 or later
The following systems have been successfully tested either in the past or
by someone outside of UC Berkeley.
Dynix 3.0, Sequent Symmetry or Balance (does _not_ take advantage of
parallelism)
HP-UX 7.0, 9000/300
Irix 3.2, SGI Personal Iris
NeXT 2.0
Apple MacIntosh, Using Think C
Spice3f2 is distributed in source form only. The C compiler "gcc" has
been used successfully to compile spice3f2, as well as the standard com-
pilers for the systems listed above.
Spice3 displays graphs under X11, PostScript, or a graphics-terminal
independent library, or as a crude, spice2-like line-printer plot. On
the IBM PC, CGA, EGA, and VGA displays are supported through the Micro-
Soft graphics library. Note in particular that there is no Suntools
interface.
Note the the X11 interface to Spice3 expects realease 4 or later, and
requires the "Athena Widgets Toolkit" ("Xaw") which may be available only
in the "unsupported" portion of your vendor software. A version of
"OpenWindows" has problems due to undefined routines during linking --
linking with a null copy of these routines has reportedly worked, but
"OpenWindows" has not been tested in any way for this release.
Note that for practical performance a math co-processor is required for
an IBM PC based on the 286 processor. A math co-processor is also recom-
mended for the more advanced IBM PC systems.
(from posting to comp.lsi.cad) The Windows NT port of spice3e2, Spice32,
is available via ftp from site ftp.cica.indiana.edu, /pub/pc/win3/nt.
Filename is spice100.zip. A similar port of nutmeg is included.
The Unix distribution comes on 1/2" 9-track tape in "tar" format, TK50
tape (DEC tape), or QIC-150 1/4" cartridge tape (Sun cartridge tape).
The MS-DOS distribution comes on several 3.5" floppy diskettes (both high
and low density) in the standard MS-DOS format. The contents of both
distributions are identical, including file names.
New features in 3f2
The following is a list of new features and fixes from the previous major
release of Spice3 (3e.2) (see the user's manual for details):
AC and DC Sensitivity.
MOS3 discontinuity fix ("kappa").
Added a new JFET fitting parameter.
Minor initial conditions fix.
Rewritten or fixed "show" and "trace" commands.
New interactive commands "showmod" and "alter".
Minor bug-fixes to the Pole-Zero analysis.
Miscellaneous bug fixes in the front end.
Additional features since release 3d.2 are:
Lossy transmission line model (not available under MS-DOS).
Proper calculation of sheet resistance in MOS models.
A new command ("where") to aid in debugging troublesome
circuits.
Smith-chart plots improved.
Arbitrary sources in subcircuits handled correctly.
Arbitrary source reciprocal calculations and DC biasing
now done correctly.
Minor bug-fixes to the Pole-Zero analysis.
Miscellaneous bug fixes in the front end.
A Note on Version Numbering
Spice versions are numbered "NXM", where "N" is a number representing the
major release (as in re-write), "X" is a letter representing a feature
change reflected by a change in the documentation, and "M" is a number
indicating a minor revision or bug-patch number.
FTP Access and Upgrades
There is no anonymous ftp access for the Spice3 source. The manual for
spice3f2 (in it's postscript format) is available via anonymous ftp from
"ic.berkeley.edu" in the directory "pub/spice3/um.3f.ps/". If you are
interested in the troff/me source, contact the email address below (the
"make" files and whatnot are somewhat cumbersome for the manual).
Patches or upgrades for Spice3 are _not_ normally supplied, however we
have made exceptions to this rule, particularly in the case of minor ver-
sion changes (such as 3f2 to 3f3).
Email Address for Problems
Please direct technical inquiries to "spice@berkeley.edu" or "spice-
bugs@berkeley.edu" (for now these addresses are the same), and ordering
or redistribution queries to "ilpsoftware@berkeley.edu". If you find
that your email to "spice" or "spice-bugs" doesn't get a response in a
few days, resend your message.
21: Octtools (Current version 5.1)
(From the ANNOUNCE-5.1 that comes with it)
Octtools is a collection of programs and libraries that form an
integrated system for IC design. The system includes tools for PLA and
multiple-level logic synthesis, state assignment, standard-cell, gate-
matrix and macro-cell placement and routing, custom-cell design, circuit,
switch and logic-level simulation, and a variety of utility programs for
manipulating schematic, symbolic, and geometric design data. Most tools
are integrated with the Oct data manager and the VEM user interface.
The software requires UNIX, the window system X11R4 including the Athena
Widget Set. The design manager VOV and a few other tools require the C++
compiler g++.
Octtools-5.1 have been built and tested on the following combinations of
machines and operating systems: DECstation 3100, 5000 running Ultrix 4.1
and 4.2; DEC VAX running Ultrix 4.1 and 4.2; Sun 3 and 4 running OS 4.0
and Sun SparcStation running OS 4.0. The program has been tried on the
following machines, but is not supported: Sequent Symmetry, IBM RS/6000
running AIX 3.1.
To obtain a copy of Octtools 5.1 (8mm, tk50, or 1/4inch cartridge QIC150)
and a printed copy of the documentation) for a $250 distribution charge,
see section on Berkeley ILP.
Questions may be directed to octtools@ic.berkeley.edu.
22: Ptolemy (Current version 0.4):
(From comp.dsp FAQ)
Ptolemy provides a highly flexible foundation for the specification,
simulation, and rapid prototyping of systems. It is an object oriented
framework within which diverse models of computation can co-exist and
interact. For example, using Ptolemy a data-flow system can be easily
connected to a hardware simulator which in turn may be connected to a
discrete-event system, etc. Because of this, Ptolemy can be used to
model entire systems.
In addition, Ptolemy now has code generation capabilities. From a flow
graph description, Ptolemy can generate both C code and DSP assembly code
for rapid prototyping. Note that code generation is not yet complete,
and is included in the current release for demonstration purposes only.
Ptolemy has been used for a broad range of applications including signal
processing, telecomunications, parallel processing, wireless communica-
tions, optical phase lock loops, real time systems, and hardware/software
co-design. Ptolemy has also been used as a lab for signal processing and
communications courses. Currently Ptolemy has hundreds of users in over
75 sites, both in industry and academia.
Ptolemy is available for the Sun 4 (sparc) and DecStation (MIPS) archi-
tectures. A port to the HP workstation is in progress. Installing the
system requires 49 Mbytes for Ptolemy (64 Mbytes after you optionally
rebuild) and 16 Mbytes for the Gnu tools subset. At least 8 Mbytes of
physical memory are required.
Ptolemy has been developed at UC Berkeley over the past 3 years. Further
information, including papers and the complete release notes, is avail-
able from the FTP site.
A license is no longer required to receive Ptolemy. The source code,
binaries, and documentation are available by anonymous ftp from
ptolemy.berkeley.edu, under /pub/ptolemy. Consult the file /pub/README
for further information.
23: Lager (Current version 4.0):
(From MUG 18)
The LAGER system is a set of CAD tools for performing parameterized VLSI
design with a slant towards DSP applications (but not limited to DSP
applications). A standard cell library, datapath library, several module
generators and several pad libraries comprise the cell library. These
tools and libraries have originated from UC Berkeley, UCLA, USC, Missis-
sippi State, and ITD. The tool development has been funded by DARPA
under the Rapid Prototyping Contract headed by Bob Brodersen (UC Berke-
ley). LAGER 3.0 was described in MUG 15.
Send email to reese@erc.msstate.edu if you are interested in obtaining
the toolset via FTP. If you cannot get the distribution via ftp then send
one 1/4" 600 ft. tape OR an 8 mm tape (Exabyte compatible) to Bob Reese
by phone at (601)-325-3670 or at one of the following addresses:
(US Mail Address)
P.O. Box 6176
Mississippi State, MS 39762
(FEDEX)
2 Research Boulevard
Starkville, MS 39759
Be sure to include a return FEDEX waybill we can use to ship your tape
back to you. Instead of sending a tape and FEDX waybill, you can also
just send us a check for $75 and we will send you back a tape. Make the
check payable to Mississippi State Univ. The tape will be written on a
high density tape drive (150 Mb). Older low density SUN tape drives (60
Mb) cannot read this format so you need to have access to one of SUN's
newer tape drives.
24: BLIS (Current version 2.0):
(From their announcement posted here)
BLIS (Behavior-to-Logic Interactive Synthesis) is an environment for the
synthesis of digital circuits from high-level descriptions. Version 2.0
supports functional-level synthesis starting from the ELLA hardware
description language. Other languages can easily be supported by inter-
facing a parser to the internal data-flow representation of BLIS.
BLIS is distributed through the Industrial Liason's Program (ILP) Office
of the UCB EECS department. The cost of $250 covers media and distribu-
tion charges. Binaries are provided for SUN4 and DEC MIPS architectures
but BLIS should compile on most other machines supported by the GNU C and
C++ compilers (e.g. HP, vax, etc). ELLA language documentation and simu-
lator are not supplied with the BLIS distribution, but can be obtained
from Computer General.
25: COSMOS and BDD
(From their announcement posted here)
Obtaining and installing COSMOS and BDD.
The COSMOS package generates switch-level simulators for MOS circuits.
The BDD package is a subset of COSMOS providing a set of library routines
for symbolic Boolean manipulation.
To obtain a copy of either COSMOS or BDD via FTP:
1. Create an appropriate subdirectory. For COSMOS, you may want to
create a symbolic link /usr/cosmos to this directory, although this is
not essential.
2. Connect to the subdirectory
3. FTP to n3.sp.cs.cmu.edu (login anonymous, password
yourname@your.host.name)
4. Type:
cd /usr/cosmos/ftp
ls
5. Select which version of the code you want. The files are named
bdd.XXX.YYY.tar.Z and cosmos.XXX.YYY.tar.Z, where XXX.YYY is the ver-
sion number. Generally you should select the highest numbered ver-
sion.
6. 6. Type:
get <FILE> (where <FILE> is the file name of the selected ver-
sion).
get README
quit
7. Follow the instructions in README
8. Send the following information to cosmos@cs.cmu.edu
Your name
Your postal address
Your net address
The file retrieved
The date of your retrieval
COSMOS and BDD are made available with the understanding that no part of
it will be redistributed further without permission.
Last updated 18 July 1991 by Derek Beatty.
26: ITEM
(Taken from the item.news file contained in the package:)
The first public release of ITEM, UCSC's logic minimizer using if-then-
else DAGs, was made 2 January 1991. The system is available by anonymous
ftp from ftp.cse.ucsc.edu, in directory pub/item as a compressed tar
archive (item.tar.Z). Also available are tech reports about the algo-
rithms and data structures (88-28, 88-29, and 90-43).
ITEM can also be found at ftp.cse.ucsc.edu in the pub/item directory.
27: PADS logic/PADS PCB:
While this is a commercial product, they have just recently made avail-
able a shareware version. This version is fully functional and indenti-
cal to their schematic capture and PCB autoplace and route software
except that it is limited to about 50 components. It is available for
IBM PC/PC compatibles directly from PADS, or from anynonmous ftp at
several sites including wuarchive.wustl.edu in
/mirrors/msdos/cad/pads*.zip. There is a $50 registration fee if you
would like to get future updates from them.
28: Another PCB Layout Package:
(from Randy Nevin <randyn@microsoft.com>:)
I'm distributing a freely-copyable software package to do autorouting of
(1- and 2-layer) printed circuit boards on a PC or compatible. It is
written in C (with a little .asm), and all source code is included. There
is an autorouter, a board viewer, a rat nest viewer, and some output
filters which generate postscript and hp laserjet output files. There is
no charge, but I maintain the copyright (it is not public domain). If you
want to read about it, I published an article on autorouting algorithms
in the sept '89 dr. dobb's journal. ega is required (for the viewing pro-
grams). If you'd like to get the software, send me a stamped, self-
addressed floppy mailer and a floppy. I can handle 5.25" 360K or 1.2M, or
3.5" 1.4M, but if you send 360K there is some extra code that I won't be
able to fit on the disk, so high density is better.
I developed this software at home on my own time, and it is not related
to what I do for my employer, so I will not use my employer's email
resource to distribute it. however, it is available for anonymous ftp
access on wsmr-simtel20.army.mil in PD1:<MSDOS.CAD>PCB.ARC, last I heard.
I do not keep simtel up to date. But the version there is useable, and
does include all source code.
Randy Nevin
24135 SE 16th PL
Issaquah, WA 98027
29: Magic (Current version 6.3):
This is a polygon based lsi layout editor. It is capable of reading and
writing magic, calma (version 3.0, corresponding to GDS II Release 5.1),
and cif. It is available for anonymous ftp from gatekeeper.dec.com in
/pub/DEC/magic.
30: PSpice:
This is a commercial product, however, they do have a student version
that is available (limited to around 16 transistors).
PC dos version: 5.0 wuarchive.wustl.edu in
/mirrors/msdos/electrical/,
pspice5a.zip, pspice5b.zip, pspice5c.zip
PC windows3 version 5.1: WSMR-SIMTEL20.Army.Mil in
pd1:<msdos.windows3>
called PSPIC51A.ZIP and PSPIC51B.ZIP
Mac version 5.1: wuarchive.wustl.edu in
/mirrors/info-mac/app/pspice-51.hqx
The PC version is also available at a number of U.S. and non-U.S. sites.
31: Esim:
A new version of the switch-level simulator ESIM that can handle CMOS
transmission gates is available through MUG, ftp venera.isi.edu
(128.9.0.32))
32: Isplice3 (Current version 2.0):
This is a high level simulator, I do not know much more then that. It is
available via anonymous ftp from uicadb.csl.uiuc.edu.
33: Watand:
(From Phil Munro's posting <FC138001@ysub.ysu.edu>)
Spice is not the only circuit simulator available. There is one called
WATAND (WATerloo ANalysis and Design) which runs on a mainframe (and some
other workstations). We use it here under CMS on our mainframe computer.
Unlike Spice and its derivatives, Watand is a fully *interactive* pro-
gram; that is, one enters an environment where analyses can be run and
rerun, values changed and queried, options changed, and even different
circuits can be run, all without leaving the environment.
"WATAND Users Manual", by Dr. Phil Munro, April 1992, 233 pages,
unbound, $7.00 plus whatever shipping charges the bookstore might ask
of you.
"WATAND Introduction and Examples", by Dr. P. Munro, September 1991,
160 pages, spiral bound, incomplete edition Chapters 1 - 10. The cost
is $4 or $5, I think, plus shipping.
You should write to Youngstown State University Bookstore
Youngstown, Ohio 44555
Watand itself is available from Mark O'Leavey, Waterloo Engineering
Software, 22 King St. S., Suite 302, Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA, N2L 1C6.
Fax: (519) 746-7931 Phone: (519) 741-8097. It's currently only available
for DECStation and Sparcstation.
34: Caltech VLSI CAD Tools:
(From John Lazzaro <lazzaro@boom.CS.Berkeley.EDU>)
Caltech VLSI CAD Tool Distribution
We are offering to the Internet community a pre-release version of the
Caltech electronic CAD system for analog VLSI neural networks. This dis-
tribution contains tools for schematic capture, netlist creation, and
analog and digital simulation (log), IC mask layout, extraction, and DRC
(wol), simple chip compilation (wolcomp), MOSIS fabrication request gen-
eration (mosis), netlist comparison (netcmp), data plotting (view) and
postscript graphics editing (until). These tools were used exclusively
for the design and test of all the integrated circuits described in
Carver Mead's book "Analog VLSI and Neural Systems". Until was used as
the primary tool for figure creation for the book. The distribution also
contains an example of an analog VLSI chip that was designed and fabri-
cated with these tools, and an example of an Actel field-programmable
gate array design that was simulated and converted to Actel format with
these tools.
These tools are distributed under a license very similar to the GNU
license; the minor changes protect Caltech from liability.
To use these tools, you need:
1) A unix workstation that runs X11r3, X11r4, or Openwindows
2) A color screen
3) Gcc or other ANSI-standard compiler
Right now only Sun Sparcstations are officially supported, although
resourceful users have the tools running on Sun 3, HP Series 300, and
Decstations. If don't have a Sparcstation or an HP 300, only take the
package if you feel confident in your C/Unix abilities to do the porting
required; someday soon we will integrate the changes back into the
sources officially, although many "ifdef mips" are already in the code.
If you are interested in some or all of these tools,
1) ftp to hobiecat.cs.caltech.edu on the Internet,
2) log in as anonymous and use your username as the password
3) cd ~ftp/pub/chipmunk
4) copy the file README, that contains more information.
European researchers can access these files through anonymous ftp using
the machine ifi.uio.no in Norway; the files are in the directory chip-
munk. We are unable to help users who do not have Internet ftp access.
35: Switcap2 (Current version 1.1):
This is a switched capactor simulator. It is available from:
SWITCAP Distribution centre,
411 Low Memorial Library,
New York,
N.Y. 10027.
36: Test Software for Abramovici Text:
(Contributed by Mel Breuer of the Univ. of Southern California)
Many faculty are using the text by Abramovici, Breuer, and Fried- man
entitled "Digital Systems Testing and Testable Design" in a class on
testing. They have expressed an interest to supplement their course
with software tools. At USC we have developed such a suite of tools.
They include a good value simulator, fault simulator, fault col-
lapsing module, and D-algorithm-based ATPG module for combinational
logic. The software has been specifi- cally designed to be easily
understood, modified and enhanced. The algorithms follow those described
in the text. The software can be run in many modes, such as one
module at a time, single step, interactively or as a batch process. Stu-
dents can use the software "as is" to study the operation of the
various algo- rithms, e.g. simulation of a latch using different delay
models. Also, simple programming projects can be given, such as
extend the simulator from a 3-valued system to a 5-valued system; or
change the D-algorithm so that it only does single path sensiti- zation.
There are literally over 50 interesting software enhancements
that can be made by changing only a small part of the code. The system
is written in C and runs on a SUN.
If you are currently using the Abramovici text and would like a copy
of this software, please send a message to Prof. Melvin Breuer at
mb@poisson.usc.edu.
37: Test Generation and Fault Simulation Software
(Contributed by Dr. Dong Ha of Virginia Tech)
Two automatic test pattern generators (ATPGs) and a fault simula- tor
for combinational circuits were developed at Virginia Tech, and the
source codes of the tools are now ready for public release.
ATLANTA is an ATPG for stuck-at faults. It is based on the FAN algorithm
and a parallel-pattern, single-fault propaga- tion technique. It
consists of optional sessions using random pattern testing, deterministic
test pattern generation and test compaction. SOPRANO is an ATPG for
stuck-open faults. The algo- rithm of SOPRANO is similar to ATLANTA
except two consecutive patterns are applied to detect a stuck-open
fault. FSIM is a parallel-pattern, single-fault simulator. All the
tools are written in C. The source codes are fully commented, and
README files contain user's manuals. Technical papers about the tools
were presented at DAC-90 and ITC-91. All three tools are free to univer-
sities. Companies are requested to make a contribution of $5000 but
will have free technical assistance. For detailed in- formation, con-
tact:
Dr. Dong Ha
Electrical Engineering
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA 24061
TEL: 703-231-4942
FAX: 703-231-3362
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38: Olympus Synthesis System
(From Rajesh K. Gupta <rgupta@sirius.Stanford.EDU>)
Recently there have been several enquiries about the Olympus Synthesis
System. Here are answers to some commonly asked questions. For details
please send mail to "synthesis@chronos.stanford.edu".
1. What is Olympus Synthesis System?
Olympus is a result of a continuing project on synthesis of digital cir-
cuits here at Stanford University. Currently, Olympus synthesis system
consists of a set of programs that perform synthesis tasks for synchro-
nous, non-pipelined circuits starting from a description in a hardware
description language, HardwareC.
The output of synthesis is a technology independent netlist of gates.
This netlist can be input to logic synthesis and technology mapping tools
within Olympus or to UC Berkeley's mis/sis. Current technology mapping in
Olympus is targeted for LSI logic standard cells and a set of PGA archi-
tectures: Actel and Xilinx.
2. How is Olympus distributed?
The source code and documentation for Olympus is distributed via ftp.
3. What are the system requirements for Olympus?
Olympus has been tested on following hardware platforms: mips, sparc,
hp9000s300, hp9000s800, hp9000s700, vax. All the programs in Olympus
come with a default menu-driven ASCII interface. There is also a graphi-
cal user interface, called "olympus", provided with the distribution.
This interface is written using Motif procedures.
You would need about 40 MBytes of disk space to extract and compile the
system.
4. How can I obtain a copy of Olympus?
Olympus is distributed free of charge by Stanford University. However,
it is not available via anonymous ftp. In order to obtain a copy please
send a mail to "olympus@chronos.stanford.edu" where an automatic-reply
mailer would send instructions for obtaining Olympus software.
39: OASIS logic synthesis
(From William R. Richards Jr. <richards@mcnc.org>)
OASIS is a complete logic synthesis system based on the Logic3 HDL
develped at MCNC (unfortunately neither VHDL or Verilog compatible).
kk@mcnc.org is the person responsible for it. OASIS is available to US
universities for $500 and non-US universities for $600. Industrial
license is $3000.
40: CAzM, a Spice-like table-based analog circuit simulator
(From William R. Richards Jr. <richards@mcnc.org>)
Second is CAzM, a Spice-like table-based analog circuit simulator. It
offers significant performance advantages over other Berkeley Spice
derivatives. It is used fairly extensively in our design community. US
university license is $175, non-US $250. Commercial license is $800. It
comes with an X11- based signal viewing tool Sigview which is public
domain and may be anonymous ftp'd from mcnc.org. I am the primary contact
for CAzM at MCNC.
41: Galaxy CAD, integrated environment for digital design for Macintosh
Thanks to Simon Leung <sleung@sun1.atitech.ca>
The Galaxy CAD System is an integrated environment for digital design and
for rapid prototyping of CAD tools and other software. The system
currently includes schematic capture and simulation of both low-level and
high-level digital designs and is being expanded to include physical
design tools. Galaxy runs on a number of 680X0 platforms, including the
Apple Macintosh, HP9000/3XX, Apollo Domain, and Atari ST. Others will be
added according to demand.
The Galaxy CAD System is an ideal environment for teaching digital
design. It has been used successfully for both introductory logic design
and computer design courses at Wisconsin. Some of the features of Galaxy
that make it suitable for education are:
1. Integrated multiple-window environment: All Galaxy tools run
concurrently in a multiple window environment. Copying data
from one window to another is simple. Any number of simulation
sessions can be active simultaneously.
2. Hierarchy: the schematic editor and simulator are both fully
hierarchical. Building hierarchical designs is simple, including
creating symbols for modules. The simulator is a true hierarchical
simulator: it does not require a time-consuming macro-expansion
step.
3. Integrated editing and simulation: Designs are edited and
simulated in the same environment. Simulation input and output
can be shown directly on schematics, allowing direct manipulation
of net values. Unlike other products, Galaxy does not require
modification of the schematic to insert "switch" and "light"
components. In addition, Galaxy allows display of bus values in
hexadecimal directly on schematics to simplify debugging of
high-level designs. Simulation I/O can also use waveforms,
text files, and tables.
4. Faults: Stuck-at faults can be introduced on the schematic
editor and simulated immediately without rebuilding the
simulation model. This provides an excellent way to display
the effects of faults.
5. Buses: Galaxy supports specification and simulation of bus
structures, including complex extractions, fanouts, and bit
reversal. Buses are specified by annotating nets with text.
For simulation, buses are kept intact so that multiple-bit
high-level components can be used. Galaxy includes a library
of register-transfer components suitable for high-level
computer design and simulation.
6. Alternate specification of designs: In addition to schematics,
Galaxy users can specify design modules using a textual HDL
(GHDL) and using hardware flowcharts and state diagrams. A
hierarchical design can mix these representations as desired.
7. High-quality PostScript output: Galaxy schematics are of excellent
quality. Gates are drawn according to standard practices, e.g.,
OR gates are drawn with the correct circular arcs and not ellipses.
8. Uniform user interface: Galaxy tools have the same user interface
on all platforms, reducing student learning curves. In fact,
the same tool OBJECT CODE runs on all platforms due to the unique
structure of Galaxy.
9. Adding new simulation primitives is straightforward.
10. No cost: Galaxy is available for free via anonymous FTP (Apple
Macintosh version). Other versions will be made available based
on demand.
Galaxy is also an excellent environment for rapid prototyping of new CAD
tools. By building on top of available resources, we have been able to
prototype new tools in days or weeks that would ordinarily have taken
months or years. For more information, send e-mail.
To obtain Galaxy CAD, connect to "eceserv0.ece.wisc.edu" using FTP. Log
in as "anonymous" with password "guest". Galaxy is in directory
"pub/galaxy". The file "README" in that directory gives further instruc-
tions. Please register as a user by sending e-mail to
"beetem@engr.wisc.edu".
John F. Beetem
ECE Department
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Madison, WI 53706
USA
(608) 262-6229
beetem@engr.wisc.edu
42: Gabriel DSP development system
The Gabriel software is available via ftp from copernicus.Berkeley.EDU
(128.32.240.37). It's not quite "anonymous": you can use anonymous ftp
to get the license agreement. When you sign that and mail it back to us,
we give you the password to an ftp account that allows you to grab the
actual software. It's free, just not anonymous. :-)
For the uninitiated, Gabriel is a block diagram programming environment
for DSP that runs on Sun 3 and Sun 4 workstations. It can simulate DSP
designs, generate assembly code for Motorola DSP56000 and DSP96000 chips,
and automatically perform parallel scheduling when multiple DSP chips are
used.
For more information, ftp to copernicus.Berkeley.EDU, log in as
"anonymous" (any password will do), and grab the files "gabriel-
overview", "gabriel-release-info", and "gabriel-license.shar". Be warned
that a new version of Gabriel will be out by the end of January, so if
you're interested in it, it might pay to wait until then.
Phil Lapsley
phil@ucbarpa.Berkeley.EDU
43: WireC graphical/procedural system for schematic information
(From Larry McMurchie <larry@cs.washington.edu>)
WireC is a graphical specification language that combines schematics with
procedural constructs for describing complex microelectronic systems.
WireC allows the designer to choose the appropriate representation,
either graphical or procedural, at a fine-grain level depending on the
characteristics of the circuit being designed. Drawing traditional
schematic symbols and their interconnections provides fast intuitive
interaction with a circuit design while procedural constructs give the
power and flexibility to describe circuit structures algorithmically and
allow single descriptions to represent whole families of devices.
The procedural capability of WireC allows other CAD tools to be incor-
porated into the design system. For example, we have defined an inter-
face to the SIS logic synthesis system wherein the designer can represent
part of the system behaviorally. WireC invokes logic synthesis on these
components to produce a structural description that can be incorporated
into the rest of the design.
Libraries of devices defining a particular netlist output format may be
defined by the user. The libraries currently distributed with WireC
include a default CMOS gate library whose output is the SIM format. This
format can be simulated with COSMOS or IRSIM and compared against a cir-
cuit extracted from layout. This library also includes devices that
allow a behavioral description to be synthesized and mapped using MIS or
SIS and incorporated into a larger circuit.
Another library is the xnf library for designing systems with Xilinx
FPGAs. Written by Jackson Kong, Martine Schlag and Pak Chan of UCSC,
this library contains devices specific to the 2000 and 3000 series Xilinx
LCA's. In addition to drawing the devices explicitly, one can represent
parts of a circuit with equations and have these synthesized automati-
cally.
Currently in progress is a library of CMOS gates for Cascade Design
Automation's ChipCrafter product. WireC provides a mixed
schematic/procedural design frontend for ChipCrafter, which uses module
generation, timing analysis and place and route software to create a phy-
sical layout from the WireC design specification.
WireC was written by Larry McMurchie, Carl Ebeling, Zhanbing Wu and Ed
Tellman. We are interested in any libraries you may develop and will
provide a limited degree of support.
WireC requires an X-Windows compatible environment and a C++ compiler
such as Gnu G++ and AT&T CC. WireC is available via ftp on the Internet.
For details send mail to
larry@cs.washington.edu ebeling@cs.washington.edu
44: LateX circuit symbols for schematic generation
(From Adrian Johnstone <adrian@cs.rhbnc.ac.uk)
A set of circuit schematic symbols are available for use in LaTeX picture
mode. The set includes all basic logic gates in four orientations, FETs,
power supply pins, transmission gates, capacitors, resistors and wiring
T-junctions. All pins are on a 1mm grid and the symbols are designed to
be easily used with Georg Horn's TeXcad program: we even supply you with
a palette picture file that displays all 52 symbols in a compact grid
that you can cut and paste from within TeXcad. Each symbol lives in its
own .mac file and is defined as a 'savebox' so as to reduce memory con-
sumption. You must add the [bezier] option to your 'documentstyle' com-
mand. A small manual is provided in both Postscript and .dvi forms.
The files lcircuit.zip and lcircuit.tar are available for anonymous ftp
from cscx.cs.rhbnc.ac.uk (134.219.200.45) in directory pub/lcircuit. I
will also be uploading them to various ftp servers in the coming week.
45: Tanner Research Tools (Ledit and LVS)
(From Bhusan Gupta <bgupta@micro.caltech.edu>)
There is a "low" cost tool from Tanner Research (Pasadena, Ca) called LVS
that will compare two spice decks. It is a tool that is still evolving
and is flexible. It can be a lifesaver if you have to compare spice
decks. It is much easier to use than netcmp/netcomp (the caltech VLSI
tools). I realize that this is a commercial tool for $, but the only rea-
son I suggest it is that it isn't as expensive as a tool from a main-line
CAD vendor. (University pricing is around $245 for the PC version, and
$995 for the commercial version.)
Tanner also sells a layout mask editor called Ledit which they sell for
the PC, Sun, HP, and Mac platforms. It has a DRC tool, extract to spice,
a cross-section viewer, etc for additional money. The cross-section
viewer is neat gadget in that given some of your design, it will show
what the vertical cross-section looks like. Demo versions are available.
For more info contact Tanner Research - 180 N. Vinedo Ave. Pasadena 91107
(818) 792-3000 or fax (818) 792-0300.
Technical Details
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