NAME
electric - a VLSI design system
SYNOPSIS
electric [-m] [-t technology] [library]
DESCRIPTION
Electric is a general purpose system for all electrical design. It
currently knows about nMOS, CMOS, Bipolar, artwork, schematics,
printed-circuit boards, and many other technologies. Its has a large
set of tools including multiple design-rule checkers (both incremental
and hierarchical), an electrical rules checker, over a dozen simulator
interfaces, multiple generators (PLA and pad frame), multiple routers
(stitching, maze, river), network comparison, compaction, compensation,
a VHDL compiler, and a silicon compiler that places-and-routes standard
cells.
In addition to the text terminal used to invoke the program, Electric
uses a color display with a mouse as a work station. Separate windows
are used for text and graphics.
If a library disk file is mentioned on the command line, that file is
read as the initial design for editing. In addition, the following
switches are recognized:
-t specifies an initial technology. The argument must be a
technology name such as "nmos", "cmos", "mocmos" (MOSIS CMOS),
"mocmossub" (MOSIS CMOS Submicron), "bipolar" (simple Bipolar),
"schematic" (Schematic capture), or "artwork" (sketchpad mode).
-m specifies there may be multiple monitors and that Electric
should look for them.
REPRESENTATION
Circuits are represented as networks that contain nodes and connecting
arcs. The nodes are electrical components such as transistors, logic
gates, and contacts. The arcs are simply wires that connect the nodes.
In addition, each node has a set of ports which are the sites of arc
connection. A technology, then, is simply a set of primitive nodes and
arcs that are the building blocks of circuits designed in that
environment.
Collections of nodes and arcs can also be aggregated into facets of
cells which can be used higher in the hierarchy to act as nodes. These
user-defined nodes have ports that come from internal nodes whose ports
are exported. Facets are collected in libraries which contain a
hierarchically consistent design.
Arcs have properties that help constrain the design. For example, an
arc may rotate arbitrarily or be fixed in their angle. Arcs can also
be stretchable or rigid under modification of their connecting nodes.
These constraints propagate hierarchically from the bottom-up.
TECHNOLOGIES
A large set of technologies is provided in Electric. These can be
modified with the technology editor, or completely new technologies can
be created. The following paragraphs describe some of the basic
technologies.
The nMOS technologies have arcs available in Metal, Polysilicon, and
Diffusion. The primitive nodes include normal contacts, buried
contacts, transistors, and "pins" for making arc corners. Transistors
may be serpentine and the pure layer nodes may be polygonally described
with the node trace command. The "nmos" technology has the standard
Mead&Conway design rules.
The CMOS technologies have arcs available in Metal, Polysilicon, and
Diffusion. The Diffusion arcs may be found in a P-well implant or in a
P+ implant. Thus, there are two types of metal-to-diffusion contacts,
two types of diffusion pins, and two types of transistors: in P-well
and in P+ implant. As with nMOS, the transistors may be serpentine and
the pure layer primitives may be polygonally defined. The "cmos"
technology has the standard design rules according to Griswold; the
"mocmos" technology has design rules for the MOSIS CMOS process (double
metal); the "mocmossub" technology has design rules for the MOSIS CMOS
Submicron process (double poly and up to 6 metal); the "rcmos"
technology has round geometry for the MOSIS CMOS process.
The "schematic" technology provides basic symbols for doing schematic
capture. It contains the logic symbols: BUFFER, AND, OR, and XOR.
Negating bubbles can be placed by negating a connecting arc. There are
also more complex components such as flip-flop, off-page-connector,
black-box, meter, and power source. Finally, there are the electrical
components: transistor, resistor, diode, capacitor, and inductor. Two
arc types exist for normal wires and variable-width busses.
The "artwork" technology is a sketchpad environment for doing general-
purpose graphics. Components can be placed with arbitrary color and
shape.
The "generic" technology exists for those miscellaneous purposes that
do not fall into the domain of other technologies. It has the
universal arc and pin which can connect to ANY other object and are
therefore useful in mixed-technology designs. The invisible arc can be
used for constraining two nodes without making a connection. The
unrouted arc can be used for electrical connections that are to be
routed later with real wires. The facet-center primitive, when placed
in a facet, defines the cursor origin on instances of that facet.
DESIGN-RULE CHECKING
The incremental design-rule checker is normally on and watches all
changes made to the circuit. It does not correct but prints error
messages when design rules are violated. Hierarchy is not handled, so
the contents of subfacets are not checked.
The hierarchical checker looks all the way down the circuit for all
design-rules. Another option allows an input deck to prepared for
ECAD’s Dracula design-rule checker.
COMPACTION
The compactor attempts to reduce the size of a facet by removing
unnecessary space between elements. When invoked it will compact in
the vertical and horizontal directions until it can find no way to
compact the facet any further. It does not do hierarchical compaction,
does not guarantee optimal compaction, nor can it handle non-manhattan
geometry properly. The compactor will also spread out the facet to
guarantee no design-rule violations, if the "spread" option is set.
SIMULATION
There are many simulator interfaces: ESIM (the default simulator:
switch-level for nMOS without timing), RSIM (switch-level for MOS with
timing), RNL (switch-level for MOS with timing and LISP front-end),
MOSSIM (switch-level for MOS with timing), COSMOS (switch-level for MOS
with timing), VERILOG (Cadence simulator), TEXSIM (a commercial
simulator), SILOS (a commercial simulator), ABEL (PAL
generator/simulator for schematic), and SPICE (circuit level). MOSSIM,
COSMOS, VERILOG, TEXSIM, SILOS, and ABEL do not actually simulate: they
only write an input deck of your circuit.
In preparation for most simulators, it is necessary to export those
ports that you wish to manipulate or examine. You must also export
power and ground ports.
In preparation for SPICE simulation, you must export power and ground
signals and. explicitly connect them to source nodes. The source
should then be parameterized to indicate the amount and whether it is
voltage or current. For example, to make a 5 volt supply, create a
source node and set the SPICE card to: "DC 5". Next, all input ports
must be exported and connected to the positive side of sources. Next,
all values that are being plotted must be exported and have meter nodes
placed on them. The node should have the top and bottom ports
connected appropriately.
PLA GENERATION
There are two PLA generators, one specific to nMOS layout, and another
specific to CMOS layout. The nMOS PLA generator reads a single
personality table and generates the array and all driving circuitry
including power and ground connections. The CMOS PLA generator reads
two personality tables (AND and OR) and also reads a library of PLA
helper components (called "pla_mocmos") and generates the array.
ROUTING
The router is able to do river routing, maze routing, and simple facet
stitching (the explicit wiring of implicitly connected nodes that
abut). River routing runs a bus of wires between the two opposite
sides of a routing channel. The connections on each side must be in a
line so that the bus runs between two parallel sets of points. You
must use the Unrouted arc from the Generic technology to indicate the
ports to be connected. The river router can also connect wires to the
perpendicular sides of the routing channel if one or more Unrouted
wires cross these sides.
There are two stitching modes: auto stitching and mimic stitching. In
auto stitching, all ports that physically touch will be stitched.
Mimic stitching watches arcs that are created by the user and adds
similar ones at other places in the facet.
NETWORK COMPARISON
The network maintainer tool is able to compare the networks in the two
facets being displayed on the screen. Once compared, nodes in one
facet can be equated with nodes in the other. If the two networks are
automorphic or otherwise difficult to distinguish, equivalence
information can be specified prior to comparison by selecting a
component in the first facet then selecting a component in the second
facet.
AUTHOR
Steven M. Rubin
Static Free Software
4119 Alpine Road
Portola Valley, Ca 94028
Also a cast of thousands:
Philip Attfield (Queens University): Polygon merging, facet dates
Ron Bolton (University of Saskatchewan): Miscellaneous help
Mark Brinsmead (Calgary): Apollo porting
Stefano Concina (Schlumberger): Polygon clipping
Peter Gallant (Queen’s University): ALS simulation
T. J. Goodman (University of Canterbury) TEXSIM simulation
D. Guptill (Technical University of Nova Scotia): X-window interface
Robert Hon (Columbia University): CIF input
Sundaravarathan Iyengar (Case Western Reserve University): nMOS PLA generator
Allan Jost (Technical University of Nova Scotia): X-window interface
Wallace Kroeker (University of Calgary): Digital filter technology, CMOS PLA generator
Andrew Kostiuk (Queen’s University): QUISC 1.0 Silicon compiler
Glen Lawson (S-MOS Systems): GDS-II input
David Lewis (University of Toronto): Short circuit checker
John Mohammed (Schlumberger): Miscellaneous help
Mark Moraes (University of Toronto): X-window interface
Sid Penstone (Queens University): many technologies, GDS-II output, SPICE improvements, SILOS simulation, GENERIC simulation
J. P. Polonovski (Ecole Polytechnique, France): Memory management improvement
Kevin Ryan (Technical University of Nova Scotia): X-window interface
Nora Ryan (Schlumberger): Technology translation, Compaction
Brent Serbin (Queen’s University): ALS Simulator
Lyndon Swab (Queen’s University): Northern Telecom CMOS technologies
Brian W. Thomson (University of Toronto): Mimic stitcher, RSIM interface
Burnie West (Schlumberger): Network maintainer help, bipolar technology
Telle Whitney (Schlumberger): River router
Rob Winstanley (University of Calgary): CIF input, RNL interface
Russell Wright (Queen’s University): Lots of help
David J. Yurach (Queen’s University): QUISC 2.0 Silicon compiler
SEE ALSO
Rubin, Steven M., "A General-Purpose Framework for CAD Algorithms",
IEEE Communications, Special Issue on Communications and VLSI, May
1991.
Rubin, Steven M., Computer Aids for VLSI Design, Addison-Wesley,
Reading, Massachusetts, 1987.
Rubin, Steven M., "An Integrated Aid for Top-Down Electrical Design",
Proceedings, VLSI 83 (Anceau and Aas, eds.), North Holland, Amsterdam,
1983.
Mead, C. and Conway, L., Introduction to VLSI Systems, Addison-Wesley,
1980.
Electrical User’s Guide.
Electric Internals manual.
FILES
~/.cadrc Personal startup file
~/electric.log Session logging file
*.elib Binary input/output files
*.txt Text input/output files
*.cif CIF input/output files
*.pla PLA personality input files
*.map Color map files
*.mac Macro files
*.sim ESIM, RSIM, RNL, and COSMOS simulation output
rsim.in RSIM simulation binary output
rnl.in RNL simulation binary output
*.spi SPICE simulation output
*.ver VERILOG simulation output
*.ntk MOSSIM simulation output
*.sil SILOS simulation output
*.tdl TEXSIM simulation output
*.pal ABLE PAL simulation output
/usr/local/bin/findfastshorts Fast short circuit checker
/usr/local/bin/fastshorts Slow short circuit checker
/usr/local/bin/esim Switch level simulator: ESIM
/usr/local/bin/rsim Switch level simulator: RSIM
/usr/local/bin/rnl Switch level simulator: RNL
/usr/local/bin/presim RNL and RSIM pre-filter
/usr/local/bin/spice Circuit level simulator: SPICE
/usr/local/electric/lib/nl.l RNL startup file
11/12/00 electric(1)