A graphical data management system for HDL-based ASIC design projects

Efficient and secure project data management is a key requirement for todays HDL ASIC design projects. This paper introduces a RCS-based data management system, which focuses on the requirements of ASIC project teams. The project and the user´s working directories are strictly separated, data transfer is explicitly triggered by checking in or checking-out files. There are cumulative check-out operations available that consider hierarchical and logical dependencies between the files and generate script files for further data processing. The directory structures are configurable and transparent to the users, no proprietary or binary configuration files are involved. The entire data management functionality is accessible on command level as well as from a graphical user interface, which also serves as a convenient interface to third party tools