Pros and cons of public domain VLSIC design suites

Author

Abdel-Aty-Zohdy, Hoda S.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Syst. Eng., Oakland Univ., Rochester, MI, USA

fYear

1997

fDate

21-23 Jul 1997

Firstpage

3

Lastpage

4

Abstract

Computer-Aided Design (CAD) tools play an essential role in modern microelectronics. A comparison between two of the available CAD tool suites, OCTTOOLS and OASIS, is presented along with detailed description of their features and advantages. These tools utilize full-custom or the standard cells semi-custom approaches. This paper is intended to facilitate proper choice of the tools for best VLSIC designs. At the Microelectronics System Design Lab (MSDL), Oakland University, several VLSIC chips have been designed and implemented based on: the ease of transfer among the various hierarchical design levels of the OCTTOOLS and the efficient compaction available in OASIS. An example of a six-bit multiplier is presented to illustrate the design and implementation. The pros and limitations of each tool address: specification language, logic and switch level simulations, placement and routing, design verification and testability, as well as compaction

Keywords

VLSI; circuit CAD; integrated circuit design; public domain software; OASIS; OCTTOOLS; VLSIC chip; compaction; logic level simulation; microelectronics design; multiplier; placement; public domain CAD tool suite; routing; specification language; switch level simulation; testability; verification; Circuits; Computational modeling; Design automation; Fabrication; Libraries; Logic design; Logic testing; Microelectronics; Routing; Switches;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microelectronic Systems Education, 1997. MSE '97. Proceedings., 1997 IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Arlington, VA

Print_ISBN

0-8186-7996-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MSE.1997.612522

Filename

612522