EDIF: A Mechanism for the Exchange of Design Information

The need for a standard format for the interchange of electronic design information has become critical. Past efforts to standardize have failed or have only partially succeeded for a variety of reasons. The proponents of four such efforts formed a committee in late 1983 to cull the best from their previous work and propose a unified format as a standard. The Electronic Design Interchange Format, EDIF, initially targets information exchange between designer and foundry. Macro cells, net lists, schematics, layout information, and stimulus/response information can be expressed in EDIF version 1.0. As the original committee continues its development activity, several subcommittees of experts address behavioral description, testing, technology, procedural layout, and printed circuit boards.