General Description of the NCSU Cadence Design Kit (CDK)

The NCSU CDK focuses on providing the means to do full-custom IC design through MOSIS, including schematic entry, Verilog digital simulation, analog circuit simulation, layout DRC checking and device extraction, and mask generation. It supports 4.4 and is not backward compatible with 4.3.x. All SKILL code is available as source in a fairly-well organized fashion.

The tools used in the kit are Virtuoso, Composer, Analog Artist, DLE and Diva.

What it is...

• support for all MOSIS processes which support the SCMOS rules, including process-dependent layers, e.g., pbase for NPNs

• layermaps for MOSIS CIF/GDSII import/export

• Diva verification: DRC (all rules from the MOSIS SCMOS User's Manual 7.3), extraction (MOSFETs, high-voltage MOSFETs, cwell/{m1,elec,polycap}-poly/inter-metal/parasitic capacitors, vertical NPN BJTs, diodes, resistors), and LVS

• Composer with interface to
  • HSPICE/Spectre through Analog Artist, with MOSIS-provided transistor models in place

  • Verilog with technology-independent parts

• technology-independent libaries for analog (eg, RLC, transistors) and digital (eg, gates) parts. These parts have SKILL code hooked in to enforce sizing and grid rules (eg, minimum width/length, half-lambda grid), automatic transistor model selection depending on technology, and drain/source area/perimeter estimation.

• MOSIS technology libraries (ie, one library for every process) with parameterized layout cells setup for both manual use and layout synthesis via DLE

• various user-friendly GUI enhancements
  • simplified library creation and technology file attachment for MOSIS technologies

  • click on any object to print info about it in the CIW

  • enhanced label creation (Virtuoso)

  • ability to align layout objects (Virtuoso)

  • Perl/Tk program to quickly convert 1's and 0's into SPICE pwl and pulse sources,

  • ability to insert likeness of JPEG images into layout (Virtuoso), (useful for signing, or putting drawings or photos on, chips)

  • ability to display cross-section of layout at arbitrary point (Virtuoso) (coming soon!)

• documentation of all customizations in either HTML or OpenBook format

and what it doesn't...

• P & R

• backannotation from layout to schematic

• digital timing analysis

• parasitic resistance extraction

• provide a standard cell layout library

Contents of the NCSU "local" Cadence directory.
-----------------------------------------------

(Not all these files/directories are included in the NCSU CDK.)

(This section is not entirely up-to-date.)

doc                     Current documentation. Look here first! The best
                        place for users to start is
                        local/doc/cdsuser/GettingStarted.html. Admins
                        should look at local/doc/cdsmgr/index.html.

NCSU_Setup              Documentation of the entire local directory.
                        This document is deprecated. Please look in
                        local/doc for current documentation.

NCSU_CDK_Version        Current version of the CDK.

Notes                   Docs on tool usage.

cdssetup                Standard setup files.

class_locker_setup      Notes/files for setting up class lockers.

techfile                The NCSU technology files.

pipo                    Layermaps for CIF/GDSII import/export.

cmosx                   The complete cmosx standard cell library.

lib                     local dfII libraries (NCSU_*).

models                  Spectre/HSPICE transistor models.

skill                   Locally generated routines.

menus                   Menu customizations.

hnl                     Customization for the hierarchial netlister and
si                      simulation interface. See the Open Simulation 
                        System (OSS) manual. 

Todo                    Ongoing work on the Cadence setup.

The NCSU CDK is (c) NC State University, 1998, 1999. Users are free to use or modify the NCSU CDK as appropriate as long as this notice appears in it. You are also advised that you use the NCSU CDK at your own risk. By using the NCSU CDK, you assume all liability for any resulting errors and problems.