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Xref: sparky comp.lsi.cad:1146 comp.lsi:699 Path: sparky!uunet!charon.amdahl.com!pacbell.com!sgiblab!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!ucbvax!ucdavis!tyfon!altarrib From: altarrib@tyfon.eecs.ucdavis.edu (Michael Altarriba) Newsgroups: comp.lsi.cad,comp.lsi Subject: Frequently Asked Questions With Answers (Part 2/2) [LONG] Keywords: FAQ Message-ID: <19332@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu> Date: 17 Nov 92 18:38:53 GMT Sender: usenet@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu Followup-To: comp.lsi.cad Organization: Deptartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering, UC Davis Lines: 802 Behavioral Dataflow Descriptions", Proc. of the 27th DAC, pp. 456-461, June 1990. SOCRATES - General Electric, University of Colorado, USA - expert system - logic optimization and mapping for different technologies - de Geus, A.J., "The Socrates Logic Synthesis and Optimization System", Design Systems for VLSI Circuits, pp. 473-498, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1987. SPAID - Universty of Waterloo, Canada - DSP-synthesis for silicon compiler realizations - Haroun, B.: "Architectural Synthesis for DSP Silicon Compilers", IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design, pp. 431-447, Vol. 8, No 4, April 1989. SYNFUL - Bell-Northern Research, Canada - RTL and FSM synthesis for a production environment - G. Ward, "Logic Synthesis at BNR: A SYNFUL Story", Proceedings Canadian Conference on Very Large Scale Integration, October 1990. SYSTEM ARCHITECT'S WORKBENCH - Carnagie-Mellon University, USA - behavioral synthesis - Thomas, D. "The System Architect's Workbench", Proceedings of the 25th ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference, pp. 337-343, IEEE 1988 UCB'S SYNTHESIS SYSTEM - UCB, USA - transformations, scheduling and data path allocation - Devadas, S.: "Algorithms for Hardware Allocation in Data Path Synthesis", IEEE Trans. on CAD, pp. 768-781, July 89 SPLICER - University of Illinois, USA - scheduling and data-path allocation - Pangrle, B.M.: "Splicer: A Heuristic Approach to Connectivity Binding", Proc. of the 25th DAC, pp. 536-541, June 1988. V COMPILER - IBM, USA - scheduling and data path allocation from V-language - Berstis, V: "The V Compiler: Automatic Hardware Design", IEEE Design and Test, pp. 8-17, April 1989. VSS - Univ. of California at Irvine, USA - transformations, scheduling and data path allocation from VHDL to MILO - Lis, J. et al.: "Synthesis from VHDL", Proc. ICCD'88, pp. 378-381, October 1988. YORKTOWN SILICON COMPILER - IBM T.J.Watson Research Centre, USA - data path synthesis, logic synthesis etc. - Brayton, R.K., et al. "The Yorktown Silicon Compiler", Silicon Compilation, pp. 204-311, Addison-Wesley, 1988 17: What free tools are there available, and what can they do? (This section can be viewed as a cross reference to the detailed descrip- tion of software that follows.) Analog VLSI and Neural Systems: Caltech VLSI CAD Tools Automated place and route: octtools, Lager Digital design environment: Galaxy CAD Lsi (polygon) schematic capture: magic, octtools(vem) Layout Verification: caltech tools (netcmp), gemini (Washington Univerity), wellchk (MUG) PCB auto/manual place and route: PADS pcb, PCB (Just for testing lsi designs, of course :) Simulation: irsim(comes with magic), esim, pspice, isplice3, watand, switcap2 Synthesis: octtools, blis, Lager, item, (see section on synthesis) Standard schematic capture: PADS logic, PSPICE for windows 18: What Berkeley Tools are available for anonymous ftp? available from ic.berkeley.edu: (pub) adore: switched capacitor layout generator. (Requires Octtools 5.1 to compile.) bdd: road: analog layout router sis: includes many tools including espresso, bdd ext2spice: enhanced ext2spice for use with magic available from gatekeeper.dec.com: (pub/misc) espresso: 19: What Berkeley Tools are available through ILP? (From MUG 20 Contributed by Carol Block of U. C. Berkeley) A new version of the popular circuit simulator, Spice3F2, is now avail- able from the Industrial Liaison Program (ILP) Office at the University of California, Berkeley. A new release of Octtools will be forthcoming in 1993. Enclosed is a list of software dis- tributed by this office. Adore, BBL.2, Berkeley Building-Block Layout System, Berkeley Computer Integrated Manufacturing System, Parameter Extraction Program for BSIM, Parameter Extraction for BSIM2, Bear-FP, Bert, BLIS, Spice 2G with BSIM Implementation, Cider, Ditroff/Gremlin, Ecstasy, EDIF 2 0 0, Elogic, ES1:Electrostatis 1-Dimensional Periodic Plasma, Franz Lisp, Gabriel, Glitter, IBC: Traveling-Wave-Tube Simulation, IEEE-754 Test Vector, Jsim, Jspice, Lanso, Magic-X11R3-Patch, Magic 1990 Decwrl/Livermore Release, Mahjong, Mighty, Octtools, Parmex Pix-Parmex, Plasma Device Simulation Codes, PLA Tools, Proteus, Ptolemy, Relax, Ritual, Sample, Sample-3D, Additional SAMPLE Documentation, Simpl-IPX and Simpl System 5, SIS, SPAM, Sparse, Spectre, Spice 2G6, Spice 3F2, Additional SPICE Documentation, Splat, Splice 3.0, Supercrystal, SWEC, Tempest, TimberWolf 3.2, Tsize, 1986 VLSI Tools, Wombat. Within a few weeks, a new catalog will be available via anonymous FTP. Users will also be able to obtain forms, ordering instruc- tions and some software via this means. Generally, recipients will have to com- plete an Agreement Form and pay a documentation and handling fee of about $250 per program. ILP can now distribute most of its programs in a variety of media, including: QIC-120, QIC-150, QIC-320, 8mm (2.2 gig), TK 50 (DEC tape for- mat), 9-track 1600 bpi and 9-track 6250 bpi. Visa and Mastercard ord- ers will be accepted on-line by 1993. Most of the software may be freely redistributed either within an organi- zation or to other organiza- tions, both within the United States and abroad, subject to the certain restrictions, including all U.S. Government restrictions, particu- larly those concerning ex- port. For additional information, contact: Industrial Liaison Program 205 Cory Hall Software Distribution Office University of California at Berkeley Berkeley, CA 94720 TEL: (510) 643-6687 FAX: (510) 643-6694 ilpsoftware@hera.berkeley.edu 20: Berkeley Spice (Current version 3f2) (From spice_info on ic.berkeley.edu) Berkeley Spice this is no longer freely distributable. (This includes even old versions of spice3.) Documentation is available on ic.berkeley.edu. General information is available from "spice@berkeley.edu". For more information on how to acquire Spice, please send your physical mailing address to "software@diva.berkeley.edu" or "software@eecs.berkeley.edu" and request a software catalog. This will give you all of the necessary information for ordering Spice3e2 and other Berkeley CAD software, including an order form and use agreements. At last check, the cost for spice3e2 was $250.00 (this price may change without notice). Spice3e2 has been compiled on the following systems: DECstation/VAXstation/VAX Ultrix 4.x X11r4 Sun3/Sun4 SunOS 4.x X11r4 IBM RS/6000 AIX V3 X11r3 SGI Personal Iris Irix 3.2 Sequent Symmetry or Balance Dynix 3.0 X11r4 HP 9000/300 HP-UX 7.0 NextStation Next 2.0 IBM PC (or compatible) MS-DOS 3.x/Microsoft C 5.1 or later Spice3e2 is distributed in source form only. The C compiler "gcc" has been used successfully to compile spice3e2, as well as the standard com- pilers for the systems listed above. Note the the X11 interface to Spice3 requires the "Athena Widgets Toolkit" ("Xaw") which may be avail- able only in the "unsupported" portion of your vendor software. Spice3 displays graphs under X11, PostScript, or a graphics-terminal independent library, or as a crude, spice2-like line-printer plot. On the IBM PC, CGA, EGA, and VGA displays are supported through the MicroSoft graphics library. Note in particular that there is no Suntools interface. Note that for practical performance a math co-processor is required for an IBM PC based on the 286 processor. A math co-processor is also recom- mended for the more advanced IBM PC systems. The Unix distribution comes on 1/2" 9-track tape in "tar" format. The MS-DOS distribution comes on several 3.5" floppy diskettes (both high and low density) in the standard MS-DOS format. The contents of both distri- butions are identical, including file names. Spice versions are numbered "NXM", where "N" is a number representing the major release (as in re-write), "X" is a letter representing a feature change reflected by a change in the documentation, and "M" is a number indicating a minor revision or bug-patch number. We anticipate that FUTURE distributions will also come on QIC-150 1/4" (a.k.a. "Sun cartridge tape" high density or 150MB 1/4" tape), and a compressed tar files on two 3.5" diskettes for Sun or VAX systems with 3.5" drives. * Note that these future formats are anticipated but not guaranteed and do NOT apply for Spice3e2 *. There is no anonymous ftp access for the Spice3 source. The manual for spice3e2 (in it's troff/me format or postscript format) is available via anonymous ftp from "ic.berkeley.edu" in the directory "pub/spice3". Patches or upgrades for Spice3 are _not_ normally supplied, however we have made exceptions to this rule. Beorn Johnson Spice maintenance UC Berkeley, EECS/ERL/CAD Group (beorn@ic.berkeley.edu) Please direct inquiries to "spice@berkeley.edu" or "spice- bugs@berkeley.edu" 21: Octtools (Current version 5.1) (From the ANNOUNCE-5.1 that comes with it) Octtools is a collection of programs and libraries that form an integrated system for IC design. The system includes tools for PLA and multiple-level logic synthesis, state assignment, standard-cell, gate- matrix and macro-cell placement and routing, custom-cell design, circuit, switch and logic-level simulation, and a variety of utility programs for manipulating schematic, symbolic, and geometric design data. Most tools are integrated with the Oct data manager and the VEM user interface. The software requires UNIX, the window system X11R4 including the Athena Widget Set. The design manager VOV and a few other tools require the C++ compiler g++. Octtools-5.1 have been built and tested on the following combinations of machines and operating systems: DECstation 3100, 5000 running Ultrix 4.1 and 4.2; DEC VAX running Ultrix 4.1 and 4.2; Sun 3 and 4 running OS 4.0 and Sun SparcStation running OS 4.0. The program has been tried on the following machines, but is not supported: Sequent Symmetry, IBM RS/6000 running AIX 3.1. To obtain a copy of Octtools 5.1 (8mm, tk50, or 1/4inch cartridge QIC150) and a printed copy of the documentation) for a $250 distribution charge, see section on Berkeley ILP. 22: Lager (Current version 4.0): (From MUG 18) The LAGER system is a set of CAD tools for performing parameterized VLSI design with a slant towards DSP applications (but not limited to DSP applications). A standard cell library, datapath library, several module generators and several pad libraries comprise the cell library. These tools and libraries have originated from UC Berkeley, UCLA, USC, Missis- sippi State, and ITD. The tool development has been funded by DARPA under the Rapid Prototyping Contract headed by Bob Brodersen (UC Berke- ley). LAGER 3.0 was described in MUG 15. Send email to reese@erc.msstate.edu if you are interested in obtaining the toolset via FTP. If you cannot get the distribution via ftp then send one 1/4" 600 ft. tape OR an 8 mm tape (Exabyte compatible) to Bob Reese by phone at (601)-325-3670 or at one of the following addresses: (US Mail Address) P.O. Box 6176 Mississippi State, MS 39762 (FEDEX) 2 Research Boulevard Starkville, MS 39759 Be sure to include a return FEDEX waybill we can use to ship your tape back to you. Instead of sending a tape and FEDX waybill, you can also just send us a check for $75 and we will send you back a tape. Make the check payable to Mississippi State Univ. The tape will be written on a high density tape drive (150 Mb). Older low density SUN tape drives (60 Mb) cannot read this format so you need to have access to one of SUN's newer tape drives. 23: BLIS (Current version 2.0): (From their announcement posted here) BLIS (Behavior-to-Logic Interactive Synthesis) is an environment for the synthesis of digital circuits from high-level descriptions. Version 2.0 supports functional-level synthesis starting from the ELLA hardware description language. Other languages can easily be supported by inter- facing a parser to the internal data-flow representation of BLIS. BLIS is distributed through the Industrial Liason's Program (ILP) Office of the UCB EECS department. The cost of $250 covers media and distribu- tion charges. Binaries are provided for SUN4 and DEC MIPS architectures but BLIS should compile on most other machines supported by the GNU C and C++ compilers (e.g. HP, vax, etc). ELLA language documentation and simu- lator are not supplied with the BLIS distribution, but can be obtained from Computer General. 24: ITEM (Taken from the item.news file contained in the package:) The first public release of ITEM, UCSC's logic minimizer using if-then- else DAGs, was made 2 January 1991. The system is available by anonymous ftp from ftp.cse.ucsc.edu, in directory pub/item as a compressed tar archive (item.tar.Z). Also available are tech reports about the algo- rithms and data structures (88-28, 88-29, and 90-43). ITEM can also be found at ftp.cse.ucsc.edu in the pub/item directory. 25: PADS logic/PADS PCB: While this is a commercial product, they have just recently made avail- able a shareware version. This version is fully functional and indenti- cal to their schematic capture and PCB autoplace and route software except that it is limited to about 50 components. It is available for IBM PC/PC compatibles directly from PADS, or from anynonmous ftp at several sites including wuarchive.wustl.edu in /mirrors/msdos/cad/pads*.zip. There is a $50 registration fee if you would like to get future updates from them. 26: Another PCB Layout Package: (from Randy Nevin <randyn@microsoft.com>:) I'm distributing a freely-copyable software package to do autorouting of (1- and 2-layer) printed circuit boards on a PC or compatible. It is written in C (with a little .asm), and all source code is included. There is an autorouter, a board viewer, a rat nest viewer, and some output filters which generate postscript and hp laserjet output files. There is no charge, but I maintain the copyright (it is not public domain). If you want to read about it, I published an article on autorouting algorithms in the sept '89 dr. dobb's journal. ega is required (for the viewing pro- grams). If you'd like to get the software, send me a stamped, self- addressed floppy mailer and a floppy. I can handle 5.25" 360K or 1.2M, or 3.5" 1.4M, but if you send 360K there is some extra code that I won't be able to fit on the disk, so high density is better. I developed this software at home on my own time, and it is not related to what I do for my employer, so I will not use my employer's email resource to distribute it. however, it is available for anonymous ftp access on wsmr-simtel20.army.mil in PD1:<MSDOS.CAD>PCB.ARC, last I heard. I do not keep simtel up to date. But the version there is useable, and does include all source code. Randy Nevin 24135 SE 16th PL Issaquah, WA 98027 27: Magic (Current version 6.3): This is a polygon based lsi layout editor. It is capable of reading and writing magic, calma (version 3.0, corresponding to GDS II Release 5.1), and cif. It is available for anonymous ftp from gatekeeper.dec.com in /pub/DEC/magic. 28: PSpice: This is a commercial product, however, they do have a student version that is available (limited to around 16 transistors). PC dos version: 5c wuarchive.wustl.edu in /mirrors/msdos/education/pspice5c.zip PC windows3 version 5.1: WSMR-SIMTEL20.Army.Mil in pd1:<msdos.windows3> called PSPIC51A.ZIP and PSPIC51B.ZIP Mac version 5.1: wuarchive.wustl.edu in /mirrors/info-mac/app/pspice-51.hqx 29: Esim: A new version of the switch-level simulator ESIM that can handle CMOS transmission gates is available through MUG, ftp venera.isi.edu (128.9.0.32)) 30: Isplice3 (Current version 2.0): This is a high level simulator, I do not know much more then that. It is available via anonymous ftp from uicadb.csl.uiuc.edu. 31: Watand: (From Phil Munro's posting <FC138001@ysub.ysu.edu>) Spice is not the only circuit simulator available. There is one called WATAND (WATerloo ANalysis and Design) which runs on a mainframe (and some other workstations). We use it here under CMS on our mainframe computer. Unlike Spice and its derivatives, Watand is a fully *interactive* pro- gram; that is, one enters an environment where analyses can be run and rerun, values changed and queried, options changed, and even different circuits can be run, all without leaving the environment. "WATAND Users Manual", by Dr. Phil Munro, April 1992, 233 pages, unbound, $7.00 plus whatever shipping charges the bookstore might ask of you. "WATAND Introduction and Examples", by Dr. P. Munro, September 1991, 160 pages, spiral bound, incomplete edition Chapters 1 - 10. The cost is $4 or $5, I think, plus shipping. You should write to Youngstown State University Bookstore Youngstown, Ohio 44555 Watand itself is available from Mark O'Leavey, Waterloo Engineering Software, 22 King St. S., Suite 302, Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA, N2L 1C6. Fax: (519) 746-7931 Phone: (519) 741-8097. It's currently only available for DECStation and Sparcstation. 32: Caltech VLSI CAD Tools: (From John Lazzaro <lazzaro@boom.CS.Berkeley.EDU>) Caltech VLSI CAD Tool Distribution We are offering to the Internet community a pre-release version of the Caltech electronic CAD system for analog VLSI neural networks. This dis- tribution contains tools for schematic capture, netlist creation, and analog and digital simulation (log), IC mask layout, extraction, and DRC (wol), simple chip compilation (wolcomp), MOSIS fabrication request gen- eration (mosis), netlist comparison (netcmp), data plotting (view) and postscript graphics editing (until). These tools were used exclusively for the design and test of all the integrated circuits described in Carver Mead's book "Analog VLSI and Neural Systems". Until was used as the primary tool for figure creation for the book. The distribution also contains an example of an analog VLSI chip that was designed and fabri- cated with these tools, and an example of an Actel field-programmable gate array design that was simulated and converted to Actel format with these tools. These tools are distributed under a license very similar to the GNU license; the minor changes protect Caltech from liability. To use these tools, you need: 1) A unix workstation that runs X11r3, X11r4, or Openwindows 2) A color screen 3) Gcc or other ANSI-standard compiler Right now only Sun Sparcstations are officially supported, although resourceful users have the tools running on Sun 3, HP Series 300, and Decstations. If don't have a Sparcstation or an HP 300, only take the package if you feel confident in your C/Unix abilities to do the porting required; someday soon we will integrate the changes back into the sources officially, although many "ifdef mips" are already in the code. If you are interested in some or all of these tools, 1) ftp to hobiecat.cs.caltech.edu on the Internet, 2) log in as anonymous and use your username as the password 3) cd ~ftp/pub/chipmunk 4) copy the file README, that contains more information. European researchers can access these files through anonymous ftp using the machine ifi.uio.no in Norway; the files are in the directory chip- munk. We are unable to help users who do not have Internet ftp access. 33: Switcap2 (Current version 1.1): This is a switched capactor simulator. It is available from: SWITCAP Distribution centre, 411 Low Memorial Library, New York, N.Y. 10027. 34: Test Software for Abramovici Text: (Contributed by Mel Breuer of the Univ. of Southern California) Many faculty are using the text by Abramovici, Breuer, and Fried- man entitled "Digital Systems Testing and Testable Design" in a class on testing. They have expressed an interest to supplement their course with software tools. At USC we have developed such a suite of tools. They include a good value simulator, fault simulator, fault col- lapsing module, and D-algorithm-based ATPG module for combinational logic. The software has been specifi- cally designed to be easily understood, modified and enhanced. The algorithms follow those described in the text. The software can be run in many modes, such as one module at a time, single step, interactively or as a batch process. Stu- dents can use the software "as is" to study the operation of the various algo- rithms, e.g. simulation of a latch using different delay models. Also, simple programming projects can be given, such as extend the simulator from a 3-valued system to a 5-valued system; or change the D-algorithm so that it only does single path sensiti- zation. There are literally over 50 interesting software enhancements that can be made by changing only a small part of the code. The system is written in C and runs on a SUN. If you are currently using the Abramovici text and would like a copy of this software, please send a message to Prof. Melvin Breuer at mb@poisson.usc.edu. 35: Test Generation and Fault Simulation Software (Contributed by Dr. Dong Ha of Virginia Tech) Two automatic test pattern generators (ATPGs) and a fault simula- tor for combinational circuits were developed at Virginia Tech, and the source codes of the tools are now ready for public release. ATLANTA is an ATPG for stuck-at faults. It is based on the FAN algorithm and a parallel-pattern, single-fault propaga- tion technique. It consists of optional sessions using random pattern testing, deterministic test pattern generation and test compaction. SOPRANO is an ATPG for stuck-open faults. The algo- rithm of SOPRANO is similar to ATLANTA except two consecutive patterns are applied to detect a stuck-open fault. FSIM is a parallel-pattern, single-fault simulator. All the tools are written in C. The source codes are fully commented, and README files contain user's manuals. Technical papers about the tools were presented at DAC-90 and ITC-91. All three tools are free to univer- sities. Companies are requested to make a contribution of $5000 but will have free technical assistance. For detailed in- formation, con- tact: Dr. Dong Ha Electrical Engineering Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA 24061 TEL: 703-231-4942 FAX: 703-231-3362 dsha@vtvm1.cc.vt.edu 36: Olympus Synthesis System (From Rajesh K. Gupta <rgupta@sirius.Stanford.EDU>) Recently there have been several enquiries about the Olympus Synthesis System. Here are answers to some commonly asked questions. For details please send mail to "synthesis@chronos.stanford.edu". 1. What is Olympus Synthesis System? Olympus is a result of a continuing project on synthesis of digital cir- cuits here at Stanford University. Currently, Olympus synthesis system consists of a set of programs that perform synthesis tasks for synchro- nous, non-pipelined circuits starting from a description in a hardware description language, HardwareC. The output of synthesis is a technology independent netlist of gates. This netlist can be input to logic synthesis and technology mapping tools within Olympus or to UC Berkeley's mis/sis. Current technology mapping in Olympus is targeted for LSI logic standard cells and a set of PGA archi- tectures: Actel and Xilinx. 2. How is Olympus distributed? The source code and documentation for Olympus is distributed via ftp. 3. What are the system requirements for Olympus? Olympus has been tested on following hardware platforms: mips, sparc, hp9000s300, hp9000s800, hp9000s700, vax. All the programs in Olympus come with a default menu-driven ASCII interface. There is also a graphi- cal user interface, called "olympus", provided with the distribution. This interface is written using Motif procedures. You would need about 40 MBytes of disk space to extract and compile the system. 4. How can I obtain a copy of Olympus? Olympus is distributed free of charge by Stanford University. However, it is not available via anonymous ftp. In order to obtain a copy please send a mail to "olympus@chronos.stanford.edu" where an automatic-reply mailer would send instructions for obtaining Olympus software. 37: OASIS logic synthesis (From William R. Richards Jr. <richards@mcnc.org>) OASIS is a complete logic synthesis system based on the Logic3 HDL develped at MCNC (unfortunately neither VHDL or Verilog compatible). kk@mcnc.org is the person responsible for it. OASIS is available to US universities for $500 and non-US universities for $600. Industrial license is $3000. 38: CAzM, a Spice-like table-based analog circuit simulator (From William R. Richards Jr. <richards@mcnc.org>) Second is CAzM, a Spice-like table-based analog circuit simulator. It offers significant performance advantages over other Berkeley Spice derivatives. It is used fairly extensively in our design community. US university license is $175, non-US $250. Commercial license is $800. It comes with an X11- based signal viewing tool Sigview which is public domain and may be anonymous ftp'd from mcnc.org. I am the primary contact for CAzM at MCNC. 39: Galaxy CAD, integrated environment for digital design for Macintosh Thanks to Simon Leung <sleung@sun1.atitech.ca> The Galaxy CAD System is an integrated environment for digital design and for rapid prototyping of CAD tools and other software. The system currently includes schematic capture and simulation of both low-level and high-level digital designs and is being expanded to include physical design tools. Galaxy runs on a number of 680X0 platforms, including the Apple Macintosh, HP9000/3XX, Apollo Domain, and Atari ST. Others will be added according to demand. The Galaxy CAD System is an ideal environment for teaching digital design. It has been used successfully for both introductory logic design and computer design courses at Wisconsin. Some of the features of Galaxy that make it suitable for education are: 1. Integrated multiple-window environment: All Galaxy tools run concurrently in a multiple window environment. Copying data from one window to another is simple. Any number of simulation sessions can be active simultaneously. 2. Hierarchy: the schematic editor and simulator are both fully hierarchical. Building hierarchical designs is simple, including creating symbols for modules. The simulator is a true hierarchical simulator: it does not require a time-consuming macro-expansion step. 3. Integrated editing and simulation: Designs are edited and simulated in the same environment. Simulation input and output can be shown directly on schematics, allowing direct manipulation of net values. Unlike other products, Galaxy does not require modification of the schematic to insert "switch" and "light" components. In addition, Galaxy allows display of bus values in hexadecimal directly on schematics to simplify debugging of high-level designs. Simulation I/O can also use waveforms, text files, and tables. 4. Faults: Stuck-at faults can be introduced on the schematic editor and simulated immediately without rebuilding the simulation model. This provides an excellent way to display the effects of faults. 5. Buses: Galaxy supports specification and simulation of bus structures, including complex extractions, fanouts, and bit reversal. Buses are specified by annotating nets with text. For simulation, buses are kept intact so that multiple-bit high-level components can be used. Galaxy includes a library of register-transfer components suitable for high-level computer design and simulation. 6. Alternate specification of designs: In addition to schematics, Galaxy users can specify design modules using a textual HDL (GHDL) and using hardware flowcharts and state diagrams. A hierarchical design can mix these representations as desired. 7. High-quality PostScript output: Galaxy schematics are of excellent quality. Gates are drawn according to standard practices, e.g., OR gates are drawn with the correct circular arcs and not ellipses. 8. Uniform user interface: Galaxy tools have the same user interface on all platforms, reducing student learning curves. In fact, the same tool OBJECT CODE runs on all platforms due to the unique structure of Galaxy. 9. Adding new simulation primitives is straightforward. 10. No cost: Galaxy is available for free via anonymous FTP (Apple Macintosh version). Other versions will be made available based on demand. Galaxy is also an excellent environment for rapid prototyping of new CAD tools. By building on top of available resources, we have been able to prototype new tools in days or weeks that would ordinarily have taken months or years. For more information, send e-mail. To obtain Galaxy CAD, connect to "eceserv0.ece.wisc.edu" using FTP. Log in as "anonymous" with password "guest". Galaxy is in directory "pub/galaxy". The file "README" in that directory gives further instruc- tions. Please register as a user by sending e-mail to "beetem@engr.wisc.edu". John F. Beetem ECE Department University of Wisconsin - Madison Madison, WI 53706 USA (608) 262-6229 beetem@engr.wisc.edu 40: Gabriel DSP development system The Gabriel software is available via ftp from copernicus.Berkeley.EDU (128.32.240.37). It's not quite "anonymous": you can use anonymous ftp to get the license agreement. When you sign that and mail it back to us, we give you the password to an ftp account that allows you to grab the actual software. It's free, just not anonymous. :-) For the uninitiated, Gabriel is a block diagram programming environment for DSP that runs on Sun 3 and Sun 4 workstations. It can simulate DSP designs, generate assembly code for Motorola DSP56000 and DSP96000 chips, and automatically perform parallel scheduling when multiple DSP chips are used. For more information, ftp to copernicus.Berkeley.EDU, log in as "anonymous" (any password will do), and grab the files "gabriel- overview", "gabriel-release-info", and "gabriel-license.shar". Be warned that a new version of Gabriel will be out by the end of January, so if you're interested in it, it might pay to wait until then. Phil Lapsley phil@ucbarpa.Berkeley.EDU 41: WireC graphical/procedural system for schematic information (From Larry McMurchie <larry@cs.washington.edu>) WireC is a graphical specification language that combines schematics with procedural constructs for describing complex microelectronic systems. WireC allows the designer to choose the appropriate representation, either graphical or procedural, at a fine-grain level depending on the characteristics of the circuit being designed. Drawing traditional schematic symbols and their interconnections provides fast intuitive interaction with a circuit design while procedural constructs give the power and flexibility to describe circuit structures algorithmically and allow single descriptions to represent whole families of devices. The procedural capability of WireC allows other CAD tools to be incor- porated into the design system. For example, we have defined an inter- face to the SIS logic synthesis system wherein the designer can represent part of the system behaviorally. WireC invokes logic synthesis on these components to produce a structural description that can be incorporated into the rest of the design. Libraries of devices defining a particular netlist output format may be defined by the user. The libraries currently distributed with WireC include a default CMOS gate library whose output is the SIM format. This format can be simulated with COSMOS or IRSIM and compared against a cir- cuit extracted from layout. This library also includes devices that allow a behavioral description to be synthesized and mapped using MIS or SIS and incorporated into a larger circuit. Another library is the xnf library for designing systems with Xilinx FPGAs. Written by Jackson Kong, Martine Schlag and Pak Chan of UCSC, this library contains devices specific to the 2000 and 3000 series Xilinx LCA's. In addition to drawing the devices explicitly, one can represent parts of a circuit with equations and have these synthesized automati- cally. Currently in progress is a library of CMOS gates for Cascade Design Automation's ChipCrafter product. WireC provides a mixed schematic/procedural design frontend for ChipCrafter, which uses module generation, timing analysis and place and route software to create a phy- sical layout from the WireC design specification. WireC was written by Larry McMurchie, Carl Ebeling, Zhanbing Wu and Ed Tellman. We are interested in any libraries you may develop and will provide a limited degree of support. WireC requires an X-Windows compatible environment and a C++ compiler such as Gnu G++ and AT&T CC. WireC is available via ftp on the Internet. For details send mail to larry@cs.washington.edu ebeling@cs.washington.edu 42: Tanner Research Tools (Ledit and LVS) (From Bhusan Gupta <bgupta@micro.caltech.edu>) There is a "low" cost tool from Tanner Research (Pasadena, Ca) called LVS that will compare two spice decks. It is a tool that is still evolving and is flexible. It can be a lifesaver if you have to compare spice decks. It is much easier to use than netcmp/netcomp (the caltech VLSI tools). I realize that this is a commercial tool for $, but the only rea- son I suggest it is that it isn't as expensive as a tool from a main-line CAD vendor. (University pricing is around $245 for the PC version, and $995 for the commercial version.) Tanner also sells a layout mask editor called Ledit which they sell for the PC, Sun, HP, and Mac platforms. It has a DRC tool, extract to spice, a cross-section viewer, etc for additional money. The cross-section viewer is neat gadget in that given some of your design, it will show what the vertical cross-section looks like. Demo versions are available. For more info contact Tanner Research - 180 N. Vinedo Ave. Pasadena 91107 (818) 792-3000 or fax (818) 792-0300.