EDA Automation Tutorial

The purpose of this tutorial is to illustrate how FlowTracer can be used in the context of a complex chip design. First we guide you through a demonstration, then we analyze the components in detail.

Our assumptions are:
  • The chip we are designing is called "gigalite"
  • We are using CVS for revision control
  • We are emphasizing the browser interface as opposed to the programmable Command Line Interface (CLI) or the dynamic Graphical User Interface (GUI)
  • We expect multiple designers to be involved in the design. Each designer has a private workspace. All information exchange among the designers goes through the CVS vault.
  • The design flow is based upon a set of (fictitious) tools with name begins with "cdt" (Chip Design Tool). For example, to perform the synthesis of a block called "mmu" we will invoke the command: 
    % cdt_synth mmu
  • The structure of the chip is described in a file called $VOVDIR/eda/EDADEMO/chipStruct.tcl