( ESNUG 281 Item 8 ) ------------------------------------------------ [2/19/98]
From: [ A "GAD" (Grunt ASIC Designer) at Hewlett-Packard ]
Subject: LSI Tools Are Poorly Documented & Have Crappy Tech Support
John,
Better not include my name. I work directly with both Synopsys and LSI.
[ A 'CAD' at LSI Logic ] wrote about the new Module Compiler. I have no
experience with this tool, but I do have experience with many LSI tools
and Synopsys tools. While I agree that DesignTime may not always produce
the best possible design, many times the design is good enough -- epsecially
in a buisness where the fastest and smallest is less important than
quick and reasonable.
Anyway, after using both synopsys and LSI tools for a while, here are my
observations:
o In general Synopsys tools are well documented and their support web
page has answered many of our questions without having to enter a
support call.
o In general LSI tools (lsidelay, lsimemory, lsilbs) are poorly documented,
difficult to use, and the lsi web page is largely a copy of what is in
their data book, which is imcomplete. The lsi application engineers are
good folks and work hard to answer our questions, but many times I feel
like the question I have should of been answered by using the
documentation rather than entering a support call.
In my humble opinion, LSI has a long way to go towards producing well
documented usable tools.
- [ A "GAD" (Grunt ASIC Designer) at Hewlett-Packard ]
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