( ESNUG 398 Item 7 ) --------------------------------------------- [07/31/02]
Subject: ( ESNUG 396 #3 ) Avanti Jupiter/Apollo Rectilinear Block Flows
> I am wondering if your readers have experience in handling rectilinear
> blocks, especially with Synopsys (PhysOpt)/ Avanti (Jupiter/Apollo) tools.
>
> 1. How difficult is it in getting the pins assigned when the number of
> edges exceeds 4?
> 2. Is power routing capable of dropping straps of different lengths
> because of different dimensions in one direction or do I have to
> manually alter the lengths?
> 3. Will writing out the GDSII have any problems?
> 4. Can the parasitic extractor handle arbitrary shaped blocks?
>
> Plus is there anything else that would make my life miserable here?
>
> - Jay Pragasam
> Brecis Communications San Jose, CA
From: Caesar Abedin <cabedin@amcc.com>
Hi John,
I have used Jupiter/Apollo (don't know about PhysOpt) for rectilinear blocks
in the past. In fact, in my current design, I have a block with 10 sides.
(I had to cut around some analog macros.) To answer your concerns...
1) Pin Assignment: Jupiter did a pretty good job in placing the pins where
it should have; though Jupiter's run time was longer than I expected.
2) Power Routing: We pushed down our PG grid from the top using Jupiter's
cute preroute functions and there weren't any major issues.
3) GDSII: No problems.
4) Parasitics: No problems.
One problem that you might be concerned about is the routability of your
rectilinear blocks. I had to change 2 blocks from L-shaped to rectangular
and take the hit on die size simply because the rectilinear blocks were
unroutable.
- Caesar Abedin
AMCC Andover, MA
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