( DAC'18 Item 10 ) ------------------------------------------------ [05/22/19]
Subject: Empyrean Skipper chip finishing wierdly takes #10 "Best of 2018"
EMPYREAN DOUBLETAKE: Last week users voted through their survey responses
that Empyrean ALPS has become a new serious contender in the SPICE Wars.
This week, after grepping the survey responses, I found the users also
spoke up about Empyrean's Skipper "chip finishing" tool -- meaning it does
last minute GDS views and minor edits of final chip layouts -- something
that I thought Mentor Calibre RVE had a lock on. (A tiny market, yes, but
I thought it was one MENT owned.)
Anyway, the Skipper users liked were its full-chip capacity, its fast speed,
plus its GUI. Also, they liked that you can share their layout data when a
user opens layout in Skipper.
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QUESTION ASKED:
Q: "What were the 3 or 4 most INTERESTING specific EDA tools
you've seen this year? WHY did they interest you?"
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We like Empyrean's Skipper chip finishing tool.
It's much faster than Mentor Calibre RVE.
After we design our chip, we always use Skipper to view our entire
design (GDS), debug DRC/LVS, DFT, and device analysis for FIB.
Our biggest design is 50 GB in GDS II, and no other MENT/CDNS/SNPS
tool can handle a full-chip layout view, except Skipper.
- It's full-chip net tracing and debug is very good.
- My favorite part is Skipper's good at DRC/LVS debugging.
It's fast and has a good GUI interface.
- It was fast and quick to merge standard cells and IPs
I'd recommend Skipper -- It's best value for us is that it's fast to
load our design, and fast to edit the design in the GUI for
debugging.
- We use Calibre RVE to do GDS streamIn/out design tapeout
and small layout edit. The GUI is friendly and easy to
use, but we never use it for full chip data debug,
because it would take forever.
- We've also used CDNS/SNPS layout editor tools. They can
handle our full-chip design, but their GUI is too simple,
with fewer functions and features. So, it's hard for us
to edit and debug our layout.
- Skipper can handle our full chip design and it's the fastest
layout tool we've used. It also awesome in debuging layout.
We also use Skipper for our FIB data for our device analysis -- to load
and analysis full chip data. The MENT/CNDS/SNPS tools take forever
to view even one layer.
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Empyrean Skipper Chip Finishing
I mostly use Skipper for its GDS viewer, short trace, DRC debugging and
fast XOR. It's easy to get started. And the interface is friendly.
Some of Skipper's features that I have used are:
1. DRC/LVS result debugging - this is my most important reason
for using Skipper.
2. Simple layout editing, like creating a shape/label.
3. Net tracing. We use a lot of net tracing during LVS debug.
Skipper can operate the layout when tracing. I really like
this feature.
4. Searching/query: search text/instance; this works fine for
me.
5. Layout Comparison -- in GUI and batch modes. I use this
function a lot, mostly in GUI mode. It's fast, and it's cool
to compare results in two slave layout windows.
6. Full-chip net tracing and debug. I mostly import the Calibre
LVS report and trace the short nets in it. Skipper handles
it easily.
7. Merging standard cells and IPs. Sometimes I use this. I
mostly do it by designrev.
8. DRC smart waivers. I haven't used this function, but I plan
to try it out.
Regarding Skipper's capacity & performance, my current GDS is about
70 GB. Skipper loads this at 100Mb/per second. The operations such as
layer switching/Zoom in/display level are a bit slower. It's very fast
for GDS sizes smaller than 20 GB, and it's fast enough for my projects
I've been worked on.
I use Skipper mostly for DRC/LVS debug and have recommended it to my new
colleagues.
It's very easy to learn and the GUI is friendly. Plus, its basic
functions are stable and sufficient to meet our objectives.
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Empyrean Skipper
Skipper is a layout browse and review tool -- you can browse the layout
with extremely high speed.
I have used it for about a year to browse layouts, report specific nets,
locate the specific points, create FIB reports, plus do other layout
related activities.
Some feature highlights:
1. Performance: 5 seconds for Skipper to open our 2+ GB GDS II.
2. Layout editing: Skipper layout edits easily. Their net
tracing is good -- you can quickly trace specific nets.
3. Layout Comparison: Skipper imports two layouts and you can
compare them rapidly. You can use the GUI to highlight the
mismatch areas.
4. Full-chip net tracing and debug: when you need to find the
net error or debug the LVS errors.
5. DRC/LVS result debugging: rapidly finds DRC/LVS errors and
gives suggestions on fixes.
6. DRC smart waivers: When the DRC error can be waived, the tool
can remember the operation and waive them automatically the
next time.
7. FIB reports: gives detailed report on the FIB operation.
Additionally, when a layout is opened in Skipper by one user, other
users can share the layout data. This reduces your license use.
Skipper is an excellent tool. I recommend it.
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Some Empyrean Skipper chip finishing tool features and functions that
I'm happy with:
- Full-chip net tracing and debug -- is very fast with full chip
database
- Standard cell and IP merging -- was very convenient. I used
it to merge two designs (GDS files)
- DRC result debugging -- I'm very happy with the performance
(I did not use it for LVS)
- UI is easy to use
Overall, Skipper's best value is the performance of the tool in loading
GDS, DRC result and net tracing feature. It also has the same look and
feel as Virtuoso.
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Empyrean Skipper
1. I use Skipper to view GDS files, and sometimes to compare GDS
files side-by-side.
2. Skipper is easy to use. Being able to read in Cadence tech and
display information is very helpful.
3. I haven't assessed its full capacity. The largest GDS file I've
viewed was less than 1GB, which took a couple of seconds.
4. I'd recommend it.
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I use Empyrean Skipper chip finishing as a quick layout viewer.
Skipper's best features are:
- It's layout database, which can be viewed by hierarchy
structure.
- The circuit nets can be traced. We load the process tech
files and do net tracing. It really helps a lot.
- The process tech files can be loaded so that user doesn't need
to remember the layer number.
- The Argus PVE feature reduces our DRC debug time. Skipper
Argus PVE can provide different DRC error views by filtering
the same DRC errors with its algorithms. This function really
helps us a lot when we read DRC errors of SRAM IP, as there
are many pseudo errors in bit cell area.
I'd recommend it to others.
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