UH EE Cadence Design Software General Usage Guide

University of Hawaii, Department of Electrical Engineering
Cadence University Program Member

Where, Which machines
Software Versions
Printing
Getting started after logging in
Cadence Design Software Documentation
Tutorials
Cadence Design Software Programs
Libraries
Which Libraries are loaded?
NCSU Cadence Design Kit Documentation
PCB Tools Documentation
Identifying parasitic capacitances

• UH EE Guide to Virtuoso Schematic Composer Tutorial
• UH EE Guide to Virtuoso Layout Editor: Cell Design Tutorial
  
  
• Troubleshooting guide and Hints for solutions to problems encountered by your fellow students. (New items added frequently!)
  
  
• Other universities with helpful Cadence design software websites
  
  
• Foundry generated parameters for several nmos and pmos BSIM3 models, for different process conditions (produced from test data):
  • In spectre language: ami_c5n_corner_bsim3.scs
  
  You can write this to a file in your working directory, or access a read-only version in /quantum/cds/IC/local.
  • In hspice language: ami_c5n_corner_bsim3.txt
  
  Note that we do not have an interface for hspice and will be using spectre for simulation.
  
  
• Design Rules are at:
  • MOSIS

  We will be using information related to AMI 0.50 (C5N) process.
  
  

• Automated Custom Physical Design Flow Guide see in particular p.183 referring to a generic process design kit (PDK) with models and the creation of a customer generated PDK.

In Holmes 387:

If using a SunBlade100 in Holmes 387, login directly to the machine [opelu, onaga, uku, uhu, mahimahi, manini] for the fastest XWindows response, or perform a remote login to quantum (the main CAD server) for the fastest processors. These machines are shared resources, so if you find that one seems slow, check to see if someone else is using it remotely, and if so, switch to another machine that has lower usage.

This lab is only available M-F 8-4:30 or when a lab monitor is on duty, currently M-F until 9 pm and Saturday 11-3.

In POST 208:

This lab is open as posted on the www.eng.hawaii.edu website, including Saturdays. On Saturdays, the *front* door (the one facing the courtyard) to the POST building should be open. If it is not, you can call security to request it be opened between 8-4:30.

At home or elsewhere:

At the Linux workstations:

1. Log into one the of the Linux workstations (with your wiliki account?).
2. Open a terminal window.
3. Type (where fish=opelu, onaga, uku, uhu, mahimahi, or manini or quantum):

       xhost + fish.eng.hawaii.edu

       hostname

             Save the name that is returned for below

       ssh fish -l yourspectrausername -X

4. IF you get "Error: Can't open display:" when trying to run a program, type:

       setenv DISPLAY hostnamefromabove:0.0

   Note that you won't have the full desktop from Solaris, but each of the windows will pop up individually on the local machine. The desktop will be for the local machine.

At PCs with Cygwin:

c:\cygwin\usr\X11R6\bin\startxwin.bat

Login in remotely to quantum using your spectra name and password with a command like:.

	 ssh -Y -l username servername 

At PCs with Hummingbird XWindows:

Start Menu > Hummingbird > Exceed > XDMCP Broadcast

Login in remotely to a "fish" (opelu, onaga, uku, uhu, mahimahi, or manini or quantum) that is in H387 using your spectra name and password.

You may also run XWindows passively, and connect to the Sun machine with a Secure Shell Client terminal set to tunnel X11. Follow the instructions for Linux workstation for setting the DISPLAY environment variable. When you issue a command line (such as icde) that requires an XWindow, it should open automatically.
See also the troubleshooting guide.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Software Versions

        IC -> ../cds2005/IC5141 

to be continued ... feel free to browse the /quantum/cds200X directories in the meantime to find the products you need.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Printing

	    cdsdoc  & 

• UH EE Guide to Virtuoso Schematic Composer Tutorial
• UH EE Guide to Virtuoso Layout Editor: Cell Design Tutorial

    /quantum/cds/MOSIS/NCSU_CDK/rel

   source  /quantum/cds/MOSIS/NCSU_CDK/ncsu_userinit 

   source /usr/local/misc/cadencerc 

   source /quantum/cds/MOSIS/NCSU_CDK/ncsurc 

Documentation for the kit is at: http://www.eda.ncsu.edu/wiki/NCSU_CDK_documentation

Other helpful information may also be found at the NCSU website.

Not all users will want to load the NCSU Design Kit with every instance Cadence tool usage. It can interfere with various aspects of the Analog Environment if you are trying to use other kits or certain processes. Thus, I do not recommend putting the above "source ncsurc" line in your .cshrc unless you will always use the NCSU kit or remember to take it out if you start to work on other projects.

Version 1.3 of the NCSU Kit has been used in recent years' classes is located in /quantum/cds/IC50/local/ncsu_cdk.

You should first source cadencerc or your own preferred means of setting the path and environment variables for Cadence tool usage, then:

To use the older version of NCSU CDK:

	if (-r /quantum/cds/IC) source  /quantum/cds/IC50/local/ncsurc 

You can access older (Version 1.3) NCSU documentation here: /quantum/cds/IC50/local/ncsu_cdk/local/doc
(This link only works if you started the browser from Netscape on quantum.)

Page created and maintained by:
June Akers
University of Hawaii
Department of Electrical Engineering
consult@spectra.eng.hawaii.edu
http://ee.hawaii.edu/~akers