* Change: In all tools supplying documentation, as we use some specific
software to create the doc, they may not be available, or worse, be
and incompatible version. So, by default, we install the files shipped
with the git repository. To force a full doc rebuild, use the "--doc"
flag of ccb.py.
* Bug: In Etesian::setDefaultAb(), the abutment box was miscalculated,
it was always square.
* Bug: In Etesian::_postCreate(), improper loading of filler cells.
Now we first try to find in memory (DataBase::getCell()) and if
not found try to use the AllianceFramework loader.
This is not a clean strategy. We should have something more
clear.
* New: In CRL Core, AllianceFramework::getCell(), adds a new Catalog::State
flags to request the loading of a "foreign" cell. That is, a Cell which
is *not* in the Alliance libraries, but in *any* library starting from
the root library. This is a temporary hack to allow the Blif parser to
run.
* New: In CRL Core, RoutingGauge::getHorizontalGauge() and
RoutingGauge::getVerticalGauge() to avoid relying on either metal names
or depth to know the vertical and horizontal default routing
informations. They return the metal layers gauges *closests* to the
substrate which are likely to have the lesser pitch.
* New: In CRL Core, BlifParser, new configuration parameters:
"etesian.cell.zero" & "etesian.cell.one" to figure out what are the
tielow and tiehigh cells (instead of having the ones from sxlib
hardwired).
* New: In Etesian, add support for non-square routing pitchs, that is,
the lowest vertical and horizontal pitches are not equal. Needs to
work with two pitches (H & V) instead of one.
The Configuration associated class now also provides the
RoutingGauge (not only the CellGauge).
Use a new Configuration setting "etesian.feedNames" to set up
the names of the filler cells. This a string of comma separated
cell names.
* New: In Anabatic, Session::_getNearestGridPoint(), use the new
non-square grid scheme.
* Change: In all top CMakeLists.txt, force the use of Python 2.7 as
we do not compile against 3.x flavors. Do not use the "EXACT"
flags as it will not recognize 2.7.x versions.
* Change: In Katana::RoutingEvent::Key::Compare(), preliminary
experiments shows that the best sorting order is:
- Lower layer first (i.e. M2 -> M3 -> M4 -> ... )
- Longer segments first.
The later seems to be counter-intuitive. Guess is that placing
the small ones first generate a more important fragmentation of
the big ones. They are placed too early and are difficult to move
afterwards.
Another feature to test is *not* inserting pushed left/right
segments if they are not *already* routed.
* Change: In PyKatanaEngine.runNegociate() now takes a flag argument,
provided through the new PyKatanaFlags exported object.
(doChip.py must be changed accordingly)
* Change: In Hurricane::BaseFlags, store flags in uint64_t instead of
unsigned int because we start to need more than 32 different flags
in some tools.
* New: In ::getString() & ::getRecord() templates, add support for
std::array<>.
* Change: In CRL::ToolEngine, add support for timer (time & memory
measurements) displaced from Katabatic. This way all ToolEngine
can use this feature. The _postCreate() method display the
memory just after ToolEngine allocation.
* Change: In Etesian::EtesianEngine, make use of the ToolEngine
builtin timer (remove the local one). Forgot to call the base
class _postCreate() and _preDestroy().
* Change: In Anabatic::AnabaticEngine, make use of the ToolEngine
builtin timer (remove the local one).
* New: In Anabatic, new AutoSegments_Connecteds() collection. This
Collection allows a deterministic walkthough *all* the AutoSegments
connected either to source or target of one AutoSegment.
* New: In Anabatic::AutoContactTerminal::isEndPoint() to check if an
AutoContactTerminal is the *only one* anchored on a RoutingPad,
thus being a true "end point" and not a kind of feed-through.
* New: In Katana::KatanaEngine, added support for symmetric nets.
Created new class DataSymmetric to store symmetric information
of a net (mainly the paired AutoSegments).
Added KatanaEngine::runSymmetricRouter(), for now only build
the DataSymmetric informations. More to come...
* Change: In Katana::GraphicKatanaEngine::_runTest(), now perform
symmetric information building the non-symmetric routing.
* Bug: In CRL.python.coriolisInit(), when it's not set, the stratus1.mappingName
configuration variable is equal to "" and *not* "not_set".
* Bug: In Etesian::EtesianEngine::toColoquinte(), followup of the previous
bug, bad FIXED/PLACED test when the AB is set.
* Bug: In Etesian::EtesianEngine::toColoquinte(), when the master Cell of
an instance has an abutment box, this instance *must* be placed so we
can compute the positions of its own instances. Throw an error if it's
not the case.
* Change: In Hurricane Commons.h, even when cdebug print nothing, it slow
down the program (three times for Kite!). Create a macro cdebug_log
which calls cdebug *only* if the debug level is active.
* Change: In Hurricane, in Flags add operator overload for "int" type
and not only "unsigned int". Otherwise the compiler complaints about
ambiguous overload when using enum values which are considered as
"int".
Simpler code for the BaseFlags::contains() method.
Added implicit conversion from BaseFlags toward bool type.
* Change: In Hurricane, in Commons, complete replacement of the previous
two trace systems (trace & ltrace) by a stream-based one.
As it is a true object it is much less fragile than the one based
on defines (but maybe a little slower).
Define a reservation table for the trace levels for all the
Coriolis & Chams components.
* Change: All tools, use the new trace system.
* Bug: In Hurricane, in HApplication, ExceptionWidget ans PyHurricane.h,
forgot to catch the Hurricane::Bug exception which was leading to
terminate() without explanations.
* Change: In Katabatic, In GCellTopology, now support one GCell with
five metal1 terminal of the same net. This unlikely configuration
did appear in the SNX for the first time...
* New: In boostrap, in ccb.py, added support for the "support" project
which contains external dependencies. Currently contains only
RapidJSON. Those dependencies must be cloned here manually.
* New: In Hurricane, Initializer class for an ordered static initialization
across different compilation modules.
* Change: In Hurricane, at DataBase level, no longer save the Cells in
the libraries, but create and ordered list of Cell. Deepest cells
(leaf cells) first. To avoid dependency problems.
* New: In Hurricane, JSON support for Property.
* New; In CRL, added JSON support for AllianceFramework, Environement &
Catalog and their associated properties. Adjustment of the
AllianceLibrary creation policy.
* New: In Hurricane, added first support for DataBase native import/export
using JSON.
We choose RapidJSON, in SAX mode, to manage the JSON format low level
Read/Write. Thus, it's Git repository http://github.com/miloyip/rapidjson
must be added under ~/coriolis-2.x/src and manually build and installed
in the Coriolis installation tree (to be integrated in ccb later).
Two mode are being supported:
1. Cell mode: one Cell only is saved. In that mode, Entities
referred by Occurrences are "outside" the file. They are coded
through their "signature" (mostly, all the values of their
attributes). The ids saved in the file cannot be restored
identically as we cannot predict when and in which context the
Cell will be reloaded.
2. Design Blob mode: the whole design hierarchy, down and including
the standard cells is saved. This way the design is completly
self contained and Entities ared referred through their ids.
A design blob can only be loaded immediatly after starting cgt
as the DataBase *must* be empty. This way we restore the whole
design hierarchy with *exactly* the same ids.
Now, Hurricane object should provide a "toJson()" method for driving
JSON, and be associated with a JsonObject derived class for parsing.
* New: In Hurricane, ability to force the next id that will be used for a
DBo (used by Design Blob Mode).
* New: In Hurricane, in DataBase, added getCell() and getLibrary() functions
to allow the hierarchical access of a Cell/Library in native mode
(i.e. whithout the requirement of AllianceFramework).
* New: In Hurricane, In CellViewer, added menu entry for Save/Load of
JSON Design Blobs. Added at this level because we consider it as the
"native" format of Hurricane.
* New: In Unicorn, added support of import/export of JSON Cell.
* Bug: In Hurricane, in Instance, when cloning an Instance or uniquifying
it's master Cell, we forgot about the Occurrences (through shared pathes).
When an instance is cloned the Shared pathes still points toward the
original Instance. And when it's the master Cell that is uniquifyed
it's the Entities pointed to that remains in the original Cell.
This is a software design problem. It is difficult to define what
policy to adopt when uniquifying: basically that means that one
Occurence is either moved onto the clone or duplicated. Furthermore,
it is not trivial to known what Occurrence is pointing on the
uniquifyed/cloned item. Have to think about it a little more.
* Bug: In Etesian, in EtesianEngine, build the flattened nets and their
RoutingPads *after* uniquifying (through slaving bounding boxes).
This way we avoid the Occurrences problem described above.
* Bug: In Etesian, in EtesianEngine, invalidate the RoutingPad after
processing the placement so they are put into the right quadtree.
This problem is due to the fact that the RoutingPads do not belong
to the Instance that they refer. And when this instance is moved
around, she doesn't inform the RoutingPad that is has moved.
More software architecture design to review...
* Change: In vlsispad, in Dots, add an enable/disable flag because when printing
into a cmess, it is only the base class ostream which is took into account
as none of it's methods are virtuals (silly me).
* Bug: In Etesian, print into cmess instead of cout and make use of the Dots
enabling feature.
* New: In Katabatic, added AutoContact::migrateConstraintBox() to transfert
constraint from one contact to another.
New flag for AutoContact, CntWeakTerminal for AutoContact which are at
the other of a segment directly connected to a terminal. They may hold
special constraints in case of caged terminals (computed in Kite).
In AutoHorizontal & AutoVertical, in ::_makeDogleg(), transfert flags
and constraints when breaking a segment directly connected to a terminal.
* New: In Kite, in protectCagedTerminals(), uses cross constraint on the
AutoContact opposite to the ContactTerminal (CntWeakTerminal) instead
of moving up one terminal over two consecutives. This is simpler without
degrading the routing quality.
* New: In Hurricane, in Cell & Instance, add the ability to merge the
QuadTree when *second level* instances of a Cell are placed in
the same space as the top Cell. This is the case of a deeply
hierarchical design made of only standard cells that are to
be placed in a "flat" manner.
The design is uniquified then the intermediate instances models,
which should be unique at that point have their QuadTree merged
through a call to Instance::slaveAbutmentBox(). That method will
make the model of the instance use the QuadTree of the Cell to
which the instance belong. The instance model no longer posseses
a dedicated QuadTree. As a corollary the abutment box of both
Cell are kept identical and the Instance has it's transformation
set to (0,0,ID).
Remark: when we talk about "QuadTree", we mean in fact the
QuadTree for the instances *and* the SliceMap (Layer+QuadTree).
Consequence in Query: when going through the resulting
"flattened" QuadTree we will find objects with an incomplete
Path du to the fact that we didn't have to explore their
Instance/Cell level to reach them. The shunted part of the
Path is stored in the Go master Cell in the _shuntedPath
attribute. This also affect the displayed depth of hierarchy,
but not too badly.
* New: In Hurricane, in Cell, new methods:
- Cell::updatePlacedFlag() : set the placement flags.
- Cell::isUnique() : one or less instance.
- Cell::isUniquified() : is the result of an uniquification.
- Cell::isUniquifyMaster() : is the reference cell of the
uniquification.
* Change: In Hurricane, in Cell::Uniquify(), uniquify a Cell only
if it is unplaced. We do not need to duplicate placed Cells
(see datapathes).
* New: In Hurricane, in Cell, no longer create rings of RoutingPads when
flattening the nets. Put that functionnality into a separate method
::createRoutingPadRings().
This allow to perform the Net flattening in Etesian *without*
the rings, which slow it down. Then the rings are created by
Knik/Kite. This also solves the double ring creation when doing
P&R of a complete chip (rings where created twice: in the core
block for Etesian and at chip level for Kite).
* Change: In Etesian, slight beautification of the printed informations.
(psychorigid me)
* New: In Hurricane, dedicated class BaseFlags to wrap a set of flags.
Similar to the Mask class, only with a slightly different semantic.
Encapsulation of <unsigned int>.
Also provide support for the Inspector, to have a human-readable
display of the flags.
* Change: In Hurricane, in Cell, regroup all the flags under a Flags
sub-class of Cell. No more mixing between booleans and bit flags.
(first use of BaseClass).
* In Hurricane, CRL Core & Knik, many small corrections to suppress
annoying warning messages at compile time.
Most noticeably, Bison errors in VstParserGrammar generated by
rules and token with mismatched return value type. This was not
problematic because the badly defined return value where not used.
But still...
* Bug: In CRL Core, in VectorPortMap::VhdlPortMap(), if the connection
was made to *non-contiguous* bits of an otherwise *contiguous* vector,
it was using a span instead of the separate bits. Now check that
bits are contiguous (delta: +1/-1) and the delta do not change of
sign.
* Change: In Etesian & Kite, the Python interface function ::setViewer()
was checking that the argument was indeed a CellViewer, but in text
mode it is None. Now, silently ignore the argument if it cannot be
converted into CellViewer.
* New: In Hurricane, in Collection add simple STL iterator support.
So now the C++11 "for" instruction can be used instead of the
in-house "forEach".
Example:
forEach ( Component*, icomponent, net->getComponents() ) {
cout << (*icomponent) << endl;
}
Become:
for ( Component icomponent : net->getComponents() ) {
cout << icomponent << endl;
}
* New: In Kite, in BuildPowerRails more accurate GCell density computation
under the pad area, to limit the overloaded messages.
* New: In Cumulus, In BlockCorona, remove the vertical METAL3 blockages
and replace them by horizontal blockages completly enclosing the
corona big vias in all layers. This way the I/O wires that goes
through the corona are guided to be straight and do not creates
unsolvable doglegs due to the presence of big vias.
* Change: In Kite & Etesian, small typo: refactor the method
"::wipeOutRouting()" into "::wipeoutRouting()" (indulge me, I'm a
code maniac).
* Bug: In Hurricane, in PyHurricane.h the macro HCATCH was not catching
standard STL exceptions. This was the source of the cryptic message:
"Fatal Python error: Py_EndInterpreter: thread still has a frame"
The Python interpreter was interrupted uncleanly bypassing it's own
exceptions mechanism.
In PyViewer, the Viewer *do not* inherit from a base class (in the
Python export).
* New: In Hurricane, in DbU, compute maximum values (in double) for
grid, lambda & physical (in meter) so now the DbU::toGrid(),
DbU::toLambda() & DbU::toPhysical() methods can check for out of
bound values, and throw an exception.
* Change: In Hurricane, ExceptionWidget::catchAllWrapper() now returns
a boolean, set to <true> if an exception has been catched. Allow
callers to interrupt themselves if a problem has occured.
* Bug: In Kite & Etesian, in the Python wrapper, send a Python exception
if catchAllwrapper() did return true, instead of continuing...
* Change: In Kite & Etesian, adds a setViewer() method (exported in Python)
to use the graphical ExceptionWidget when in graphic mode.
* Bug: In Cumulus, in PadsCorona.py the check for the core vs. chip size
was not returning False when invalid.
* New: In CRL Core, in Vst driver, add a support IEEE VHDL. Inactive for
now as I don't see clearly the policy for selecting it or not.
Remove the code of the old Vst driver.
In Blif parser, check for non-existent models (incomplete or
corrupted Blif file). Found by G. Gouvine.
* New: Added extras file for IDE-like support under Emacs.
* New: In Hurricane, In NetAlias & Net, add an AliasList collection to
iterate over all the aliases names (this *not* include the main
net name).
* New: In Hurricane, In Cell, Instance & Net add support for cloning and
uniquification (update documentation).
All Cells that are uniquified from a given model are kept in an
Uniquify relation. This relation allows to get all the clones and
generate unique clone names by adding a "_uXX" suffix.
* Bug: In Hurricane, the Cell::_isFlattenLeaf attribute was not initialized
in the constructor.
* Change: In CRL Core, in AllianceFramework::getCell(), no longer destroy
a partially loaded Cell in case of parser failure, let the incomplete
Cell be.
* New: In CRL Core, in ApParser, if all the instances are placed, sets the
Cell::Placed flag.
* Change: In CRL Core, in BlifParser, complete rewrite of the parser.
Not so good an idea afterwards...
* New: In Etesian, uniquify the design before placing.
* Change: In Kite, display the list of unrouted wired after all other
statistics.
* New: In Hurricane, In Cell, add Placed and Routed flags to know the
state of the Cell.
* Change: In CRL Core, In ApDriver, do not save the RoutingPads as
external connectors if the design is *not* routed (create
conflics on reload with the newly generated RoutingPads).
* Change: In Etesian, set the Placed flag on the Cell.
* Change: In Kite, set the Routed flag on the Cell.
* Change: In Cumulus, in RSavePluginAll, save the layout only if it
has a bounding box.
* New: In Hurricane, In CellWidget, add methods to emit CellPreModificated
and CellPostModificated Qt signals (from non-Qt aware objects).
* New: In Unicorn, In ImportCell, parsers are now dynamically hooked
in the importer, allowing third party application (i.e. Chams) to
add their own. See the ImportCell::addImporter() method.
* Bug: In Unicorn, in FindUNICORN.cmake, seems to be unable to detect
the UnicornGui.h. Not a blocking problem because the include dir
is shared with other tools correctly detected. But still...
Jean-Paul Chaput
Gabriel Gouvine