coriolis/documentation/UsersGuide/Releases.rst

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Release Notes
=============

Release 1.0.1475
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is the first preliminary release of the |Coriolis2| framework.

This release mainly ships the global router |Knik| and the detailed router
|Kite|. Together they aim to replace the |Alliance| |Nero| router.
Unlike |Nero|, |Kite| is based on an innovating routing modeling and ad-hoc
algorithm. Although it is released under |GPL| license, the source code
will be avalaible later.
|medskip|


|noindent| Contents of this release:

1. A graphical user interface (viewer only).
2. The |Knik| global router.
3. The |Kite| detailed router.

|noindent| Supported input/output formats:

* |Alliance| |vst| (netlist) & |ap| (physical) formats.
* Even if there are some references to the |Cadence| |LEFDEF| format, its
  support is not included because it depends on a library only available
  to |Si2| affiliated members.


Release 1.0.1963
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Release 1963 is alpha. All the tools from |Coriolis1| have been ported into
this release.

|noindent| Contents of this release:

#. The |Stratus| netlist capture language (|GenLib| replacement).
#. The |Mauka| placer (still contains bugs).
#. A graphical user interface (viewer only).
#. The |Knik| global router.
#. The |Kite| detailed router.
#. Partially implemented python support for configuration files
   (alternative to |XML|).
#. A documentation (imcomplete/obsoleted in |Hurricane|'s case). 


Release 1.0.2049
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Release `2049` is Alpha.

|noindent| Changes of this release:

#. The |Hurricane| documentation is now accurate. Documentation
   for the Cell viewer and |CRLcore| has been added.
#. More extensive Python support for all the components of
   |Coriolis|.
#. Configuration is now completly migrated under Python.
   |XML| loaders can still be useds for compatibilty.
#. The |cgt| main has been rewritten in Python. 


Release v2.0.1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

#. Migrated the repository from |svn| to |git|, and release complete sources.
   As a consequence, we drop the distribution packaging support and give
   public read-only access to the repository.
#. Deep rewrite of the |Katabatic| database and |Kite| detailed router,
   achieve a speedup factor greater than 20...


Release v2.1
~~~~~~~~~~~~

#. Replace the old simulated annealing placer |Mauka| by the analytical placer
   |Etesian| and its legalization and detailed placement tools.
#. Added a Blif format parser to process circuits generated by the Yosys and ABC
   logic synthetizers.
#. The multiple user defined configuration files are now grouped under
   a common hidden (dot) directory ``.coriolis2`` and the file extension
   is back from ``.conf`` to ``.py``.

.. #. Under |RHEL7| / |SL7|, there is a known bug in the graphical visualizer.
..    When shifting to the left, the right-half part of the screen gets
..    badly redrawn. Uses |CTRL_L| to refresh. It will be corrected as soon
..    as possible.


Release v2.2
~~~~~~~~~~~~

#. Added JSON import/export of the whole Hurricane DataBase. Two save mode
   are supported: *Cell* mode (standalone) or *Blob* mode, which dump the
   whole design down and including the standard cells.


Release v2.3
~~~~~~~~~~~~

#. Revert to a more standard organisation of the branchs. **devel_anabatic** is
   closed and we go on with **master** (stable version) and **devel**.

#. Make |Katana| the default global & detailed router. Put |Knik| & |Kite| in the
   obsolete menues.

#. Finally make uses of |PyQt4| widgets. Seems to integrate without problems
   with the |Coriolis| own |Qt| widget. The drawback is that to build against |Qt| 5
   needs to adjustement from the user.

#. Improved support for whole chip management. The outer part of the chip containing
   the pad is decoupled from the core. This allow to cleanly separate real pads from
   the foundry from a symbolic core. But this does not preclude other combinations
   as fully symbolic or fully real.

   To perform the separation an intermediate hierarchical level ``corona`` between chip
   and core has been introduced.