Previously, the relevant NetBuilder and routing strategies where
directly guessed from the RoutingGauge traits. This is no longer
doable as the combinations increases. Now to configure both the
global and detailed router we need three "parameters" :
1. The routing gauge itself (tells which layers are in which
directions) and how to make the VIAs.
2. The NetBuilder to use, they are identified by strings.
Currently we support:
* "HV,3RL+", for all SxLib derived standard cells.
* "VH,2RL", for hybrid routing (over the cell, but terminals
are also in the first RL).
* "2RL-", for strict channel routing.
* "VH,3RL+", an attempt for FreePDK 45, not optimized enough
to be considered as usable.
3. The routing style, mostly affect the way the GCell grid will be
built.
* VH : first RL is V.
* HV : first RL is H.
* OTH : Run in full over-the-cell mode (needs at least 3RL).
* Channel : Run in *strict* channel routing mode (no routing over
the standard cells).
* Hybrid : Create channels, but can use H tracks over the
standard cells.
Thoses three parameters are partly overlapping and must be sets in
a consistent manner, otherwise strange results may occurs.
* New: CRL::RoutingGauge::getFirstRoutingGauge(), to get the lowest
layer available for routing (not a PinOnly, not a PowerSupply).
* Change: In CRL::RoutingGauge::isHV() and isVH(), were previously
always returning false when the gauge was 2RL only. Now, check
on the first usable RL.
* Bug: In cumulus/plugins.block.configuration._loadRoutingGauge(),
there was a bad computation of the deep RLs when the top layer
was not defined. Occured for 2RL gauges only.
* Bug: In Anabatic::RpsInRow::slacken() (LayerAssign), forgotten curly braces
in the test to skip METAL2 terminals.
* Change: In Etestian::BloatChannel::getDx(), adjust the bloating
policy to converge on Arlet6502. Always ensure that there is
a 50% ratio between terminal used V-tracks and free ones.
If there is more than 80% of terminals, add one more track.
* Bug: In AnabaticEngine & KatanaEngine, KatanaEngine is a derived
class of AnabaticEngine. They uses Anabatic::Configuration
and Katana::Configuration that also derives from each other.
I though I had made one configuration attribute in the base
class that was using the right Configuration. But no. I did
have two configurations attributes, one in AnabaticEngine and
one in KatanaEngine, the later "shadowing" the former. As a
results, parameters modified in AnabaticEngine, *after* the
initial creation of the tool *where never seen* at Katana
level (due to it's own duplicate). What a mess.
Now there is only one attribute in the *base* class Anabatic,
which is created through a new virtual function _createConfiguration()
called in _postCreate() which allocate the right Configuration
according to the dynamic type of the tool (KatanaEngine).
In KatanaEngine, access the configuration through the
attribute (_configuration) and not the accessor (getConfiguration()).
* Bug: In KatanaEngine, no longer directly use the _configuration attribute
(which is not accessible anyway) but the getConfiguration() accessor.
The accessor perform a static_cast from the Super::getConfiguration()
into Katana::Configuration.
Complete cleanup of the various configuration accessors.
* New: AnabaticEngine::setupNetBuilder(), perform an early check
of the requested NetBuilderStyle. The NetBuilderStyle is just a
string that will be matched against the (hard-coded) supported
NetBuilders. Then check the topological characteristics against
the capabilities of the gauge (HV, VH and so on).
Still a bit too hard-coded for now.
This function has been split from AnabaticEngine::_loadGrByNet().
* Change: AnabaticEngine::isChannelStyle() renamed from isChannelMode().
* New: In Anabatic::Configuration, two new attributes to select the
topology and routing style:
- _netBuilderStyle to explicitely select the NetBuilder to use.
It's a string, which is provided by each NetBuilder.
- _routingStyle to define how the overall routing will work.
It's a set of flags (StyleFlags):
* VH : first RL is V.
* HV : first RL is H.
* OTH : Run in full over-the-cell mode (needs at least 3RL).
* Channel : Run in *strict* channel routing mode (no routing over
the standard cells).
* Hybrid : Create channels, but can use H tracks over the
standard cells.
* New: In anabatic/Constants, add StyleFlags to define how the router
should operate (see above).
* Bug: In Anabatic::GCell, in CTOR, no reason to set up the HChannelGCell flag.
* Bug: In Anabatic::GCell::updateDensity(), when computing layers non contiguous
saturation, do not systematically skip RL 0, but only if it's PinOnly.
* Change: In Anabatic::NetBuilder, rename isTwoMetal by isStrictChannel.
* Change: In Anabatic::NetBuilderHV, rename doRp_AccessNorthPin() in
doRp_AccessNorthSouthPin(). More accurate.
* Bug: In NetBuilderHV::_do_1G_xM1_1PinM2(), the wires to connect the M1
terminals where created *twice*. Uterly stupid, there where placed in
overlap by the router!
* New: In AnabaticEngine, new accessors to the NetBuilderStyle and
RoutingStyle, proxies towards Configuration.
* Bug: In Manipulator::relax(), if there are two doglegs to be done, but
they are in the same GCell, only do one (the conflicting interval)
is short.
* Change: In Katana::Session, rename isChannelMode() into isChannelStyle().
* Change: In TrackSegment::isUnbreakable() and isStrap(), return false
when the base segment is a *weak global* (aligned with a global one).
* Change: In Katana::Row::createChannel(), correctly distinguish between
*strict channel* style and *hybrid* style. Tag the GCells as std cells
row or channels only in the former case.
* Change: In AutoSegment::canReduce(), allow reduction, when in channel
mode, for bottom connected jumpers at depth 1. Forbidden otherwise
as it may cause problems with the terminals (in OTC).
* Change: In TrackSegment::canRealign(), allow realignement of reduced
segments. What really needs to be checked is that it do not have
perpandiculars in reduced state.
* New: In Katana::NegotiateWindow::_negociate(), if the realign stage is
enabled, perform a second stage of repair after it. To do this we
need to reverse the state of events marked as FailedRepair to Repair.
We isolate the repair stage in a new dedicated function,
NegociateWindow::_negociateRepair(). Maybe should do the same for
each other negociate stage.
* New: Hurricane::ErrorWidget, new widget exported to Python to replace
helpers.io.ErrorWidget.
* New: Hurricane::AboutWindow, new window exported to Python to replace
cumulus/plugins.aboutwindow.AboutWidget.
* Change: In cumulus/plugins.sram.sram_256x32, add a new parameter to
__init__() so the user can choose the model name of the generated
SRAM.
* Change: In cumulus/plugins.sram.sram.BaseSRAM.placeInstance(),
placement status must be FIXED instead of PLACED so the placer do
not "unplace" them.
The Cell.updatePlacedFlag() method must also be called once
the model if fully built.
* New: In CRL::DefExport, checkStatus() has a second argument to display
a more comprehensive error message.
Applied throughout all the DEF callbacks.
* Bug: In CRL::DefExport, the UNIT statement and associated toDefUnits()
functions where wrong. Now always use a UNITS of 1000 in microns.
Then toDefUnits() converts DbU into microns and multiply by 1000.
* Change: In CRL::defExport::_netCbk(), enable the net name renaming
only when the ProtectNetNames flag is set.
* New: In CRL::PyDefExport, also export the flag values to Python.
* Change: In CRL::LefImport::LefParser, layers defined in the LEF file
are matched *in order* to the ones from the technology *in order*
(not by name matching). But if there is a mismatch, that is more
layers in the techno than in LEF, we got a shift. Now we can tell
the parser to ignore a set of layers by setting up the configuration
variable:
LefImport.unmatchedLayers = 'DIFFP,POLY2,SMURF'
* In CRL::GdsStream::_staticInit(), all the layers where added to the
translation table, whether or not they where configured for the
GDS stream. So the non GDS configured layers got a GDS layer
id of 0 and were using this case. Either overwriting the legit
layer or creating a new one while it should have been invalid.
Now we check for the hasGds() predicate of the layers.
* In CRL::GdsStream, add a new option to tell that, layer id 0,
if undefined, may be used as the definition of the boudary of
the cell (abutment box).
* In CRL::PyGds, now also export the flags to the Python interface.
* New: In Hurricane::RoutingPad, added support if the supporting component
is a Pad. The source/target positions are computed according to the
most likely direction.
Change the _getEntityAsComponent() function into an inline template
_getEntityAs<T>().
Change the flags from an enum to static const uint32_t.
* Change: In Anabatic::Configuration, use _getEntityAs<T>.
* Change: In Anabatic::Dijkstra, use _getEntityAs<T>.
* Change: In Anabatic::NetBuilder, use _getEntityAs<T>.
* Change: In Katabatic::LoadGrByNet, use _getEntityAs<T>.
* Change: In Katana::ProtectRoutingPads, use _getEntityAs<T>.
* Change: In Bora::AnalogDistance, use _getEntityAs<T>.
* Change: In Etesian::EtesianEngine, use _getEntityAs<T>.
* Change: In CRL/helpers.io, the ErrorWidget requires PyQt5 to execute but
is not mandatory to run Coriolis/cgt. In order to be more portable,
if it is not availble just evert to text display on the console.
This widget will be directly supplied by Coriolis in the future
completely removing the need for PyQt.
*Change: In cumulus/plugins/aboutwindow, same as above.
Robert Taylor
Jean-Paul Chaput