* Change: In CRL Core, etc/, update the configuration files of real
technologies. Mostly for FreePDK 45. This work is also done for
AMS c35b4 (350nm) but in a private (SoC) git repository.
Added a new parameter 'lefImport.minTerminalwidth' for the
minimum size (width) of a metal1 terminal in standard cells.
Corrected bug of the minimum trace level which must be
initialized to a great value and *not* zero;
* Change: In CRL Core, BlifParser, detect when there is no tie low
or tie high defined, issue an error (connexion left open) but
continue.
* New: In CRL::RoutingLayerGauge, new overlad of getTrackPosition()
with the parameter set of getTrackIndex(). Used to know if a
terminal is on-grid or not.
* New: In CRL::LefImport, smarter management of metal1 pins. Adds a
_pinPostProcess() function to select the external components
among the various shapes. If the gauge is VH, all the pin rectangles
are translateds into vertical segments (even if the metal1 gauge
says the tracks are horizontals).
The _pinPostProcess() function adds as external components of
a net, only the segments of a sufficent width as given in
'lefImport.minTerminalWidth' and that are on-grid.
* Change: In Hurricane::Technology, in all the layer connexity methods
(getLayers(), getMetalAbove(), getCutAbove(), getViaBetween(), ...)
the "useWorking" parameter is replaced by a more accurate "useSymbolic".
BEHAVIOR CHANGE: formerly, if a symbolic layer was requested, and
none was found, NULL was returned. Now, if the symbolic layer is not
found, we try to return the associated real one (same layer mask,
but not flagged as symbolic, and usually with a lowercase name).
All thoses changes have been propagated to Python bindings.
* Change: In Hurricane::BasicLayer and derived classes, rename the
"isWorking" attribute into "isSymbolic" (to match the technology
renaming).
* Change: In Hurricane::Cell::flattenNets(), ignore power, ground and
blockage nets for the flatten.
* Change: In CRL Core, in coriolisInit.py and Technology.py helpers,
rename the tables describing the technology as follow:
- symbolicLayersTable --> compositeLayersTable
- workingLayersTable --> symbolicLayersTable
- symbolicRulesTable --> layersExtensionsTable
This is to give the table names a more clearer semantic after
merging real technologies configurations (testbench AMS c35b4).
In particular, we need to define a composite layer for the
real VIAs, and not only the symbolic ones. And with correct
enclosures expressed in real dimensions (microns).
* Change: In CRL Core, in coriolis2/etc the file an directory structure
describing the technonolies is modified.
Before, one technology was split in two: the symbolic part that
may be shared across multiple real technology and the real technology
itself. To configure this we needed in ".coriolis2/techno.py" two
variables:
* symbolicTechnology.
* realTechnology.
After, we duplicate the symbolic technology in each real ones, so
to configure we only have to refer to one technology with the
variable:
* technology.
Pure sympolic technologies are still availables, associated with
a dummy real one.
We provides:
* 180/scn6m_deep_09 for MOSIS 180nm
* 45/freepdk_45 for FreePDK 45nm (work in progress).
* symbolic/cmos for classical Alliance symbolic.
* Change: In CRL Core python/helpers, SymbolicTechnology.py and
RealTechnology.py are now grouped under Technology.py.
* Change: In Hurrican::Component::_preDestroy(), the cascaded destruction
of slaves Components and subsequent ring merge and Rubber creation
was using set<> sorted on pointer values. This was making the order
of destruction of the slaves components non-deterministic. Now the
sets are sorted according to their id (see Entity).
* Change: In Hurricane::SharedProperty, the _ownerSet is now a vector<>
instead of a set<>. This will slow the search process, but hopefully
this is needed only during construction/destruction of a Property
so the slow down shouldn't be too much.
This has also an impact on Hurricane::Relation.
* Bug: In Hurricane::CellWidget, when setting up a state of a CellWidget,
the selection was not copied. Now copy the SelectorCriterion (clone).
* New: In Hurricane::SelectorCriterion, add a clone() method.
* Change: In CRL Core, in etc/common/display.conf, for the Printer.Coriolis
style, lower the thresold of display for the substrate layers so they
are shown even in small zoom mode.
* Bug: In Anabatic::singleGCell(), in some analogic design, there may be
not a single METAL1 in the GCell. Issue a clean warning instead of
going ashtray.
* Change: In CRL.etc/technology.cong & CRL.etc/display.conf, add a "metbot_r"
as a real layer when "metbot" symbolic layer is distinct from a normal
metal.
* Bug: In Anabatic::RawGCellsUnder, *again*, the north and east borders
of the whole area *are* includeds (shut up disgraceful warning).
* New: In Anabatic::GCell, add a display mode to select between boundary
display (for analogic) and density display (for numeric).
* Bug: In KatanaEngine::runGlobalRouter(), do not check if an Edge cannot
be desatured when the vector or overloaded Edges is empty.
(one less disgraceful warning)
* New: In GraphicKatanaEngine::drawGCell(), support for drawing the GCells
in density mode. Use the fire scale and the MaxDensity mode.
Setup the GCell drawing mode in GraphicKatanaEngine::initGCell().
* Change: In GraphicKatanaEngine::drawEdge(), adjust the various thresholds
for showing the Edge and its label.
* New: In CRL Core, adds "anabatic.gcell.displayMode" to the set of Anabatic
parameters.
Adjust the showing threshold for GCells in "display.conf" so when the
zoom level is low, we still can see the density map.
* Bug: In Anabatic:
- In _propagate(), on reaching a target, forgot to remove it from
the queue before pushing it back with the new distance. It also
simplificate the core algorithm as target as treated normal nodes.
* New: In Anabatic:
- Update cdebug to use the fastest macro version.
- More readable drawings of GCells and Edges.
- Added timer support.
- The distance is now computed in DbU::Unit (aka long) and not in
normalized float.
- The distance function is now a callback (std::function<>) that
can be changed (a default is provided at initialization).
- New concept of branch in the agglomerated connex component.
Each trace back part create a "branch" (tagged with a "branchId").
When a node is reached with the same distance, but from two
different branches, choose the the branch that was lastly created.
This create a slightly different tree which grows outward from
the newest branches.
- Makes the horizontal edges *slightly* longer than the vertical ones
to skew the tree to use vertical edges, as it is usually less
congested than the horiontal one (due to metal1 cell terminals).
It is also my understanding that it is useful to reduce the
number of vias, whithout introducing a via cost.
* New: In Bootstrap:
- Script sprof.py to perform sprof & demangle libraries execution
profile.
* ToDo: In Anabatic:
- Corner optimization. Sometimes when two corners are possible, the
wrong one is choosen. That is, one of it's edge cannot be used for
further grow of the tree.
* Change: In Hurricane::Observer, simplification of the template so that
we can use it directly instead of creating a derived class with an
implementation of Observer::notify(). Now the implemenation is the
same for all and just calls a notify() method on the owner object.
Create a StaticObservable for fast access of the observers. This
is mainly a fixed size table (array<>) with oberservers at known
indexes. This way we can go from the obervable to the observer
owner in one indirect access (or so I hope).
* Change: In Hurricane::CellViewer, use the new observers.
* Change: In Hurricane::ControllerWidget, use the new observers.
* Change: In Hurricane::CellWidget, set the winidow initial size to a
more sensible 500px.
* Change: In CRL::LibraryManager, use the new observers.
* Change: In CRL::LibraryManager, use the new observers.
* Change: In CRL, in display.conf & technology.conf, modification for
the ST hcmos9gp capacitors.
* Change: In Hurricane, in CellWidget, enable the drawing of ExtensionGos
according to the the threshold paramaters (as layers do).
* Change: In CRL Core, provide DrawingStyle for Anabatic::GCell &
Anabatic::Edge. Use the exact name of the ExtensionGo.
In kite.conf, add settings for the size of an edge as the optimal
size may change between analog & digital designs.
* New: In Anabatic:
- Support for fast position query using a matrix.
- Computation of the Edge capacity, based on the routing gauge parameters.
- Graphic display of the edges capacity. Added configuration
parameters to size the bounding box of an Edge.
* Bug: In Anabatic:
- GCell::_moveEdges was both too complex (some cases never arise the
way we divide GCells) and bugged.
* 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 Cell::_preDestroy(), the classic mistake again:
do not iterate over a collection while deleting it's elements.
Now should be safe.
* Change: In CRL Core, set the default display style to "Alliance.Classic [black]"
(my favorite).
* Change: In Knik, in Vertex, add a "blocked" flag to signal disabled
vertexes in the grid (must not be used by the global router).
Modificate the Graph::getVertex() method so that when a vertex
is geometrically queried, if is a blocked one, return a non-blocked
neighbor. This mechanism is introduced to, at last, prevent the
global router to go *under* the pad in case of a commplete chip.
* New: In Katabatic, in AutoSegment, a new state has been added: "reduced".
A reduced segment is in the same layer as it's perpandiculars.
To be reduced, a segments has to be connected on source & target to
AutoContactTurn, both of the perpandiculars must be of the same layer
(below or above) and it's length must not exceed one pitch in the
perpandicular direction.
To reduce an AutoSegment, call ::reduce() and to revert the state,
call ::raise(). Two associated predicates are associated:
::canReduce() and ::mustRaise().
Note: No two adjacent segments can be reduced at the same time.
* Bug: In Katabatic, in GCellTopology, add a new method ::doRp_AccessPad()
to connect to the pads. Create wiring, fixed and non managed by
Katabatic, to connect the pad connector layer to the lowest routing
layers (depth 1 & 2). The former implementation was sometimes leading
to gaps (sheared contact) that *must not* occurs during the building
stage.
Remark: This bug did put under the light the fact that the initial
wiring must be created without gaps. Gaps are closed by making doglegs
on contacts. But this mechanism could only work when the database if
fully initialised (the cache is up to date). Otherwise various problems
arise, in the canonization process for example.
* New: In Katabatic, in AutoContactTerminal::getNativeConstraintBox(),
when anchored on a RoutingPad, now take account the potential rotation
of the Path's transformation. Here again, for the chip's pads.
* New: In Kite, support for reduced AutoSegment. TrackSegment associateds
to reduced AutoSegment are *not* inserted into track to become
effectively invisibles. When a segment becomes reduced, a TrackEvent
is generated to remove it. Conversely when it is raised a RoutingEvent
is created/rescheduled to insert it. All this is mostly managed inside
the Session::revalidate() method.
* New: In Kite, in KiteEngine::createGlobalGraph(), in case of a chip,
mark all global routing vertexes (Knik) that are under a pad, as blockeds.
* Bug: In Cumulus, in PadsCorona.Side.getAxis(), inversion between X and
Y coordinate of the chip size. Did not show until a non-square chip
was routed (i.e. our MIPS R3000).
* Change: In Stratus1, in st_placement.py add the ClockBuffer class for
backward compatibility with the MIPS32 bench. Have to review this
functionnality coming from the deprecated placeAndroute.py.
In st_instance.py, no longer creates the Plug ring of a Net.
In my opinion it just clutter the display until the P&R is called.
Can re-enable later as an option (in Unicorn).
* Change: In Unicorn, in cgt.py, more reliable way of loading then running
user supplied scripts. Borrowed from alliance-checker-toolkit doChip.py .
* Change: In CRL Core, simplify the loading sequence. The technology,
both symbolic and real is now loaded directly from coriolisInit.py
and not through the Alliance loader. This was a leftover from the
time configuration was in XML. Remove others traces of XML loading.
Remove SYMB_TECHNO_NAME, REAL_TECHNO_NAME & DISPLAY from the Alliance
environement, as they was no longer used.
Note that technology *still* need to be loader *after* Alliance
framework has been initialized.
Gauge information is moved from <alliance.conf> to <kite.conf>.
* Bug: In Coloquinte, in optimization_subproblems.cxx static variables
must not be inlined. Generate a problem when linking in debug mode
(seems the symbol gets optimised out).
* Bug: In Katabatic, in Grid::getGCell(), when the coordinate is *outside*
the area, do not try to find a GCell, directly return NULL.
* New: In Unicorn, create a generic command launcher named "coriolis" which
automatically take cares of all environement setup, then run a command
by default, it's <cgt>, but it can be anything. For example: <zsh>.
* New: In VLSISAPD, in Configuration, add a new priority level UserFile
to distinguish between the system configuration files and the user's
configuration files (which take precedence).
* New: In Hurricane, in Script (Python), improve the API to be able
to support Chams (and remove the duplicate capability from it).
Add separate functions to perform the initialize/run(s)/finalize
cycle step by step.
* Change: In CRL Core, rename real technology <hcmos9> to <hcmos9gp>,
it's offcial name from CMP/ST. This is the 130nm.
Move the reading of the symbolic & real technologies names from
coriolisInit.py to helpers.__init__.py, to be shared with
chamsInit.py.
To avoid a clash of names inside of helpers, the two variables
of techno.py are renamed "symbolicTechnology" and "realTechnology".
Move python init system from crlcore/src/crlcore to crlcore/python.
* New: In CRL Core, In Utilities, add site-packages/pharos to the
PYTHONPATH.
* Change: In Kite, move python init system from kite/src/init to
kite/python.
* Change: In Bootstrap & ccb, the coloquinte project is renamed into
"importeds", it will be the home of all the externally
devellopped softwares that are needed to build Coriolis.
Add explicit support for Fedora ("Linux.fc") and uses
site-packages, as everybody else.
* New: In CRL Core, in etc/, adds the configuration files for Etesian.
* New: In Etesian, activate the Configuration object. Now uses it's
own configuration variables instead of borrowing those of
Nimbus & Mauka.
* Change: In Documentation, updated User's Guide to present Etesian
as the placer, instead of Mauka.
* Change: In Cumulus, slight change in ClokTreePlugin and ChipPlugin
to match the new Etesian/Python interface.
* Bug: In Bootstrap, in coriolisEnv.py, check if devtoolset-2 is already
active before launching it as a sub-shell.
* Bug: In Isobar, In PyHurricane.h, DBoDestroyAttribute() set the proxy
pointer toward the C++ object to NULL. So when the Python object is
deleted no double-deletion occurs on the C++ object.
Add some more trace information in Python link/dealloc.
* Change: In CRL Core, in cyclop, make CMakeLists.txt automatically
choose the right rule for linking the binary wether we use Qt 4 or
Qt 5. Very irksome problem.
* New: In EtesianEngine::addFeed(), do not take into account instances
that are not placed entirely inside the top cell abutment box (was
causing a core dump).
* Bug: In Katabatic, in GCellQueue, correct a mismatch between a GCell
set and the iterators used upon it.
* Bug: In Mauka, in Row & Surface correct a mismatch between a container
and it's iterator.
* New: In Etesian, updated to work with the latest Coloquinte, patch
contributed by G. Gouvine.
Added EtesianEngine::setDefaultAb() to compute an abutment box if
the Cell is completly unplaced.
* New: In cumulus, in ClockTree, now the placer can be configured to be
either Mauka (slow simulated annealing) or Etesian (fast analytic).
New setting 'clockTree.placerEngine' in plugin settings.
* New: In Bootstrap, in Builder & coriolisEnv.py support for RHEL7/SL7.
The sub-directory name is 'el7_64'.
In qt_setup() add QtSvg to list of Qt5 & Qt4 used libraries.
* New: In Hurricane, In Cell add a placeholder for flags. First use to
store whether the Nets have been transhierarchically flatteneds.
* New: In Hurricane, In NetRoutingState add an Unconnected flag for
more accurate diagnosis.
* New: Hurricane, in CellViewer add an entry menu for stress tests.
The script must be named "stressScript.py" in the cwd.
* Change: In CRL Core, in display.conf add a scaling parameter for the
display threhold of the layer. This way we can adapt to different
standard cells height.
* Change: In CRL Core, in ISPD05 bookshelf loader, use the pitch of the
cell gauge instead of a hard-wired 5.0.
* Change: In Cumulus, in ClockTreePlugin, add support for Etesian placer
and a new configuration parameter to choose between Mauka/Etesian.
* New: In Etesian, support for the latest Coloquinte.
Add feed insertion stage.
* Bug: In Kite, In BuildPowerRails, check that _ck is not NULL before
tring to access it's name...
* Change: In Kite, check if the Cell has it's Nets flattened before
doing it (or not).
* New: In ClockTree plugin, select the name of the buffer cell through
configuration (parameter: "clockTree.buffer"), and guess the I/O
name of this buffer automatically.
Put configuration parameters in plugin.conf and not mauka.conf.
Bug: strangely triggers a coredump in components collection
when used with <vsxlib>. Some debug printing still active until
that is solved.
* New: In Chip plugin, make the size and numbers of the block rails
configuration parameters (in plugin.conf).
* Change: In Kite, Katabatic & Knik, express the number of tracks truly
available to the global router by the number of tracks reserved to
the local routage inside a GCell. Replace the ratio parameter
"hEdgeCapacity" by an integer parameter "hTracksReservedLocal"
(duplicate for verticals).
It is more explicit to give directly the number of tracks that
are to be used locally, and potentially saves us from rouding
problems when calculating the number of availables tracks.
Note: we cannot do that for the layer saturateRatio as it
uses the density ratio that take account local wires, leading
to fractional results.
* Change: In Katabatic, in <GCellGrid>, rename checkEdgeSaturation()
into checkEdgeOverflow(), more explicit.
* Change: In Knik, in <Graph>, display the computed capacities of the
lower left node edges (should be the same througout all the grid).
* Change: In Unicorn, in <cgt.py>, uses the new parameters names for
edge density.
In CRL Core configuration files, "display.conf", "patterns.conf" and
"technology.conf" share most of their code. So that common part is put
into "common/" and sourced from the final configuration file.
Update the documentation according the the new initialization scheme.
Jean-Paul Chaput
EricLaoGitHub