* Change: In EtesianEngine::_postCreate(), issue a warning if the list of
feeds is empy (configuration: "cfg.etesian.feedNames").
* New: Add a FeedCeels::getFeedByWidth() method to get feeds by their
width in DbU::Unit and not only pitches.
* Change: In Placement::Slice::fillHole(), invert the tie filling and
feeds filling stage. Now we first try to fill the row hole with
feeds, using the widest first, and if they are not configured or
too wide, use the tie.
As the tie *should* also be integrated in the feed list, we may
suppress altogether the fallback tie filling step. Keep it for now.
* Change: In Placement::slice::createDiodeUnder(), the inserted diode
*may* be smaller than the feed it replace. So, in this case, add
a complementary feed to fill the gap.
NOTE 1: Out of lazyness, we add only *one* complementary filler
cell. So there *must* be one of a width wich correspond
exactly to the difference between the original feed and
the diode. Otherwise, gap will remains.
NOTE 2: With wider feed cells, they may cross the GCell border.
But we must insert the diode under the GCell, otherwise
the global routing will be defective. So, for now, reject
feeds that cross the boundary. Must be done more smartly
by inserting the diode over the left or right side of
the feed.
* Bug: In CRL::MeasureSet::toStringHeaders(), check and issue a warning
if a measure label ends with a "." (dot).
* Change: In CRL::ToolEngine::getMeasure(), return the data measure
by pointer instead of by reference (easier to manipulate afterwards).
* New: In EtesianEngine::place(), add the placement runtime (under label
"placeT") to the measure set.
* New: In KatanaEngine::dumpMeasures(), add the Etesian runtime to the
set of measures.
* Bug: In all CMakeLists.txt, it seems I was doing a worng use of
target_link_library(). No longer add dependencies to the C++ base
library but instead either to the Python associated module or
to the final binaries. This was inderectly causing the linking
problem related to Python (which was a misdirection).
* Bug: Typo in FindLibexecinfo.cmake, do not use FindLib[E]xecinfo.
* Change: In CRL/ccore/CMakeLists.txt, activate SKIP_AUTOMOC on
bison/flex generated files.
* Bug: In viewer/PyHApplication, do not delete the C++ object in
the Python destroy method.
* Change: In Etesianengine::toHurricane(), no longer call interTies().
This *should* no longer be needed as almost all standard cells
(SxLib & FlexLib) already contains polarisation contacts.
So do not need to disturb the placement.
Secondly, in presence of a H-Tree, when there is not enough
space to insert a sufficient number of tie cell, the lefmost one
in the sub-row is shifted to left, overlaping the H-Tree buffer
cells. This is a bug (even signaled by a warning). But as this
part is disabled, I won't correct it soon...
* New: Python/C++ API level:
* Write a new C++/template wrapper to get rid of boost::python
* The int & long Python type are now merged. So a C/C++ level,
it became "PyLong_X" (remove "PyInt_X") and at Python code
level, it became "int" (remove "long").
* Change: VLSISAPD finally defunct.
* Configuration is now integrated as a Hurricane component,
makes use of the new C++/template wrapper.
* vlsisapd is now defunct. Keep it in the source for now as
some remaining non essential code may have to be ported in
the future.
* Note: Python code (copy of the migration howto):
* New print function syntax print().
* Changed "dict.has_key(k)" for "k" in dict.
* Changed "except Exception, e" for "except Exception as e".
* The division "/" is now the floating point division, even if
both operand are integers. So 3/2 now gives 1.5 and no longer 1.
The integer division is now "//" : 1 = 3//2. So have to carefully
review the code to update. Most of the time we want to use "//".
We must never change to float for long that, in fact, represents
DbU (exposed as Python int type).
* execfile() must be replaced by exec(open("file").read()).
* iter().__next__() becomes iter(x).__next__().
* __getslice__() has been removed, integrated to __getitem__().
* The formating used for str(type(o)) has changed, so In Stratus,
have to update them ("<class 'MyClass'>" instead of "MyClass").
* the "types" module no longer supply values for default types
like str (types.StringType) or list (types.StringType).
Must use "isinstance()" where they were occuring.
* Remove the 'L' to indicate "long integer" (like "12L"), now
all Python integer are long.
* Change in bootstrap:
* Ported Coriolis builder (ccb) to Python3.
* Ported Coriolis socInstaller.py to Python3.
* Note: In PyQt4+Python3, QVariant no longer exists. Use None or
directly convert using the python syntax: bool(x), int(x), ...
By default, it is a string (str).
* Note: PyQt4 bindings & Python3 under SL7.
* In order to compile user's must upgrade to my own rebuild of
PyQt 4 & 5 bindings 4.19.21-1.el7.soc.
* Bug: In cumulus/plugins.block.htree.HTree.splitNet(), set the root
buffer of the H-Tree to the original signal (mainly: top clock).
Strangely, it was only done when working in full chip mode.
* Change: In Etesian::Slice::fillHole(), instead of cramming the home
with tix_x0 only, put one tie at both ends and fill the rest
with fill_x0. This should help the vendor density filler to
equalze.
* New: In Etesian::Configuration, add the parameter:
"etesian.tieName" (for tix_x0) as it now separate from the simple
filler cells.
* In Etesian::BloatFlexLib::getDx(), expand the "mx2_x2" of one more
pitch (2 instead of 1). The P&R was unable to allocate a critical
diode under a slice that was littered with those cells in LS180.
The H-Tree support is now allowed for any net, not only the clocks and
not only top-level nets. This allow to better management of the LS180
internal clock signal.
* New: In Cell::flattenNets(Instance*,set<string>,uint64_t) new overload
of the function to allow the user to select nets that will *not*
be flattened. This makes the NoClockFlatten flag effectively obsolete,
we keep it for backward compatibility.
The net names can be of non top level ones. In that case, they must
use the name an HyperNet will get (the Occurrence name). For example:
"instance1.instance2.deep_net_name".
* New: In PyCell, update the wrapper for the new parameter of flattenNets(),
new utility function pyListToStringSet() to translate a Python list into
a C++ set of names.
* New: In EtesianEngine, add support for a list of nets to be excluded
from the flattening procedure. Those excluded nets will also be
excludeds from the Coloquinte nets *and* HFNS synthesis, as they
are likely to be manageds by a H-Tree.
* Change: In AnabaticEngine::_loadGrByNet(), now also skip nets that are
flagged as manually detailed route.
* New: In AnabaticEngine::antennaProtect(), do not try to insert diodes
on nets that are already fixed or detaled route. This replace the
clock exclusion.
* New: In cumulus/plugins.{block,htree,chip}, replace the concept
of clock-tree by the more generic H-Tree. That is, we can ask the P&R
to create H-Tree on any net of the design, not only the ones matcheds
as clock. The net does not even need to be top-level.
This is to manage the PLL internal clock generated by the PLL in
the LS180 chip.
Start to change all reference to "clock" into "H-Tree".
* Bug: In cumulus/plugins.chip.powerplanes.Builder._connectHTree(),
there was an inversion of the H & V routing gauges to compute the
track into which put the H-Tree center to corona edge wiring.
This was causing tracks to be used twice, seen in the ao68000 test
bench.
Split "antennaMaxWL" into :
* "etesian.antennaGateMaxWL" : max length *without* any diode.
* "etesian.antennaDiodeMaxWL" : max length that *one* diode can support.
* In Etesian::Slice::createDiodeUnder(), delete the Instance *after*
removing the tile referring it. This was working, unless we
active the debug mode which tries to print the Tile's instance.
* In EtesianEngine::place(), no longer call toHurricane() at the
end of the placement. Must now be done as a separate step.
Exported to Python interface.
This fix is related to the spare buffer removal memory
corruption
First part of the antenna effect protection : diode insertions.
Anabatic::antennaProtect(Net*) and it's supporting infrastructure
has been rewritten & simplificated. Must be used in conjuction
with the "Flexlib" bloat model of Etesian. A cursory description
of the algorithm has been added in the source file.
* New: GCell::hasNet() to tell if net is going through a GCell,
either as a straigth wire or has a local GContact (turn,
branch, terminal).
* New: Etesian::BloatFlexib class (tagged "Flexlib") suited for
flexlib uses. It is derived from "nsxlib".
To have enough space to insert all the wanted diodes, we
enlarge "mx2_x2" & "mx3_x2" of resp. 1 and 2 pitches.
This is an empiric finding, Yosys seems very fond of thoses
gates and we often see them underneath area where no space
was available to put a diode... May need some more fine grained
analysis.
* Bug: In Etesian::HFNS::Cluster, all the created nets were systematically
created in the IN direction, which is obviously wrong for the driver.
Now Slice::raddTransPlug() accept a third argument stating if we are
creating a driver or a sink. Direction of the net is now combining
and can be IN, OUT or sometimes INOUT.
The VHDL files where reflecting that problem and made GHDL choke.
* Change: In Etesian::HFNS::Cluster, prefix the instance name by "cmpt_"
so it doesn't clash with the signal name in VHDL.
* Bug: In Etesian::Placement::Slice::fillHole(), do not use the xmin
previous bound, but pitch it (by excess). Insert ties *only* if
they completely fit in the free space.
This bug was showing *between* two SRAMs side-by-side, a column
of tie was inserted...
* New: In AutoSegment::getExtensionCap(), when a routing layer has a
minimal area defined, compute the minimal wire length (given it's
width). Then, for segments identified as "MiddleStack" (local
with turns at each end towards opposite layers), if their length
is below minimal, return a longer extention cap.
This may be optimized because with this, the segment extension
is symmetric on both side while it could be made assymetric.
* Bug: In EtesianEngine::toHurricane(), when looping over the AB of all the
FIXED instances occurrences, we where excluding contained AB instead of
merging them...
* New: In EtesianEngine::flattenPower(), this is a duplication of the
KatanaEngine::PowerRails. The new paradigm is that when a Cell
is placed by etesian it's AbstractedSupply flag is set and the
creation of the abstract is taken care of at this point.
Should provide some speedup when Katana process it.
Note that we still need to keep PowerRails at Katana stage for
design that are loaded already placed (no Etesian run).
* New: In EtesianEngine::setPlaceArea(), as the slice spin is imposed
on us by Coloquinte, the bottom slice of the place area *must*
be on a ID oriented slice, that is an even one, relative to the
fully placed area.
* Bug: In EtesianEngine, remove the slice spin detection. The spin
is imposed on us by Coloquinte which always place the bottom
row in ID orientation.
Code should be completly removed in the future, along with
the obsolete AddFeeds (replaced by Placement).
* New: In EtesianEngine, add a "placedArea" attribute to restrict the
placement area to a part only of the whole abutement box. This a
way to exclude some area containing *big* hard block.
The placer terribly slow down when tring to "push aside" cells
from the area taken by the block.
This will be also used to restrict the clock tree covered area.
It is far from optimal but will do for now.
NOTE: The placeArea must be expressed in the coordinate system of
the sub-block to be placed, if one has been defined.
* Change: In EtesianEngine::globalPlace(), disable the call to
antennaProtect(). First reason is that, after all, Coloquinte
do not handle so well the resizing of the cells "on the fly",
it overspill the boundaries sometimes. Second reason is that
as we cannot know the routing tree at this stage, we will not
be able to choose the correct points for diode insertions.
We only have a Steiner tree wich may not be the same as a
density driven Dijkstra.
* Change: In Etesian::Area, the Occurrence to the Instances where
not stored in a uniform way. Some where starting from the
placed sub-block, some where starting from the top level
(corona), making their processing (and remembering it) tricky.
Now, they are all expressed from the top cell (corona).
The coordinate system is now systematically the one of the
top block (*not* the block).
Create various overloaded functions EtesianEngine::toCell()
and EtesianEngine::toBlock() to ease Occurrence & coordinate
translations.
* New: In Etesian::Slice::createDiodeUnder(), add a X position hint.
Search is done by going through the whole slice range and
minimizing the distance to the hint. If it starts to be too
slow, we may optimize.
* Bug: In EtesianEngine::toColoquinte(), the placement of the top
level external pins was not taken into account (this at last
explain their weird positioning).
* New: AnabaticEngine::antennaProtect(), new algorithm to avoid
antenna effect. This step must be done *after* global routing
and *before* detailed routing. This way we have access to the
real routing and can mend it (along with the netlist) to
insert diodes at the rigth points.
From the global routing we build clusters (DiodeCluster) of
RoutingPads connected through a set of wire whose total length
is below the antenna effect threshold. Long wires connecting the
clusters are also tagged because we need to put a diode between
them and the first RoutingPad of the cluster. This is to avoid
a long METAL2 wire connecting to the RoutingPad before the diode is
connected through METAL3 (in case of misalignment).
This protection is not even enough. For *very long* wires, we
needs to put *more* than one diode (this is to be implemented).
* New: In Etesian::Configuration add new parameters for antenna
effect management:
* "etesian.diodeName" : the name of the diode cell.
* "etesian.antennaMaxwl" : maximum length above which antenna
effect can occur. Must be the maximum for all the normal
routing layers.
* "etesian.antennaInsertThreshold" : during the placement steps,
threshold for linear disruption at which we will look for
the RSMT and insert diodes.
* New: In EtesianEngine::antennaProtect(), at a designated point
in the placement iteratives step, when the spreading starts to
be significant enough estimate the RSMT length and add a diode
if need be. The diode will be put side by side with the driver
cell. This is done by enlarging the driver cell of the diode
width.
* New: In EtesianEngine::_updatePlacement(), in the final stage,
modify the netlist to connect the diode. The diode will be
put on the side of the cell closest to the driver. This may
alow to make the connexion directly in METAL1 in the future.
* Change: In etesian/Placement.cpp, make the whole placement
structure a persistent attribute of the EtesianEngine so
it can be used afterwards.
Add a post-placement diode insertion feature. Finally
unused as they are added on the fly during placement.
In the Area, add data about the diode tie in the TieLut.
* Change: Add EtesianEnginea::clearColoquinte(), to keep the
post-placement structure while purging the Coloquinte one.
* Change: In cumulus/plugins.block.block, keep the Etesian engine
until the whole P&R is done, so we potentially can exploit
the post-placement datas.
* Bug: In cumulus/plugins.chip.power.GoCb(), for the METAL1 power
and ground wires coming from the standard cell, it was assumed
they where made of Horizontal segments, this is not the case
in FlexLib... So force to consider the plane as Horizontal when
we are processing that plane.
Better solution should be to use Horizontals...
* New: In Etesian/Placement::Area, added support to take into account
bulk inside cells. Currently only hard-wired configuration for
FlexLib is available. Should add a front-end to analyse the
cells of the library to lookup for bulk ties in the future.
* New: In Etesian::Configuration, added "etesian.lacthUpDistance" to
control tie cells insertion (for polarization contacts).
* New: Etesian/Placement as a complete replacement for FeedCells.
Rebuild the complete slicing structure of the placement to
serve as a building block for post-placement changes under
Coriolis. Currently used to regularly insert body ties.
This is not optimal as we displace cells in each slice in
a non-coordinated manner.
* New: In cumulus/plugins/block.configuration.FeedsConf, register
the "etesian.latchUpDistance" parameter. Provides the tie width.
* New: In cumulus/plugins.block.spares, add ties around the buffer
pool block and "cap ties" at both end of each slice.
* Change: In EtesianEngine, V-Pitch and H-Pitch are now initialized
from the Cell gauge "slice step". It may still be best if the
METAL2 routing grid is still a fractional ratio of the cell height.
Note: To implement this in a more flexible way we should introduce a
concept of Instance/Cell "placeholder" to reserve space
transhierarchically.
* Change: In EtesianEngine::toColoquinte(), when placing only one block
in a cell, the cell itself can contains other fixed instances
that are over the placement area. Create dummy fixed instances
to reserve the taken space.
In EtesianEngine::AddFeeds(), do not put feed cells over the
cell area occuped by the sibling instances cells.
* Cleanup: In KatanaEngine::setupPowerRails(): small cleanup.
* New: Added multiple clock support in H-Tree generation in alpha/block.
* New: In CRL/etc/<NODE>/<TECH>/plugins.py, added three new parameters
for block plugin config:
"block.spareSide" : The size of the minimum side of a buffered area.
(quad-tree leaf).
"spare.buffer" : The model of the cell buffer to be used.
"spare.maxSinks" : max number of sinks on a buffer before issuing
a warning (non-blocking).
* Bug: In Etesian::BloatCell::getAb(), never apply the bloat profile to
fixed cells. In case of buffers from the spare maxtrix it was leading
Coloquinte to detect an overlap of fixed cells, which it do not
support (rightly so).
* Bug: In Etesian::toColoquinte(), inadvertently stopped taking into
account fixed instances... Compute correctly the number of
instances to place (all instances minus fixed ones..).
* New: In EtesianEngine::toColoquinte(), fixed blocks must not be
accounted as instances to be placed.
When, there is no instances to place, just issue an error message
and return.
* New: In EtesianEngine::setDefaultAb(), add computation of AB when
using fixed width (fixed height) was already available.
Add attribute management for the fixed width along with a
Python export.
* Bug: In EtesianEngine::place(), reset the placement *only* if we are
*not* placing a sub-block *and* the top cell abutment box is empty.
* Bug: In EtesianEngine::place(), set the instance placement status of
all intermediate instances to PLACED, so the AP driver will save
them (we were having partially saved layout when using hierarchical
designs).
* Bug: In EtesianEngine::resetPlacement(), reset the PLACED flag and
the abutment box on the top cell or sub-block to be placed.
* Change: In CRL::LefParser::_macroCbk(), create a Catalog entry for the
newly read MACRO (that is Cell) and sets the Logical, Physical,
InMemory and TerminalNetlist flags.
* Bug: In CRL::LefParser::_siteCbk(), check for NULL cell gauge.
* New: In CRL::AllianceFramework, add setCellGauge(), to set the default
cell gauge. Exported to Python.
* Change: In CRL/etc/common/technology.py, create variables for VIA
layers, so we can modify their properties afterwards.
* New: In CRL/etc/node45/freepdk45, port the configuration files to the
new Python "importable" format.
Note: in kite.py, all the gauges (Routing & Cells) must be named
"LEF.CoreSite" to please my LEF parser, so it can match the gauge
name with the SITE name for standard cells.
* Bug: In Anabatic::NetBuilderVH::_do_2G(), forgotten to be reimplemented
from the base class. Simply redirect to _do_xG().
* Change: In Katana::PowerRailsPlanes::PowerRailsplanes(), create plane
from the layers in the RoutingGauge and their associated blockages
instead of sweeping through all the basic layers.
Allow to distinguish bewteen "METAL" (symbolic) and "metal" (real).
* Bug: In CRL::VstParserGrammar & VstParserScanner, when loading the
instances models, we where loading both logical & physical views.
This was causing cases of reentrency of the parser, with reset
of the lexer static dictionary, leading to memory corruption.
Now the identifiers are stored in the YaccState of each
parsed cell and we only recursively call for the logical view.
* Change: In CRL::ApParser::_parseInstance(), recursively load the
physical views as they are no longer loaded by the Vst parser.
* Change: In CRL::AllianceFramework::getCell(), sets the
TerminalNetlist flag from the state (mode 'C' in CATAL) onto
the cell.
* Change: In EtesianEngine::loadLeafcelllayouts(), new functions to
load the layouts of the leaf cells if only the netlist has been
loaded.
* Change: In all tools, FindTOOL.cmake, no longer use LIB_SUFFIX to
search for tool libraries but try "lib64/" then "lib/".
* Change: In bootstrap/socInstaller.py, take Debian 10 into account.
* Change: In bootstrap/docker, move from Debian 9 to Debian 10.
In the Cell/Instance hierarchy, the "terminal" and "leaf cell" concepts
where not clearly defined and partially overlapping. Now, "Terminal" is
the refer to the physical hierarchy (layout) and "TerminalNetlist" to
the logical hierarchy (netlist). The logical hierarchy can be less deep
than the physical one thanks to a Cell dedicated cell flags. Collections
related to the physical hierarchy keep their old names, the one related
to the logical hierarchy are renamed from "Leaf" to "TerminalNetlist".
The name "Leaf" was too ambiguous (leaf for *what* hierarchy).
* Change: In Hurricane::Device, set the "TerminalNetlist" flag once and
for all. No need set it in all the derived classes again.
* New: In Hurricane::MultiCapacitor, added new parameter "dummy" to
create dummies around the capacity matrix.
* Change: In Hurricane::Cell, remove "Leaf" related methods, replace
them by "TerminalNetlist" one, especially Collections. Now we have
two clear sets of Collections to walkthough the layout or the
netlist.
Change the "Terminal" flag into "TerminalNetlist".
* Change: In Hurricane::CellCollections, rename "Leaf" into
"TerminalNetlist" collections and apply the new semantic to the
locators.
* Change: In Hurricane::DataBase, Leaf to TerminalInstance renaming.
* Change: In Hurricane::DeepNet, Leaf to TerminalInstance renaming.
* Change: In Hurricane::HyperNet, Leaf to TerminalInstance renaming.
* Change: In Hurricane::Instance, Leaf to TerminalInstance renaming.
* Change: In Hurricane::Viewer::HierarchyInformations, Leaf to
TerminalInstance renaming.
* Change: In CRL::AllianceFramework, Leaf to TerminalInstance renaming.
* Change: In CRL::Catalog, Leaf to TerminalInstance renaming.
* Change: In CRL::ApParser, Leaf to TerminalInstance renaming.
* Change: In EtesianEngine::AddFeeds, Leaf to TerminalInstance renaming.
* Bug: In EtesianEngine::resetPlacement, move there the loop over
non terminal netlist instances to flag fully placed sub-blocks
as terminal for the netlist. Only then remove the feed cells
from unplaced instances. Previously, the feed cells where stripped
even from already placed instances.
* Change: In Katana, Leaf to TerminalInstance renaming.
* Bug: In Bora::PyDSlicingNode, allow the range parameter to be the
Python None object when we do not want to pass one but need to
have it as positional parameter.
* Change: In Cumulus/clocktree/ClockTree.py, Leaf to TerminalInstance
renaming.
Jean-Paul Chaput
Las Safin