.. -*- Mode: rst -*- 1. Introduction =============== This tutorial is aimed at two goals : * Presenting how to use Python scripts to control |Coriolis|. * Make a basic introduction about the |Hurricane| database and its concepts. While this tutorial is aimed at presenting the |Hurricane| database, do not feel limited by it. You can use |Hurricane| objects as attributes of |Python| objects or use |Python| containers to store them. The only limitation is that you may not use |Hurricane| classes as base classes in |Python|. All the example scripts given in this tutorial con be found under: :: /share/doc/coriolis2/examples/scripts/ Provided scripts: ======================= ============================================================== **Script** **Feature** ======================= ============================================================== :cb:`coriolisLogo.py` Draw a layout of the |Coriolis| logo :cb:`diagonals.py` Test the :cb:`Hurricane::Diagonal` class :cb:`polygons.py` Test the :cb:`Hurricane::Polygon` class :cb:`rectilinear.py` Test the :cb:`Hurricane::rectilinear` class :cb:`invertor.py` Procedural build of the layout of an invertor standard cell :cb:`fulladder.py` Procedural build of a small netlist along with it's manual placement and the routing of one net (:cb:`"a"`) :cb:`toolengines.py` Build the netlist (only) of the full adder then call the place and route engines ======================= ============================================================== 1.1 Terminology ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In the |Hurricane| database, the *logical* (netlist) and *physical* (layout) views are fused. As the main goal of the database is to support place & route tools, we usually starts with a *pure* netlist which is progessively enriched to become a layout. Cell, in particular, is able to be in any intermediate state. Many of our objects have self-explanatory names, but some don't. Thus we summarize below the more important ones: =============== ===================================================== **Class** **Meaning** =============== ===================================================== Cell_ The model. A Cell does not have terminals, only nets flagged as *external* Instance_ An instance of a model Net_ A grouping of electrically connected components Plug_ A terminal of an instance RoutingPad_ A physical connexion (*pin*) to an instance =============== ===================================================== 1.2 Generalities ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The C++ API has been exported in Python as closely as possible. Meaning that, save for a slight change in syntax, any code written in |Python| could be easily transformed into C++ code. There is no specific documentation written for the |Python| interface, you may directly use the C++ one. Mostly: * C++ namespaces are exported as |Python| modules. * The *scope resolution operator* :fboxtt:`::` converts into :fboxtt:`.`. * C++ blocks (between braces :fboxtt:`{}`) are replaced by indentations. * In C++, names are managed through a dedicated ``Name`` class. It has not been exported to the |Python| interface, you only have to use ``string``. * Coordinates are expressed in ``DbU`` which are ``long`` with a special semantic (see ??). * All |Hurricane| objects implements the |Python| ``__str__()`` function, they print the result of the C++ method ``::getString()``. In ``hurricane/Net.h`` header we have: .. code-block:: c++ namespace Hurricane { class Net : public Entity { public: class Direction { public: enum Code { DirIn = 0x0001 , DirOut = 0x0002 , DirUndefined = 0x0000 , ConnTristate = 0x0100 , ConnWiredOr = 0x0200 , UNDEFINED = DirUndefined , IN = DirIn , OUT = DirOut , INOUT = DirIn | DirOut , TRISTATE = DirOut | ConnTristate , TRANSCV = DirIn | DirOut | ConnTristate , WOR_OUT = DirOut | ConnWiredOr , WOR_INOUT = DirIn | DirOut | ConnWiredOr , DirMask = DirIn | DirOut | DirUndefined }; // [The rest of Class Direction] }; public: static Net* create ( Cell* , const Name& ); bool isGlobal (); bool isExternal (); const Direction& getDirection (); void setName ( Name ); void setGlobal ( bool ); void setExternal ( bool ); void setDirection ( const Direction& ); // [The rest of Class Net] }; } So we can use it the following way in C++: .. code-block:: c++ #include "hurricane/Net.h" using namespace Hurricane; void addNetToCell ( Cell* cell ) { Net* net = Net::create( cell, "new_net" ); net->setGlobal ( false ); net->setExternal ( true ); net->setDirection( Net.Direction.IN ); cout << "Created " << net << endl; return net; } The equivalent |Python| code will be: .. code-block:: Python from Hurricane import Net def addNetToCell ( cell ): net = Net.create( cell, "new_net" ) net.setGlobal ( False ) net.setExternal( True ) net.setDirection( Net.Direction.IN ) print( "Created", net ) return net 1.3 Various Kinds of Constructors ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Regarding the memory allocation, the |Hurricane| database contains two kind of objects. #. Objects that are linked to others in the database and whose creation or deletion implies coherency operations. This is the case for Net_ or Horizontal_. They must be created using the static :cb:`create()` method of their class and destroyed with their :cb:`destroy()` method. And, of course, they cannot be copied (the copy constructor has been disabled). .. code-block:: Python net = Net.create( cell, 'tmp' ) # Call the static Net.create() function. # Work with this net. # ... net.destroy() # Call the dynamic destroy() method. #. Objects that are *standalone*, like Point_ or Box_, uses the usual construction methods. They also use the |Python| garbage collector mechanism and do not need to be explicitly deleted. .. code-block:: Python from Hurricane import DbU, Box def myfunc(): bb = Box( DbU.fromLambda( 0.0) , DbU.fromLambda( 0.0) , DbU.fromLambda(15.0) , DbU.fromLambda(50.0) ) return # bb will be freed at that point. 1.4 Collections and Iterators ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hurricane Collection_ behave like containers under |Python| and provide support for the :cb:`iterator` protocol. .. code-block:: Python from Hurricane import Net, Horizontal def delAllHorizontals ( net ): horizontals = [] for component in net.getComponents(): if isinstance(component,Horizontal): horizontals.append( component ) # Now we can remove the Horizontals. for horizontal in horizontals: horizontal.destroy() .. note:: **Never remove an element from a Collection_ while iterating over it**. You must save the to be removed elements in an auxiliary container then remove them, like shown in the example above 1.5 Dynamically decorating data-base objects ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When writing algorithms directly in Python, it may come in handy to be able to add attributes over the Hurricane data-base objects. As C++ objects exposed to the Python realm cannot natively do so (it would means to be able to modify a C++ aobject attributes *at runtime*), we add a special Property tasked with handling the extra Python attributes. The syntax has been made as simple as possible. .. code-block:: python from Hurricane import PythonAttributes class MyAttribute ( object ): count = 0 def __init__ ( self ): self.value = MyAttribute.count print( '{} has been created'.format(self) ) MyAttribute.count += 1 def __del__ ( self ): print( '{} has been deleted'.format(self) ) def __str__ ( self ): return ''.format(self.value) def demoAttributes ( cell ): PythonAttributes.enable( cell ) cell.myAttribute0 = MyAttribute() cell.myAttribute1 = MyAttribute() print( 'cell.myAttribute0 =', cell.myAttribute0 ) del cell.myAttribute0 PythonAttributes.disable( cell ) Detailing the life cycle of Python attributes on a DBo_: 1. Enabling the addition of Python attribute on a DBo_: .. code-block:: python PythonAttributes.enable( cell ) 2. Adding/removing properties on the DBo_: .. code-block:: python cell.myAttribute0 = MyAttribute() cell.myAttribute1 = MyAttribute() print( 'cell.myAttribute0 =', cell.myAttribute0 ) del cell.myAttribute0 3. And finally disabling the use of Python attributes on the DBo. Any still attached Python attributes will be released. .. code-block:: python PythonAttributes.disable( cell ) .. note:: When the attributes of a DBo_ are released it does not automatically imply that they are removed. Their reference count is decreased, and if they are only referenced here, they will be deleted. But if other variables still holds reference onto them, they will stay allocateds. 4. There is no need to keep track of all the DBo_ that have Python attributes to disable them. One can directly call: .. code-block:: python PythonAttributes.disableAll() 1.6 Adapting C++ : Overlay ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sometimes, the use of a wrapped C++ feature would be counter intuitive regarding the |Python| feature. For those cases the :cb:`overlay` module provide an adaptation of the C++ API for a more *Python-like* code. A typical example is with the UpdateSession_ mechanism. Using directly the C++ wrapper, we would write a code like this: .. code-block:: python from Hurricane import UpdateSession, Net, Vertical from helpers import l def editCell ( cell ): UpdateSession.open() net = Net.create( cell, "nwell" ) Vertical.create( net, nwell, l(7.5), l(15.0), l(27.0), l(51.0) ) # Continued cell's layout building. # ... UpdateSession.close() But, using the :cb:`overlay` we got the more *pythonic* code: .. code-block:: python from Hurricane import Net, Vertical from helpers import l from helpers.overlay import UpdateSession def editCell ( cell ): with UpdateSession(): net = Net.create( cell, "nwell" ) Vertical.create( net, nwell, l(7.5), l(15.0), l(27.0), l(51.0) ) # Continued cell's layout building. # ...