Re: For Steve, file conversion question

[Steven Rubin]

> My
> firm has signed an agreement with Artisan, and I have obtained "back
> end
> views" from Artisan for their standard cell library.  There are
> many
> different file formats, among them are gds2 and lef.
>
> I would like to inquire about converting these files for use with
> Electric.
> You mention that, "Electric can import them, or I can do the
> conversion."  I
> don't completely understand what this means.  If you do the
> conversion is
> the result better or different?  Or is importing a lot more work
> than just
> giving an import command?
>
> The cell library seems large to me, with several hundred cells. 
> What would
> be the fee to convert the files?

The problem with the Artisan libraries is that they contain only
geometry and connection sites (what Electric calls
"exports").  There is not actual topology inside of their
cells.  Nevertheless, you can place and route these cells to form an
overall circuit that can be manufactured properly, because the geometry
is valid.

To get the data from Artisan into Electric, you have to do 2 steps: first
read the geometry (in the GDS files) and then add export information
(from the LEF files).  Electric has an obscure command for helping
to do this: Ports/Add Exports from Library.  This command takes the
exports from the LEF library and places them onto the cells in the GDS
library.  You then have a GDS library with geometry and exports,
which you can save as an Electric library.

This process can be confusing.  For small standard cell libraries, I
can do this for you free.  For the larger libraries (such as the
pads libraries) I will have to charge my standard hourly fee to get this
done.

   -Steven Rubin