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DALI USER'S MANUAL - Circuits and Systems

1. DEL_AREA Delete all terminals within a specified area After the selection of this command a rectangular area has to be specified with the help of a rubber box cursor All terminals arrays of terminals of editable layers that lie completely within this area are deleted That is a terminal that is partly situated outside the specified area is left in its present state The del_area command does not take the activated layers into account All deleted terminals are saved in the terminal buffer Thus one can undo the deletion by placing this buffer at the old position or one can move the terminals to another position by means of the command sequence del_area and put_buf YANK_AREA Yank all terminals within a specified area This command operates in the same way as del_area does but in place of deleting the terminals are copied to the terminal buffer PUT_BUF Add the contents of the terminal buffer to the edited cell One can position the terminal buffer contents by specifying a position for the lower left corner of its bounding box just as with the put command in the box_menu For the operation of this command see the put command Note that the put_buf command only works if the terminals are visible and not takes in account the visibility of the layers MOV_TERM Move a terminal to a new position The terminal that has to be moved must be selected explicitly in the PICT viewport If a terminal is selected then a new position may
2. Dali User s Manual 27 5 The TERM_MENU This menu contains the commands for the manipulation of the terminals of the edited cell 1 RETURN Return to the main menu After selection of this command the term_menu will be left and the main menu will be shown again 2 GRID Toggle grids Via this command the display grid and the snap grid can be displayed according to the settings as controlled via the disp_grid and snap_grid commands settings menu A grid is displayed only if it has been switched on By subsequently selecting the grid command the display of the grids is alternately turned on and off toggle grids If the display of the grids is turned on the display grid spacing is reported in the TEXT viewport 3 BBOX Set the window to the bounding box of the edited cell The new window is the smallest window in which the bounding box of the design together with a small margin fits 4 PREV Set the window to the previous window The new window is the window that was displayed just before the current one 5 CENTER Set the window with a new center but at the same scale By fixing one point in the PICT viewport the new center of the window is specified The picture is redrawn at the same scale but with the specified point as the new center Thus using the center command one can pan with variable step and direction This command is self repeating 6 ZOOM Zoom in with the help of a rubber box cursor By fixing
3. The workspace can be erased with the erase_all command This will not affect an original or previously saved cell description that is already present in the database Cells may be created from scratch or by modifying cells that were already present in the database In the former case the newly created cell can be stored in the database under a new name In the latter case the cell can either be stored under its present name thereby overwriting the old cell description or it can be stored under a new name There is a setup option use_new_name whenever this option is activated the new name is used in place of the old name for the edited cell in the workspace after the write_cell command In the sequel of this manual we will use the term edited cell to refer to the piece of design that is present in the private workspace of dali irrespective of its origin The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 6 A layout cell consists of three types of data e primitive mask geometries representation data e terminals interface data e instances references to component cells hierarchical data Dali provides support for the manipulation of all three types of data For each type a set of commands is available in a separate menu In the following three sections we describe dali s capabilities in handling these types of data 1 5 Non Orthogonal Mask Geometries The primitive mask geometries of the edited cell can be manipulated by a
4. in the workspace can be stored in the database One has the option to give the cell a new name or to store it with its present name if it already has one A cancel possibility is included as the bottom sub menu item Note that by new name mode the cell CREATE mode is used otherwise the cell UPDATE mode If the edited cell is stored under a new name while it already has one then the old name will still be related to the workspace copy that remains after the write_cell command has finished This permits a quick save of an intermediate result under a different name However if the new mode setting in settings menu or the use_new_name command dalirc setup file is activated then the new name is used instead of the old name for the edited cell If the edited cell has been built from scratch and has not been saved before i e no name is yet related to the workspace copy then the new name will be related to the workspace copy after the write_cell command has finished If a design rule check has been performed with the do_check command DRC_menu on the cell that is being saved the results of this check are present in The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 21 the file chk_mod ck in the project directory Write_cell changes the name of this file to cell_name ck where cell_name stands for the name of the cell that is written to the database This file can then be used during a next session with the same cell see also chapte
5. select Exp_levelt 1 Project pTst on dutenth lt Box Menu check put yank add_wire del_poly add_poly del_box add_box coordnts Cdezoom zoom center prev bbox grid return Figure 1 1 Appearance of dali with a layout being displayed 1 3 Pointing and Cursors Dali accepts input from the keyboard of the terminal and from a mouse or tablet attached to it Whenever a point has to be entered dali displays a cursor on the screen which can be moved around with the aid of the mouse or stylus of the tablet Upon pushing the button of the mouse or pressing the stylus the point is selected In GKS this is typically the rightmost button on a 3 button mouse In the sequel of this manual we will refer to this activity as pointing Dali uses several types of cursors For most operations e g command and layer selection a small crosshair is used When rectangular areas polygons or center lines of wires have to be entered dali switches to rubber box rubber line cursors after the first point has been fixed The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 5 On occasions where dali expects the user to specify a point in the PICT viewport it is often allowed to point at a command or layer instead This gives the user the opportunity to cancel the command in progress by selecting the same command again or another command or to de select the layers on which the command will operate Examples are the add_box
6. Display the next error from the error list inside the current window Using the nxt_in_w command one may walk along the internal list of design rule errors that has been built with the chk_file or do_check command Upon selection of this command the next error from the list that lies inside the current window is displayed as a white rectangle in the PICT viewport More detailed textual information about the error is presented in the TEXT_window The list is traversed in a wrap around fashion when the end of the list is reached dali continues with the first list item NXT_ERR Display the next error from the error list Using the nxt_err command one may walk along the internal list of design rule errors that has been built with the chk_file or do_check command Upon selection of this command the next error from the list is displayed as a white rectangle in the PICT viewport and more detailed textual information is presented in the TEXT_window If the next error does not fall within the current window dali automatically moves the window at the same scale panning compare center such that the error will be located in the center of the window The list is traversed in a wrap around fashion when the end of the list is reached dali continues with the first list item ERROR Toggle the visibility of the current error list By subsequently selecting this command the visibility of the errors from the list of design rule errors which may be buil
7. dali also learns which layers are the interconnection layers to be used for terminals See also getproc 1ICD and maskdata 3ICD In this way dali can be used for any technology provided that a proper layer description is present Note that the fill styles can be changed via the dalirc setup file The layers are displayed in the LAYER viewport In this area the user can select the layers that must be involved in certain operations e g add_box add_wire add_term by toggling the corresponding rectangle Via the dalirc setup file section 1 12 layers may be declared to be non editable Non editable layers can not be selected for manipulation of mask geometries or terminals This is indicated by a white cross in the respective layer rectangles in the LAYER viewport The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 10 At startup dali assigns colors to the bitplanes of the graphics terminal These are not only layer colors and their mixtures but also colors for grid menu text etc For graphics terminals having only a small number of bitplanes less than 8 dali has to make a less optimal color assignment implying that screen updates are sometimes handled less efficiently 1 9 Panning and Zooming Dali offers various commands to control which part of the edited cell is displayed in the PICT viewport i e the window on the layout When a cell is read in from the database it is fit in the viewport together with a small ma
8. default the possible grid spacing values are 1 2 4 8 10 20 50 100 1000 and 10000 lambda The set of possible grid spacing values can be redefined via the dalirc setup file section 1 12 The snap grid is used to round coordinates entered by the designer to a multi lambda grid The snap grid points to which rounding is performed are displayed as small plus signs Note that snapping rounding to snap grid is only performed as the snap grid is set active no matter of the snap grid is displayed or not With the snap_grid command in the settings menu the snap grid can be switched on or off visible command default off The snap grid spacing can be selected explicitly and an offset offset command for the snap grid with respect to the origin can be specified interactively By default the The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 11 snap grid spacing is 1 lambda and the offset is 0 0 By default the possible snap grid spacing values are 1 2 4 8 10 20 50 100 1000 and 10000 lambda The set of possible snap grid spacing values can be redefined via the dalirc setup file section 1 12 Note that the display of both grids is controlled by the grid command and that the display grid and or snap grid are only visible if they are set visible Note that besides these grids dali always displays the axes of its coordinate system if possible 1 11 Design Rule Checking Dali offers facilities to perform on line de
9. environment Dali must be started in a project directory See also mkpr ICD It may be invoked in the following ways dali f o r d device g graphics cell_name Xdali A C f o r h host d s geo cell_name The meaning of the options is f With this option one may specify an alternate dali design rule file dali_dre which must reside in the current working directory project directory 0 When this option is selected dali writes messages to an animate file in some occasions when reading the dalirc setup file r This option may be selected to run dali in projects where only read access is permitted Cells can then be read for display purposes but dali will not allow edited cells to be written to the project database d device GKS version only With the name device one may choose the pathname of the graphics device one wants to use For example used in combination with the hpgp graphics device g graphics GKS version only With the name graphics one may choose the kind of graphics terminal one wants to use It depends on the system one is working on which graphics terminals are supported Examples are apollo_15_color hpgp rast10 hp2397 hp98700 If neither the d nor the g option is specified for the GKS version the environment variable TERM is used to obtain the kind of graphics terminal one is working on If this is not a terminal supported by dali an
10. error message is generated The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 2 A Xdali only With this option a plane mask for the Text Graphics Context can be set used for Apollo DN3000 workstations C Xdali only With this option the use of the standard NELSIS ICD colormap can be switched off See also setcmap 1ICD h host d s Xdali only With this option one may specify which display is to be used by Xdali The display is identified by a hostname host and a display number d separated by a colon If this does not completely identify a unique screen an additional screen number s has to be specified For example dutentn 0 0 If this option is not used for Xdali the environment variable DISPLAY is consulted to identify the display ge0 Xdali only The window geometry geo specifies the initial window size and placement according to the standard X Window geometry format lt width gt x lt height gt lt xoffset gt lt yoffset gt For example 0 gives a default window at xoffset 0 i e in the upper left corner of the screen The window geometry 1000x800 0 gives a rather big window in the upper left corner and 1000x800 0 0 gives a window of the same size in the upper right corner cell_name Name of cell that is to be read at start up Since dali and Xdali differ primarily in the graphics interface employed but have virtually the same functionality we will simply refer to both ver
11. instance is mirrored around this axis in such a way that its lower left corner remains at its original position If the instance has been arrayed all individual occurrences will be mirrored ROT_INST Rotate an instance The selected instance is instantly rotated 90 degrees counter clockwise The lower left corner of the instance remains at its original position If the instance has been arrayed all individual occurrences will be rotated ARRAY_INST Change the array parameters of an instance The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 32 14 15 16 The array parameters are the number of repetitions in both directions nx and ny and the repetition spacing in both directions dx and dy The default value for nx and ny is 0 The repetition spacing in the x direction dx is defined as the distance between the left side of the 0 k occurrence and the left side of the 1 k occurrence In the same way dy is defined as the distance between the bottom side of the k 0 occurrence and the bottom side of the k 1 occurrence Default values for dx and dy are the width and height of the individual occurrence abutment After the selecting an instance a sub menu is presented for the selection of one of the array parameters A cancel possibility is included as the bottom menu item If nx or ny is selected a new value can be entered via the keyboard A negative nx or ny will cancel the command If dx or dy is selected a new sp
12. left side of the 1 k occurrence s In case of dy the y coordinate is taken as the new bottom side of the k 1 occurrence s LIFT_TMS Create terminals on top of the terminals of an instance First the user has to select an instance by pointing at it in the PICT viewport See also section 1 7 2 Then he has to specify at which side s of the bounding box of this instance he would like to create terminals This can be done by toggling the corresponding side specifiers top bottom right left in a sub menu until the ready menu item is selected After that another sub menu is presented from which the user has to choose how he would like to assign the names to the new terminals use the names of the underlaying terminals old name give an extension to the old names extension or give totally new names new name A cancel possibility is included as the bottom menu item When all the necessary information has been supplied dali starts with the creation of the terminals Only the terminals of the selected instance that lie exactly on the specified side s of the bounding box are lifted This may be interrupted if the name that has been generated for a new terminal is already associated with an existing terminal which the lift_tms command itself might just have created On this occasion dali prompts for a new name which has to be entered via the keyboard After the complete process has been finished the generated terminals become visible n
13. package is provided It contains the following commands to perform design rule checks and show their results 1 RETURN Return to the main menu After selection of this command the DRC_menu will be left and the main menu will be shown again GRID Toggle grids Via this command the display grid and the snap grid can be displayed according to the settings as controlled via the disp_grid and snap_grid commands settings menu A grid is displayed only if it has been switched on By subsequently selecting the grid command the display of the grids is alternately turned on and off toggle grids If the display of the grids is turned on the display grid spacing is reported in the TEXT viewport BBOX Set the window to the bounding box of the edited cell The new window is the smallest window in which the bounding box of the design together with a small margin fits PREV Set the window to the previous window The new window is the window that was displayed just before the current one CENTER Set the window with a new center but at the same scale By fixing one point in the PICT viewport the new center of the window is specified The picture is redrawn at the same scale but with the specified point as the new center Thus using the center command one can pan with variable step and direction This command is self repeating ZOOM Zoom in with the help of a rubber box cursor By fixing two points with the help of a rubber box curso
14. painted in the color of the layer An exception is made for the layers that have the background color black typically contact hole layers their non filled rectangle is painted white upon selection The active layers may be used in subsequent operations Via the dalirc setup file disabled_layers command layers may be declared to be non editable Non editable layers are indicated by a white cross in the layer rectangle and can not be selected Via the visible menu or the dalirc setup file visible command layers may be declared to be non visible Non visible layers are indicated by a white V in the layer rectangle and can not be selected 3 TEXT viewport the strip at the top of the screen area In this viewport dali displays error messages or asks the user to enter some alphanumerical information such as a cell name In the latter case dali also uses this viewport to echo the characters that are entered via the keyboard In the Xdali version the rightmost part of TEXT viewport is used also by the tracker to display cursor coordinates and displacements 4 PICT viewport the large center area In this viewport the picture of the layout one is working on is displayed and points can be entered if required by one of the commands The different viewports can be recognized in Figure 1 1 which is the real life appearance of dali The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 4 gt gt xdali gt gt Cell
15. the DB_menu will be left and the main menu will be shown again READ_CELL Read a cell from the database Dali presents the list of local cells from which one cell can be selected Note that only the local cells are presented and not also the alias names of imported remote cells If this is a long list only part of it is presented at a time and prev next and keyboard menu items are included to allow the user to move back and forth through the list The keyboard menu item can be used to give interactively the cell_name but it can also be used to search for a cell_name beginning with certain character and it sets a new list position If a search is requested the character must be followed by an asterisk Note that the request sets the list back to the begin position At last there is one special request If only one asterisk is given then the cell list is set back to its previous position A cancel possibility is included as the last menu item Upon selection of a cell dali asks for a confirmation if there is already a cell present in the workspace If confirmed the workspace is cleared The layout data of the selected cell is loaded into the workspace and the picture appears The objects that were present in the geometry and terminal buffer will still exist after the execution of this command WRITE_CELL Write a cell to the database With this command all the information pertaining to the edited cell that is present
16. the window to the previous window The new window is the window that was displayed just before the current one CENTER Set the window with a new center but at the same scale By fixing one point in the PICT viewport the new center of the window is specified The picture is redrawn at the same scale but with the specified point as the new center Thus using the center command one can pan with variable step and direction This command is self repeating ZOOM Zoom in with the help of a rubber box cursor By fixing two points with the help of a rubber box cursor a new smaller window can be specified The new window is the smallest window of a given ratio in which the specified part of the design fits This command is self repeating DEZOOM Fit the current window in the cursor area An area has to be specified with the help of a rubber box cursor The window is then set in such a way that the current window fits in the specified area As a consequence a larger part of the edited cell becomes visible This command is self repeating COORDNTS Show the coordinates of a certain point The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 23 10 11 After the selection of this command one may point at a certain position in the PICT viewport A small cross subsequently appears at the closest grid point and the coordinates corresponding to this grid point are reported in the TEXT viewport This command is self repeating the coordin
17. DALI USER S MANUAL P van der Wolf J Liedorp Delft University of Technology Dimes Design and Test Centre Feldmannweg 17 P O Box 5053 2600 GB Delft The Netherlands Abstract This manual describes the use of dali the interactive layout editor of the Nelsis IC Design System It starts with an overview of the general features of dali graphics capabilities support for hierarchical design etc Thereafter the individual commands are discussed in more detail Copyright 1987 by the author s All rights reserved Date November 1987 Revision September 1988 Revision December 1990 by ESE Electronic Systems Engineering B V Revision January 1993 by S de Graaf Dali User s Manual 1 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1 Running Dali Dali the Delft Advanced Layout Interface is an interactive front end to the layout database of the Nelsis IC Design System to be used for the creation and manipulation of layouts of integrated circuits It has been written in the programming language C and runs under the DOS and Unix operating system There are two versions of the program which have virtually the same functionality to the end user but differ in their graphics capabilities One version is invoked as dali It uses the Graphical Kernel System GKS for device independent graphics As a consequence it runs on a variety of graphics devices The other version is invoked as Xdali to be run ina X Window System graphics
18. _menu Commands to interact with the data manager database Also commands to expand the instance s for display as well as commands to erase the workspace The commands in this menu are explained in more detail in chapter 3 box_menu Commands to manipulate the primitive mask geometries of the cell being edited This includes the manipulation of polygons containing 45 degree edges buffer operations wire editing and a fast integrated design rule checker performing single layer checks The commands in this menu are explained in more detail in chapter 4 term_menu Commands to manipulate the terminals including the manipulation of a terminal buffer as well as the possibility to lift terminals of instances The commands in this menu are explained in more detail in chapter 5 inst_menu Commands to manipulate instances including the manipulation of arrays of instances and the possibility to add instances of cells that have previously been imported from other projects The commands in this menu are explained in more detail in chapter 6 DRC_menu Contains the commands to do design rule checking and to show the results on the screen Dali contacts the dimcheck 1ICD package to perform the actual check The commands in this menu are explained in more detail in chapter 7 info_menu In this sub menu some information commands are gathered For instance commands to get information about the active cell and the process which is used The comm
19. acing can be specified by pointing at a position in the PICT viewport In case of dx the x coordinate of the specified point is taken as the new left side of the 1 k occurrence s In case of dy the y coordinate is taken as the new bottom side of the k 1 occurrence s NAME _INST Name rename an instance The instance name of the selected instance of the component cell can be set or renamed The current instance name and cell_name are reported in the TEXT viewport and there is asked for a new name The new name must be entered via the keyboard This command is also self repeating SHOW_INST Show the name of an instance The instance name and cell_name of the selected instance are reported in the TEXT viewport This command is also self repeating UPD_BBOX Update the bounding box of an instance release 3 only If one has edited a cell that is instantiated in the edited cell dali may no longer display a correct bounding box for the instance s of the modified component cell By selecting such an instance and performing the upd_bbox command the bounding box can be corrected In order to maintain data consistency with respect to the bounding boxes one has to apply this command to all the father cells if a son cell has been edited in such a way that its bounding box has changed The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 33 7 The DRC_MENU In this menu an interactive interface to the dimcheck 1ICD
20. and add_wire commands The Xdali version provides a tracker which displays coordinate information of the cursor in the rightmost part of the TEXT viewport as the cursor is moved around in the PICT viewport For rubber box rubber line cursors the tracker displays the current cursor position as well as the displacement from the start last end point Via the settings menu the tracker mode can be set auto on or off with the tracker command The default tracker mode off can also be changed via the dalirc setup file In auto mode the tracker information is only visible if a start point is specified and the cursor is switched to rubber box rubber line cursor 1 4 Cell Editing Dali must be started in a project directory It then interacts with the layout database of this project to allow the designer to create or modify layout cells These cells are the entities on which dali operates they are retrieved stored as a whole from into the database While operating on a cell all modifications are performed on a copy which dali maintains internally in its private workspace Existing cells can be read from the database into this workspace with the read_cell command Changes that have been made on the workspace copy are effectuated only when the cell is written explicitly to the database with the write_cell command Thus one should take care to save the workspace copy whenever a considerable amount of valuable changes has been made to it
21. ands in this menu are explained in more detail in chapter 8 settings This sub menu contains the commands for setting dali working modes For instance commands to control the display grid and snap grid and to set the tracker mode The commands in this menu are explained in more detail in chapter 9 Some of the support commands appear in more than one sub menu In particular the window operations as well as the grid and coordnts command are present in several sub menu s for convenience sake 2 3 Command Selection Operation Whenever a command is selected the corresponding area is highlighted and remains highlighted until the operation has been finished or another command has been selected Certain commands are self repeating when they finish they are automatically re selected The menu item remains highlighted until another command is selected This The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 19 has the advantage that these commands can be applied repeatedly without being interrupted by an explicit re selection by the user Examples are the zoom coordnts and add_box commands Note that self repeating commands can be de selected by selecting them again this must be done before a keyboard command can be given Certain commands require additional information to be specified during their execution For instance coordinates names terminals instances or modes of operation may have to be specified When alphanumerical inf
22. ates of multiple grid points can be retrieved without interruption ADD_BOX Add a box After the selection of this command one can add boxes by just fixing two points After the first point has been fixed a rubber box cursor supports the positioning of the second point in an easy way The command operates only on the activated layers Before a second point is given any layer may be de activated Note that this is only true for visible and editable layers The add_poly command is self repeating several boxes can be added without interruption until one selects another command or de selects the command DEL_BOX Delete a box This command operates in the same way as add_box does except that now the mask geometries for the activated layer s are deleted inside the specified area box After the execution of the command the deleted primitive layout will still be present in the geometry buffer This implies that one can recover from non desirable results using the put command Also a move can be made by deleting mask geometries at one spot and put them somewhere else ADD_POLY Add a polygon After the selection of this command a menu is presented from which one can add polygons by subsequently entering the corner points of the contour polygon If the 45 degree mode has been switched on the default non orthogonal mask geometries can also be added After the first point has been fixed a rubber line cursor assists the positioning of th
23. be entered by pointing at a certain position in the PICT viewport This specifies the new position for the lower left corner of the terminal If the terminal has been arrayed the lower left corner of the 0 0 occurrence is taken as the reference point In this case the complete array is moved The mov_term command is self repeating The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 29 14 15 ARRAY_TERM Change the array parameters of a selected terminal The array parameters are the number of repetitions in both directions nx and ny and the repetition spacing in both directions dx and dy The default value for nx and ny is 0 The repetition spacing in the x direction dx is defined as the distance between the left side of the 0 k occurrence and the left side of the 1 k occurrence In the same way dy is defined as the distance between the bottom side of the k 0 occurrence and the bottom side of the k 1 occurrence Default values for dx and dy are the width and height of the individual occurrence abutment A sub menu is presented for the selection of one of the array parameters A cancel possibility is included as the bottom menu item If nx or ny is selected a new value can be entered via the keyboard A negative nx or ny will cancel the command If dx or dy is selected a new spacing can be specified by pointing at a position in the PICT viewport In case of dx the x coordinate of the specified point is taken as the new
24. ce will appear there The expansion information of the new instance will be displayed right away up to the global expansion level set by all_exp With the keyboard menu item the cells can interactively be selected It is also possible to search for a cell_name see the read_cell command in the DB_menu DEL_INST Delete an instance An instance has to be identified by pointing at a position within its bounding box repetitions included See also section 1 7 2 The instance that is identified is deleted The name of the component cell of the deleted instance is reported in the TEXT viewport Explicit specification is required in this case to prevent annoying mistakes The del_inst command is self repeating multiple instances can be deleted without having to reselect the command MOV_INST Move an instance By pointing at a certain position in the PICT viewport the new position for the lower left corner of the selected instance is specified If the instance has been arrayed the lower left corner of the 0 0 occurrence is taken as the reference point In this case the complete array is moved The mov_inst command is also self repeating MIR_INST Mirror an instance If an instance is selected then dali presents a sub menu by means of which the user has to specify whether the mirroring should be performed around the x axis x or around the y axis y A cancel possibility is included as the bottom menu item If an axis is selected the
25. contains editing commands that are to be executed by dali and can be used for purposes of animation The syntax and semantics for these commands is given below A complete command or statement consists of a single line and starts with a literal keyword followed by a number of arguments Other literals are delimited by and Arguments delimited by lt and gt are obligatory not literal their value has to be filled in arguments delimited by and are optional arguments separated by a means a choice of either one of them means a variable number of arguments 1 12 1 Specifying Setup Data e default expan lt level gt Set default expansion level for the read_cell command Value must lay between 1 to 9 If no is specified then there is always asked for a level e disabled layers lt vl gt lt v2 gt lt vn gt vl v2 vn are the names of the layers that are declared to be non editable If no layers are specified then all layers are editable By default all layers of the given process can be edited e display_grid_ values lt vl gt lt v2 gt lt vn gt vi v2 vn are the possible values that will be displayed in the display grid menu If not specified a set of default values will be displayed e display grid width lt aWidth gt The program initializes the display grid spacing to aWidth gt 1 This command implies the disabling of the automatic grid adjustmen
26. d in the file chk_mod ck in the project directory This file is subsequently read by dali an internal error list is built and the errors are displayed in the PICT viewport The temporary cell chk_mod is removed from the database after the check has been performed cancel This sub command cancels the DO_CHECK command linear Selects linear expansion mode in place of hierarchical hierarch Selects hierarchical expansion mode in place of linear set_opt This sub command makes it possible to set command line options for either the program dimcheck or exp show_opt With this sub command it is possible to show the used command line options for either the program dimcheck or exp The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 36 8 The INFO_MENU This menu contains the following information commands 1 RETURN Return to the main menu After selection of this command the info_menu will be left and the main menu will be shown again WINDOW Present information about the current window The current window settings are reported in the TEXT viewport This includes the coordinates of the piece of layout that is currently being displayed in the PICT viewport PROCESS Present information about the process of the current project Some information about the process that corresponds to the project in which dali is running is reported in the TEXT viewport This includes the name of the process and the ty
27. dding deleting boxes or polygons or by adding wires for the selected layer s As opposed to several other layout editors manipulation of the primitive mask geometries with dali is not element based Instead a cut and paste technique is supported This implies for instance that a rectangular mask geometry that was once added as a box does not have to be deleted as a whole parts of it can simply be cut away By means of buffer operations chunks of mask geometries can be moved or copied Deleted geometries are saved in the buffer allowing the designer to undo the delete operation by putting adding the buffer at the same spot or move the geometries by putting the buffer somewhere else The buffer can also be filled explicitly without deleting geometries thereby providing a copy facility Care should however be taken as only one geometry buffer is available whenever it is filled the old contents are destroyed Dali supports orthogonal Manhattan and 45 degree geometries only The box or rectangle is the most frequently used type of geometry Boxes can be added deleted with the help of a rubber box cursor The corner points are automatically rounded to the lambda grid or a multi lambda snap grid if active section 1 10 Polygons having edges at 45 degree angles can be added deleted with the help of a rubber line cursor to specify the contour of the polygon Dali can handle self intersecting polygons Corner points may be entered
28. e layers is specified In transparent mode mix colors are displayed if mask geometries of different layers are stacked on top of each other In dominant mode top layers hide lower layers The drawing order of the layers can be controlled via the dalirc setup file section 1 12 DEF_LEVEL Set default expansion level Normally the default expansion level after the read_cell command in the DB_menu is one however another level can be selected If a default level of no is selected then dali is asking for a level after each read_cell command The default level can also be set via the dalirc setup file section 1 12 ASK_INST Set query for instance name on off By the placing of instances of cells the add_inst command in the inst_menu it is possible directly to ask for the instance names if set TRACKER Set tracker mode X Window version only The tracker which displays coordinate information in the rightmost part of the TEXT viewport can be switched between on off or automatic In automatic mode the tracker is only on when the cursor is switched to rubber box or rubber line cursor The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 39 10 The VISIBLE MENU As opposed to the other sub menu s presented in the previous chapters the visible menu actually is a dedicated menu for one command the visible command Upon entering this command the LAYER viewport is used for displaying the visibility se
29. e masks layers of the process in use This overrules the specifications in the process maskdata file Note that the colornumbers 0 and 15 are in use by the contact hole layers which are displayed dominant and that colornumber 15 is default assigned the color grey This command must be at the beginning of the dalirc file snap _grid_ offset lt x_offset gt lt y_offset gt The initial offset of the snap grid with respect to the origin is defined with this command Default snap grid offset is 0 0 This command implies the visible and active setting see section 1 10 snap grid values v1 v2 vn vi v2 vn are the possible snap grid values that will be displayed in the snap grid menu If not specified a set of default values will be displayed Initial grid_value is v1 snap grid width lt aWidth gt The program initializes the snap grid spacing to aWidth gt 1 Default value is 1 lambda This command implies the visible and active setting see section 1 10 tracker lt mode gt Set tracker mode to auto on or off see settings menu No second argument implies on use_new_name on off Set the usage of the new_name in place of old_name after the write_cell command No second argument implies on via lt via_name gt Define or undefine the first three characters of the instance names for the Sea of Gates via cells Note that this instances are displayed without instance names and t
30. e other corner points Upon entering such a point the closest orthogonal or 45 degree line segment is generated by either adjusting the x or y coordinate of the point that has been entered Note that with the use_big setting the opposite adjustment takes place With the set_cross command a big cross is displayed on the position of the first point A polygon may consist of up to 127 line segments Incorrect line segments can be corrected by just walking back over the parts that have already been entered or by the use of the walk_back command A polygon may be self intersecting Upon closing the polygon last point first point the corresponding mask geometries are added to the internal workspace and painted on the screen Closing of the polygon can be forced with the next command The polygon can be cancelled if not yet closed with the cancel command With the return command the ADD_POLY menu is exited The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 24 12 13 The add_poly command is also self repeating like the add_box command DEL_POLY Delete a polygon This command operates in the same way as add_poly does except that now the mask geometries for the activated layer s are deleted inside the specified contour polygon After the execution of the command the deleted primitive layout will still be present in the geometry buffer Like the del_box command ADD_WIRE Add a wire using a rubber line cursor A menu is present
31. ection This command is self repeating ZOOM Zoom in with the help of a rubber box cursor By fixing two points with the help of a rubber box cursor a new smaller window can be specified The new window is the smallest window of a given ratio in which the specified part of the design fits This command is self repeating DEZOOM Fit the current window in the cursor area An area has to be specified with the help of a rubber box cursor The window is then set in such a way that the current window fits in the specified area As a consequence a larger part of the edited cell becomes visible This command is self repeating ADD_INST Add instance of local imported cell to the edited cell After selecting this command one must first make a choice between the local and the imported cells The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 31 10 11 12 13 After the choice if present dali displays this list of cells in the MENU viewport If this is a long list only part of it is presented at a time and prev and next menu items are included to allow the user to move back and forth through the list One can either select a cell_name or cancel the command by selecting the last menu item A selected cell can be placed in the edited cell by fixing its lower left corner by pointing at a certain position in the PICT viewport the placement of the lower left corner of the selected component cell is specified and its instan
32. ed from which the wiring process can be controlled It includes commands to specify a wire width to manipulate the display window and to start and finish wire editing If no wire width has been specified previously or from the dalirc setup file dali first asks for a wire width See the command set_width below A wire is entered by specifying its center line in the PICT viewport After the first point has been fixed a rubber line cursor assists the positioning of the other points Upon entering such a point the closest orthogonal or 45 degree line segment is fixed by either adjusting the x or y coordinate of the point that has been entered 45 degree segments can be entered only if the 45 degree mode has previously been switched on The center line may consist of up to 127 line segments Incorrect line segments can be corrected by just walking back over the parts that have already been entered A wire of the specified width is generated for the selected layers if the next or ready command is selected or if the same wire point is entered twice The wire is generated either with or without an extension of half the wire width for the first and last wire segment as controlled by the extension command Default is no extension The wire menu contains the following commands ready A wire is generated for the center line that has been entered so far The corresponding mask geometries are added to the edited cell and appear on the screen This f
33. egment If extension is switched off the generated wires will start and stop at the first and last point of the center line that has been entered with rounding to grid for odd wire widths If extension is switched on an overlap of half the wire width will be generated around the first and last point of the center line This is particularly convenient when editing wires on a course snap grid to connect for The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 26 14 15 16 instance contacts positioned on this snap grid Default is no extension but extension can be switched on via the dalirc setup file section 1 12 45 degree With this command the 45 degree mode can be switched on or off This mode can only be switched before the first point of the center line has been entered YANK Fill the mask geometry buffer using a rubber box cursor A rectangular area has to be specified with the help of a rubber box cursor Primitive mask geometries of the edited cell that lie within the specified area are copied into the geometry buffer The yank command operates only on the activated layers PUT Add the contents of the geometry buffer to the edited cell After the selection of this command one can position the buffer contents by specifying a position for the lower left corner of its bounding box in the PICT viewport While an impression of the buffer contents is being displayed new positions can repeatedly be specified T
34. erminal names to make them more clear wire extension on off Switch wire extension on or off No second argument implies on See the ADD_WIRE command in the BOX_MENU section 4 13 wire width lt aWidth gt The program initializes the wire width to aWidth gt 1 If the wire width is not set from the setup file dali will ask for a wire width the first time the add_wire command is invoked wire width values lt vl gt lt v2 gt lt vn gt vl v2 vn are the values that will be displayed in the wire width menu Given values must be gt 1 If not specified a set of default values will be displayed The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 15 zoom_mode lt mode gt The zooming mode for the menu commands dezoom and zoom can be set to area fixed or point see settings menu 1 12 2 Layout Editing Commands Animation add_val lt value gt Add integer value to internal value append lt xl gt lt xr gt lt yb gt lt yt gt Append a rectangle with the specified coordinates to the layout in the selected layers beep lt volume gt Ring a bell The volume percentage can be 100 default 0 center lt cx gt lt cy gt The new window is centered on cx cy where cx and cy are relative to the contents of the dali workspace 0 0 0 0 is the lower left corner of the dali workspace and 1 0 1 0 is the upper right corner of the dali workspace delete lt xl gt lt xr gt lt yb g
35. f dali store them again into the database when he thinks he has made some valuable changes and a command to erase the workspace e Additional support commands which allow the user to change his window set the visibility of some sort of objects or to put a grid over the design e Commands to check if the layout that has been generated obeys the design rules posed upon them 2 2 The Main Menu Dali has a hierarchical menu structure based on the command classes recognized above Upon starting the main menu is shown on the screen from which the user may select one of the sub menu s command clusters Upon doing so the set of commands belonging to the cluster is shown and the user may select one of them The bottom command in each sub menu allows the user to return to the main menu The sub menu s and commands in the main menu are quit With this command one can quit from the editor After a confirmation has been given the edit session is terminated The contents of the workspace will not be saved on this occasion If a valuable layout description is present in the workspace it should be saved explicitly in the database by means of the write_cell command before terminating the edit session e visible In this sub menu the user can set layers as well as other graphical information visible not visible on the screen This menu is explained in more detail in chapter 9 The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 18 DB
36. gt Wait numsec seconds before continuing with the next command visible lt layer gt on off The layer layer is either displayed on or not displayed off or toggled no second argument for display Note that layer can also be a name like bboxes wom n disp_grid instances sub_terms terminals etc see visible menu wdw_bbx Redraw the dali display with the full contents of the dali workspace in view zoom lt cx gt lt cy gt lt fraction gt The size of the new window on the dali workspace is equal to fraction times the size of the contents of the dali workspace and is centered on cx cy where cx and cy are relative to the contents of the dali workspace 0 0 0 0 is the lower left corner of the dali workspace and 1 0 1 0 is the upper right corner of the dali workspace The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 17 2 THE MENU STRUCTURE 2 1 The Command Classes The dali commands can be divided into several classes e Basic editing commands to make changes to the edited cell This class can be divided into three sub classes 1 Commands to handle the primitive mask geometries representation data 2 Commands to add delete or manipulate terminals interface data 3 Commands to add or delete instances or to change their parameters hierarchical data e Database interaction workspace commands which allow the user to read cells from the database into the private workspace o
37. has to be increased for a certain instance because the new global level is larger than its current level additional detail will be shown on the screen for this instance If the level is decreased the instance will be erased and drawn again with less detail in it Note that level 10 can be any selected level in the range 10 to 99 The maximum possible level 100 can directly be chosen with the maximum command At last with the keyboard command can interactively every level be chosen in the range 1 to 100 The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 22 4 The BOX_MENU This menu contains the commands for the manipulation of the primitive mask geometries 1 RETURN Return to the main menu After selection of this command the box_menu will be left and the main menu will be shown again GRID Toggle grids Via this command the display grid and the snap grid can be displayed according to the settings as controlled via the disp_grid and snap_grid commands settings menu A grid is displayed only if it has been switched on By subsequently selecting the grid command the display of the grids is alternately turned on and off toggle grids If the display of the grids is turned on the display grid spacing is reported in the TEXT viewport BBOX Set the window to the bounding box of the edited cell The new window is the smallest window in which the bounding box of the design together with a small margin fits PREV Set
38. hat You See Is What You Check Errors that are found are displayed automatically The integrated checker tries to retrieve its design rules from a file dali_drc 3ICD that must be present in the process directory of the current process in the standard process library This file specifies for each layer field 1 the minimal width 2 the minimal gap 3 for a pair of edges that are both longer than a critical length 5 and the minimal gap 4 if one of the edges is shorter than or equal to this length 5 If this file is not present for the current process a message will be generated The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 12 1 12 The dalirc Setup File Dali provides the user with the capability to specify setup data or to execute statements at startup time To that end dali tries to read commands from a setup file It first looks for a file named dalirc in the current working directory If the file does not exist or cannot be opened for reading dali looks for a file named dalirc in the user s home directory If that file does not exist or cannot be opened for reading either dali finally tries for a file named dalirc in the process directory If a setup file is found present and readable dali executes the commands found in the file The commands that can be specified in the setup file are divided into two groups One group is for specifying setup data such as the possible snap grid spacing values the other group
39. he put command can be finished by selecting the return menu item in the sub menu that is presented By selecting the put_buf menu item on the other hand the contents of the geometry buffer are added to the edited cell at the specified position This is also performed if the same cursor position is entered twice Note that only the buffer contents for the visible layers is put back The cursor position related to the contents of the buffer can be changed with the set_cursor menu item In the PICT viewport this position is marked with a cross At last the buffer contents can also be mirrored and rotated around this cross position CHECK Perform a single layer design rule check A rectangular area has to be specified with the help of a rubber box cursor which is subsequently checked for design rule violations All visible layout geometries i e primitive mask geometries terminals expansion information and sub terminals within the specified area are checked What You See Is What You Check Only single layer checks are performed width and gap That is it doesn t check for design rule violations caused by a combination of mask geometries from two or more different layers compare to autocheck 1ICD The violations that are found are displayed on the screen No check is performed if dali has not been able to retrieve the design rules at the start of the session section 1 11 In this case a message is generated The Nelsis IC Design System
40. ing the layout at a reasonable scale zoom After this menu item has been selected one can specify a smaller window just as with the zoom command described above As this can be intermixed with the specification of center line segments it allows the user to focus on a small part of the layout when fixing e g a start or end point of the wire dezoom After this menu item has been selected one can specify a larger window just as with the dezoom command described above As this can be intermixed with the specification of center line segments it allows the user to display a larger part of the layout e g after fixing a point at a more detailed level By subsequently zooming in on another part of the layout long wires can comfortably be entered with reasonable accuracy set_width As shown in a sub menu a wire width can be specified either by selecting a predefined value by entering a width via the keyboard keyboard command or by interactively pointing at two points in the PICT viewport interact command In the last case the selected width is the maximum distance in either the x direction or the y direction between the two points that have been entered A wire width can not be specified while a center line is being entered If the snap grid is on only even wire widths are permitted extension As can be controlled with this command a wire can be generated either with or without an extension for the first and last wire s
41. inishes the add_wire command and a return is made to the box_menu next A wire is generated for the center line that has been entered so far The corresponding mask geometries are added to the edited cell and appear on the screen As opposed to ready this does not finish the add_wire command A new center line for the next wire having the same width can be entered right away cancel The center line that has been entered so far is erased and one may start again to enter a new center line No changes are made to the edited cell The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 25 grid Toggle grids See description of this command above bbox Set the window to the bounding box of the edited cell See description of the bbox command above This command can be intermixed with the specification of center line segments thereby allowing the user to view the complete layout while specifying the wire prev Set the window to the previous window See description of the prev command above This command can be intermixed with the specification of center line segments center After this menu item has been selected one can enter a new center for the window just as with the center command described above As this can be intermixed with the specification of center line segments it allows the user to move over the layout while specifying the wire This increased flexibility permits longer wires to be added while view
42. iting 1 5 Non Orthogonal Mask G om tries 1 6 Terminals SU te 1 7 The Cell Hierarchy 1 8 Layers wk 1 9 Panning and Zooming 1 10 The Grid 1 11 Design Rule diedang 1 12 The dalirc Setup File THE MENU STRUCTURE 2 1 The Command Classes 2 2 The Main Menu 2 3 Command Selection Operation The DB_MENU The BOX_MENU The TERM_MENU The INST_MENU The DRC_MENU The INFO_MENU The SETTINGS MENU 10 The VISIBLE MENU NNANDUN BNR Re SS Se NF OC Oo Se conn R Wo W Wo U QQ N N N So ANI Dn WwW O N NO LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 1 Appearance of dali with a layout being displayed ji
43. l Only the transformation and repetition information of the reference can be manipulated Whenever changes have to be made to the component cell itself its definition must be edited separately By default dali displays only the bounding box of an instance with the name of the instance and the name of the component cell displayed in the lower left corner Note that the name of the cell is displayed between and that the instance name is displayed above the cell name This instance name is a dot if no instance name is given to this cell occurrence Use the name instance name_inst command to give this instances a instance name Set ask_inst in the settings menu to do it directly by the add_inst command In case of an array of instances dali shows the bounding boxes of all the occurrences with the name of the instance and the name of the component cell in the 0 0 occurrence together with the n x m array dimensions When a command for the manipulation of the translation or orientation of an instance is executed on an array of instances this will affect all individual occurrences Dali handles the array as one entity 1 7 2 Selection of Instances On various occasions one has to identify the instance on which a command should operate name_inst del_inst indiv_exp lift_tms An instance can be selected by just pointing at a position within its bounding box repetitions included in the PICT viewport If the point is ambig
44. minals that were identified by the specified point In this case one of the names has to be selected from the sub menu The name of the selected terminal is reported in the TEXT viewport 1 7 The Cell Hierarchy 1 7 1 Instances and Instance Manipulation Dali supports hierarchical design meaning that cells can be constructed using other smaller cells as their components The definition of these component cells must be The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 8 present in the database before they can be instantiated in the edited cell An instance is a reference to a component cell accompanied by a geometrical transformation translation and orientation and repetition information Dali offers commands to add or delete instances to from the edited cell thereby changing its hierarchical composition Normally this are local cells but these may also be instances of cells that have previously been imported from other projects See also impcell AICD The translation and orientation of the instances in the edited cell can be manipulated by move rotate and mirror commands Arrays of instances can be created manipulated by commands that allow the user to specify repetition numbers and distances These instance manipulation commands operate on the instance which is selected with the cursor Dali assumes the component cells to be fixed it does not allow the definition of a component cell to be changed from within the edited cel
45. on grid points and half grid points As intersection points of 45 degree edges may now occur at quarter grid points dali internally maintains a higher precision than the lambda grid presented to the user This capability is offered to allow the user to create wires containing 45 degree parts with a width that only slightly deviates from the width of the orthogonal parts The snap grid does not apply to polygon editing A wire facility is included to permit convenient specification of interconnection patterns After a width has been fixed the center line of the wire can be entered with the help of a rubber line cursor Both orthogonal wires and wires containing 45 degree parts can be The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 7 entered this way The center line is automatically fixed on the lambda grid or a multi lambda snap grid if active section 1 10 If the snap grid is active only even widths are permitted As dali is capable of handling Manhattan and 45 degree geometries only one should take care when reading cell descriptions from the database that have been generated by other programs and contain arbitrary geometries polygons with non 45 degree edges circles Dali checks all layout elements when reading from the database All edges are checked to be proper orthogonal or 45 degree edges Whenever a check fails the element is skipped and a warning is generated 1 6 Terminals A terminal is a named box which may be ar
46. ormation has to be entered dali prompts for this in the TEXT viewport The Return key finishes the keyboard input The Delete or BackSpace key can be used to correct typing mistakes When the user has to select an item from a set of alternatives dali may present a menu for this in the MENU viewport from which the user has to make a choice When coordinates have to be specified in the PICT viewport it is often allowed to point at a command or layer instead As we already mentioned in section 1 3 this gives the user the opportunity to cancel the command in progress by selecting another command or to de select the layers on which the command will operate 2 3 1 Keyboard Commands Some commands can be activated with keyboard keys this is only possible in the main menu and the sub menu s of the main menu and some other sub sub menu s At this moment the following keys are defined d Do expansion with default level e Do expansion with all_exp command i Do individual expansion indiv_exp command v Display visible menu q Exit immediately dali sure quit Esc Exit escape current menu to previous menu The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 20 3 The DB_MENU This menu contains the following commands to interact with the data manager database as well as some related commands 1 RETURN Return to the main menu After selection of this command
47. ote if the terminals are visible Note that the terminals of non editable layers are skipped by the lift_tms command The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 30 6 The INST_MENU This menu contains commands for manipulation of instances 1 RETURN Return to the main menu After selection of this command the inst_menu will be left and the main menu will be shown again GRID Toggle grids Via this command the display grid and the snap grid can be displayed according to the settings as controlled via the disp_grid and snap_grid commands settings menu A grid is displayed only if it has been switched on By subsequently selecting the grid command the display of the grids is alternately turned on and off toggle grids If the display of the grids is turned on the display grid spacing is reported in the TEXT viewport BBOX Set the window to the bounding box of the edited cell The new window is the smallest window in which the bounding box of the design together with a small margin fits PREV Set the window to the previous window The new window is the window that was displayed just before the current one CENTER Set the window with a new center but at the same scale By fixing one point in the PICT viewport the new center of the window is specified The picture is redrawn at the same scale but with the specified point as the new center Thus using the center command one can pan with variable step and dir
48. pe process and the value of lambda in microns micrometer that has been set for this project CELL Present information about the edited cell Some information about the edited cell in the workspace is reported in the TEXT viewport This includes the name of the cell and its bounding box and its current level of expansion S O GATES Present information about Sea of Gates items There is information about the following Sea of Gates items image_name Displays the instance name which is used for the Sea of Gates image cell via_name Displays the first three characters of instance names which are used for the Sea of Gates via cells maxdraw Displays the value default 120 of the maximum number of repetitions of the Sea of Gates image which are drawn The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 37 9 The SETTINGS MENU This menu contains the following settings commands 1 RETURN Return to the main menu After selection of this command the settings menu will be left and the main menu will be shown again GRID Toggle grids Via this command the display grid and the snap grid can be displayed according to the settings as controlled via the disp_grid and snap_grid commands settings menu A grid is displayed only if it has been switched on By subsequently selecting the grid command the display of the grids is alternately turned on and off toggle grids If the display of the grids is
49. r 7 on the DRC_menu 4 ERASE_ALL Erase the workspace After a confirmation has been given the workspace is cleared The geometry and terminal buffer will remain intact 5 INDIV_EXP Expand an individual instance Upon the selection of this command one first has to identify the instance one wants to expand This can be done by just pointing at a position within the bounding box of the instance repetitions included See also section 1 7 2 After a unique instance has been identified a sub menu appears from which one may choose the level of the expansion The current level of the selected instance is initially highlighted If the selected level is the same as the current level the command is canceled Otherwise the selected instance is un expanded to the selected level Thus if the level is increased additional detail will be shown on the screen for this instance If the level is decreased the instance will be erased and drawn again with less detail in it 6 ALL_EXP Expand all instances Upon the selection of this command a sub menu appears from which one may choose the level of the expansion The current global expansion level is initially highlighted Note that this current level can be the level which is set with the expand command from the dalirc setup file If the selected level is the same as the current level the command is canceled Otherwise all instances are un expanded to the selected level That is if the level
50. r a new smaller window can be specified The new window is the smallest window of a given ratio in which the specified part of the design fits This command is self repeating DEZOOM Fit the current window in the cursor area An area has to be specified with the help of a rubber box cursor The window is then set in such a way that the current window fits in the specified area As a consequence a larger part of the edited cell becomes visible This command is self repeating COORDNTS Show the coordinates of a certain point The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 34 10 11 12 After the selection of this command one may point at a certain position in the PICT viewport A small cross subsequently appears at the closest grid point and the coordinates corresponding to this grid point are reported in the TEXT viewport This command is self repeating the coordinates of multiple grid points can be retrieved without interruption IND_ERR Show error data of an error pointed at Upon selection of this command one may point at an error in the PICT viewport The errors can be displayed as white rectangles by e g error chk_file or do_check The details of the error pointed at are displayed in the TEXT viewport Information displayed is e g the design rule that was not obeyed and the coordinates where the error occurred This command is self repeating one may point at the next error without interruption NXT_IN_W
51. rayed Terminals play an important role in the layout verification strategy of the Nelsis IC Design System The terminals of a cell specify at which points the cell may be connected to its surroundings upon instantiation section 1 7 Dali offers commands to add or delete terminals When the terminals in a specified area are deleted del_area they are saved in a terminal buffer to be distinguished from the geometry buffer which can be placed again at a later time put_buf command Note that the terminal buffer is overwritten after each successful del_area or yank_area operation Other commands allow terminals to be moved or arrayed These commands operate on the terminal which is selected with the cursor As an example of a higher level assembly function dali has the ability to generate terminals on top of the terminals of the cell s instances thereby making these spots available for interconnection at the next higher hierarchical level This is possible with the lift terminals ift_tms command On various occasions one has to identify the terminal on which a command should operate array_term del_term etc A terminal can be selected by just pointing at it in the PICT viewport In case the terminal has been arrayed one can identify it by pointing at one of its occurrences If the point is ambiguous because it identifies more than one terminal dali asks for a further specification by presenting a sub menu with the names of the ter
52. rgin Zooming in zoom and out dezoom as well as panning center can be done with the mouse and cursor simply point at a new area or new center point This area zooming mode is default case but can be changed see settings menu or dalirc setup file section to point or fixed mode Other commands allow the user to go back to the previous window prev or to the window that comprises the complete layout bbox This window manipulation commands have around them to distinguish them from other menu commands 1 10 The Grid Dali is a grid based editor all coordinates except for polygons are rounded to integer coordinates on the lambda grid Absolute coordinate values can be retrieved by means of the coordnts command Dali provides two user controlled grids a display grid and a snap grid The display grid is used for display purposes only as a reference of scale for the designer With the disp_grid command in the settings menu the display grid can be switched on or off visible command default on and a grid spacing can be selected explicitly The display grid can also be set to auto adjust default on then dali will select an appropriate grid spacing based on the size of the PICT viewport in terms of lambda s size of the window Note that if auto adjust is on the user can t select any other grid spacing value The grid points are always positioned at coordinates that are modulo grid spacing values By
53. sign rule checks First of all dali has been interfaced to the dimcheck 1ICD package to perform complete multi layer checks DRC_menu When a check has to be performed dali writes the edited cell from its private workspace to a scratch cell in the database The dimcheck package performs the actual check on this scratch cell and dali retrieves the results and removes the scratch cell It must be noted that by default a hierarchical check is performed That is the primitives of the edited cell are checked as well as the interaction with and among the instances but not the complete component cells This is achieved by running exp 1ICD with the h option before running dimcheck The default hierarchical expansion mode can be overruled from the dalirc setup file section 1 12 to have a linear or flat expansion performed for a complete check Dali offers several commands that can help the user in localizing displaying the errors that were found See also chapter 7 DRC_menu The second check facility check command in the box_menu is a fast integrated design rule checker performing single layer checks it checks only for design rule violations caused by mask geometries of the same layer compare to autocheck 1ICD The checks are performed only for the area that is specified by the user All visible layout geometries i e primitive mask geometries terminals expansion information and sub terminals within this area are checked W
54. sions as dali when describing this functionality in the following sections For the Xdali version some X Window System parameters can be set via the Xdefaults setup file This are the BorderWidth default 1 the FontName default fixed and the window GeoMetry default Note that the window geometry can also be specified via the command line Example of Xdefaults entries Xdali BorderWidth 2 Xdali GeoMetry 850x700 20 20 1 2 The Screen Layout Dali divides the screen area of the graphics terminal into four parts called viewports 1 MENU viewport the left side of the screen area In this viewport the commands available are displayed One may select a command by pointing at it section 1 3 The corresponding area is highlighted until the operation is finished or another command is selected Certain commands require additional information to be specified during their execution On these The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 3 occasions dali can use this viewport to present alternatives from which the user has to choose Selection proceeds in the same way as command selection 2 LAYER viewport the strip at the bottom of the screen area In this viewport the layers one can use in the process of the current project are given section 1 8 One may select or deselect a layer by pointing at the rectangle with the name of the layer in it If a layer is selected activated the corresponding rectangle is
55. t lt yt gt Delete the layout of the selected layers found in the rectangle of the specified coordinates expand lt level gt The hierarchical expansion level is set to level gt 1 and lt 100 The edited cell is expanded with this level goto lt name gt Jump to the position in the setup file that is labeled name If name can not be found in the setup file then remainder of the dalirc file is skipped if val lt value gt lt name gt If value is equal to value goto position in the setup file labeled name ifnot_val lt value gt lt name gt If value is not equal to value goto position in the setup file labeled name label lt name gt Position in the setup file to which can be jumped through a goto command layer lt layer gt on off The layer layer is either selected on or de selected off or toggled no second argument for editing Note that disabled_layers are always off print lt someText gt Print someText in the TEXT viewport or erase the TEXT viewport quit Exit immediately the dali program The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 16 read lt cell name gt Read the cell named cell name into the dali workspace with default expansion level redraw Redraw the dali display Works only after changing visible or dominant mode set_val lt value gt Set internal value to integer value which is used by the if val or ifnot_val command sleep lt numsec
56. t see section 1 10 e dominant on off The drawing mode can be set to dominant on or transparent off which is the default mode No second argument implies on In transparent mode mix colors are produced if layers are stacked on top of each other In dominant mode one layer may hide another layer underneath The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 13 e drawing order lt vl gt lt v2 gt lt vn gt This command specifies the drawing order for the layers in case the dominant mode was set vil v2 vn are the names of the layers The order is such that v1 is the top layer and hence is drawn last A new drawing_order command specifies a new drawing order If no layers are specified then the default situation is used e drc_options lt options gt Set command line options for the dimcheck program e exp_options lt options gt Set command line options for the exp program see also flat_expansion e fill _ style lt layer gt lt style gt 4 lt shift gt Set fill style style for certain layer The following fill styles can be defined O hashed 1 solid 2 hollow 3 5 12 5 25 50 hashed outline 6 8 12 5 25 50 hashed no outline Note that fill styles 0 and 6 are identical By the hashed fill styles it is possible to specify a shift in the range to 7 fill lines are shifted that number of pixels e flat_expansion on off The expansion mode for the do_check command in
57. t with the chk_file or do_check command is alternately turned on and off If the visibility is turned on all errors from the list are displayed in the PICT viewport as white rectangles If either all errors or a single error were being displayed selection of the error command will turn off their visibility The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 35 13 14 CHK_FILE Load the errors from a previously generated error file Upon the selection of this command dali tries to read a file named cell_name ck from the project directory where cell_name stands for the name of the cell one is editing This file contains the results of a previously performed dimcheck upon the cell before it was called for the edit session The errors are placed in the internal error list and are displayed in the PICT viewport DO_CHECK Perform a design rule check on the edited cell A choice can be made out of the following sub commands check This command starts the requested design rule check To do this the edited cell that is present in the workspace of dali is saved in the database as a temporary cell with the name chk_mod This cell is subsequently expanded by the program exp 1ICD and checked by the program dimcheck 1ICD By default expansion is performed hierarchically exp is run with the option h Via the dalirc setup file section 1 12 this can be switched to linear flat expansion The results of dimcheck are place
58. the DRC_menu can be set to linear flat expansion on or to hierarchical expansion off which is the default mode No second argument implies on e hashed on off Set the drawing mode for the layers of instances to hashed fill style No second argument implies on e image lt image_ name gt Define or undefine the instance name for the Sea of Gates image For this instance no bounding boxes no instance names no terminal names are displayed On level 1 the terminals of the image are displayed in hashed style emaxdraw lt value gt Specifies the maximum number of cell instance repetitions which may be drawn for the Sea of Gates image Default value is 120 e no grid adjust This command disables the automatic adjustment of the display grid to the size of the window see section 1 10 e set_colornr lt colornr gt lt color gt With this command other colors can be assigned to the internal Xdali colortable However colornumbers 0 to 7 can not be changed by the user they are already in use colors black red green yellow blue magenta cyan and white Only colornumbers 8 to 15 can be assigned a new color X Windows colorname or RGB value This command must be at the beginning of the dalirc file The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 14 See also the set_maskcolornr command set_maskcolornr lt mask gt lt colornr gt With this command other colors see set_colornr can be assigned to th
59. tting of the active menu item ZOOM MODE Set zooming mode area point fixed The zooming mode can be set to area default point or fixed With area mode one must specify the zooming area with point mode only a point must be specified and with fixed mode nothing need to be specified with the cursor centre of the PICT viewport is used By fixed and point mode the zooming factor is always two The zoom mode can also be set via the dalirc setup file section 1 12 The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 38 10 11 NEW MODE Set use of old new cell_name after write Normally after the write_cell command in the DB_menu if you write the cell under a new name the old name remains in use for the cell in the workspace which can be edit again In new mode however the new name is used for the edited cell The new mode can also be set via the dalirc setup file section 1 12 HASH MODE Set drawing mode for instances normal hashed In hashed mode the layers of the cell instances are drawn hashed with lower intensity Thus one can good see the difference between the layers of the edited cell and the layers of the instances of other cells in the edited cell The hash mode can also be set via the dalirc setup file section 1 12 DRAW MODE Set drawing mode for layers transparent dominant The drawing mode can be set to either transparent or dominant The command has only effect if a drawing order for th
60. tting of the layers of the current process and a menu is presented containing some menu items which are control commands together with some menu items corresponding to certain classes of design data graphical features disp_grid display grid snap_grid snap grid terminals terminals sub_terms sub terminals instances instances bboxes bounding boxes term_name terminal names subt_name sub terminal names inst_name instance names Each of the menu items can be set reset by toggling the corresponding area The menu items that are set are highlighted Initially all items are set Pointing at an item causes it to be reset Pointing at items that have previously been reset will set it Upon selection of the return menu item the newly chosen visibility settings will become effective and the visible menu is exited The other menu commands are picture Shows directly the effect of the current visibility setting without leaving this menu restore Restores the old visibility setting or the last saved one save Saves the current visibility setting for later use all_on Puts all visibles on all_off Puts all visibles off Note that the layers and the graphical features can also be set with the visible command via the dalirc setup file The Nelsis IC Design System O N A a A WwW CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 1 Running Dali 1 2 The Screen Layout 1 3 Pointing and Cursors 1 4 Cell Ed
61. turned on the display grid spacing is reported in the TEXT viewport DISP_GRID Control display grid settings A sub menu is presented from which the settings for the display grid can be controlled The keyboard commands see section 2 3 operates also in this menu The visibility of the grid can be switched on and off via the visible menu item The grid spacing can be controlled either by explicitly selecting a value from the possible grid spacing values displayed in the menu or by setting the display grid to auto adjust In the latter case dali will select an appropriate grid spacing based on the size of the PICT viewport in terms of lambda s size of the window Note that in auto adjust mode the user can not change the grid spacing values SNAP_GRID Control snap grid settings A sub menu is presented from which the settings for the snap grid can be controlled The keyboard commands see section 2 3 operates also in this menu The visibility of the snap grid can be switched on and off via the visible menu item The snap grid spacing can be controlled by explicitly selecting a value from the possible grid spacing values displayed in the menu An offset with respect to the origin can be specified interactively via the offset menu item By fixing a point in the PICT viewport the snap grid is positioned such that the newly entered point is one of the snap grid points Of actual snapping is performed i e snap grid is active depends on the se
62. two points with the help of a rubber box cursor a new smaller window can be specified The new window is the smallest window of a given ratio in which the specified part of the design fits This command is self repeating 7 DEZOOM Fit the current window in the cursor area An area has to be specified with the help of a rubber box cursor The window is then set in such a way that the current window fits in the specified area As a consequence a larger part of the edited cell becomes visible This command is self repeating 8 ADD_TERM Add a terminal using a rubber box cursor The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 28 10 11 12 13 This command operates in the same way as add_box does but now dali also asks for a terminal name which has to be entered via the keyboard Only names that have not yet been used for other terminals in the edited cell are allowed This command operates only on the activated interconnection layers For each of these layers dali prompts for a name and adds a terminal The add_term command is self repeating DEL_TERM Delete a terminal The terminal that has to be deleted must be identified explicitly by pointing at it in the PICT viewport This terminal selection procedure is described in more detail in section 1 6 After a unique terminal has been identified it is deleted The name of the deleted terminal is reported in the TEXT viewport The del_term command is self repeating
63. uous because it lies inside the bounding box of more than one instance dali asks for a further specification by presenting a sub menu with the names of the component cells of these instances In this case one of the names has to be selected from the sub menu The name of the component cell of the selected instance and its instance name is reported in the TEXT viewport If this is the correct one then this cell must be selected again else another cell must be selected 1 7 3 Expansion of Instances Dali offers commands that enable the user to make the contents of the instance s visible up to a certain expansion level either by setting a global expansion level for all instances or by setting the level on an individual basis indiv_exp command The default The Nelsis IC Design System Dali User s Manual 9 situation where only the bounding box of an instance is displayed is called level 1 If an instance is expanded to level 2 the primitive mask geometries of the component cell are displayed together with bounding boxes for the instances that are in turn part of this component cell As the expansion level is further increased say to level n dali displays the mask geometries of cells from deeper levels in the hierarchy up to level n Dali always displays the bounding boxes of the instances of the level 2 cells in the edited cell edited cell root level 1 as these instances are the objects that can be manipulated Dali also displa
64. ys the bounding boxes of the level n 1 cells which are still unexposed Note that dali reads cells read_cell command normally at level 1 but it is possible to specify another default expansion level see settings menu or dalirc setup file section It should be emphasized that the expansion facility is provided only for display purposes the contents of the instances does not really become part of the edited cell in the sense of primitive mask geometries Only the reference to the component cell is part of the edited cell 1 7 4 Hierarchical Consistency Care must be taken when a cell has been edited as other cells higher up in the hierarchy may have to be edited too That is the correctness of cells containing the edited cell may be affected by changes in the edited cell such as a change of its bounding box see also the command upd_bbox in the inst_menu for release 3 See also instcell AICD 1 8 Layers The layers or colors that are available for the construction of primitive mask geometries and terminals are determined by the process one is using For each project a corresponding process has been specified see mkpr 1ICD At startup dali retrieves the layer information from the project environment From this information it learns e g which layers to use names which colors and fill styles to use for their representation and how these colors should mix when several layers are put on top of each other From this information

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