IC Compiler II Update Training

Data Model

Version O-2018.06-SP2, O-2018.06-SP4, and P-2019.03

March, 2019
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In the event information in this presentation reflects Synopsys’ future plans, such plans
are as of the date of this presentation and are subject to change. Synopsys is not
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 Data Model Enhancements
(O-2018.06-SP2, O-2018.06-SP4, and P-2019.03)

Database Management Design and Tech Data Tcl Interfaces

• Analog Pin Related Improvement (O-2018.06-SP2) • Shaping Constraints (O-2018.06-SP2)
• Virtual Interface Blocks (VIB) for 3DIC (O-2018.06-SP2) • report_unbound Support for Missing Layers/Purpose
• Via Matrix Support (O-2018.06-SP4) (O-2018.06-SP2)
• Voltage Area Rule Hierarchy Options (O-2018.06-SP4) • Netlist Checking Enhancements (O-2018.06-SP4)
• Rule Based Name Matching (O-2018.06-SP4)
• Application Option Tcl Command Enhancements
Data Import and Export (O-2018.06-SP4)
• Instance-Specific Mask Shapes during Stream Out • Placement Attractions Support (P-2019.03)
(O-2018.06-SP2) • Supernet Enhancements (P-2019.03)
• Writing Routing Constraints (O-2018.06-SP4) • Usage Support for n-D Buses (P-2019.03)
• write_def Support for Physical Hierarchy Traversal • Message/Logfile Unification (P-2019.03)
(O-2018.06-SP4) • Label-Based Linking (P-2019.03)
• PMJ Via Ladder Support in Read/Write DEF (P-2019.03) • Identifying Computing Environment Issues (P-2019.03)
• Read/Write Verilog Support for n-D Buses (P-2019.03)

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 Design and Tech Data Tcl Interfaces (data query, editing)
• Shaping Constraints (O-2018.06-SP2) • Placement Attractions Support (P-2019.03)
• report_unbound Support for Missing Layers/Purpose • Supernet Enhancements (P-2019.03)
(O-2018.06-SP2) • Message/Logfile Unification (P-2019.03)
• Netlist Checking Enhancements (O-2018.06-SP4) • Label-Based Linking (P-2019.03)
• Rule-Based Name Matching (O-2018.06-SP4) • Identifying Computing Environment Issues
• Application Option Tcl Command Enhancements (P-2019.03)
(O-2018.06-SP4)

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Shaping Constraints (O-2018.06-SP2)

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Shaping Constraints
Overview and Benefit

• Block shaping is one of the floorplanning design steps in IC Compiler II

• The enhancement of shaping constraints in 2018.06-SP2 allows you to provide a set of
constraints that
– Specify the shaping groups to be formed
– Characterize the shaping attributes associated with each object to help define and control the shaping
rules and boundary determinations for all shapeable objects.
• This project is to prepare the improved solution to the block reader’s ease of use by adding a
native support for shaping constraints in the database.
– You can manage the shapeable objects and shaping constraints easier with new set of Tcl UI
commands in place of the unwieldy constraint file flow

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Shaping Constraints
User Interface

• Two new UI objects are added to support shaping constraints:

– shaping_channel
– shaping_constraints

• New shaping_constraints attribute is added to the following objects:

– group
– voltage_area
– bound
– cell
– block

• New is_shaping attribute is added to the following object:

– group

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 Shaping Constraints
New UI commands

• The following new commands support shaping constraints

New UI Commands Description

create_shaping_channel Creates and optionally sets values for a channel object.
remove_shaping_channel Removes channel objects from the database.

get_shaping_channels Gathers and returns a collection of channel objects.

create_shaping_constraint Creates and optionally sets values for a particular shaping constraint associated with a
given shapeable object.

remove_shaping_constraint Removes defined shaping constraints from a constrainable object by destroying the
corresponding shaping constraints objects.
get_shaping_constraints Gathers and returns a collection of shaping constraints objects.
set_shaping_group_order Establishes a desired ordering of elements within a given shaping group.

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 Shaping Constraints
Updated UI commands

• Some existing UI commands will be enhanced to support shaping groups

Existing UI Commands Description of the change

create_group Adds optional argument -shaping
By default a group is created as a non-shaping group. If the -shaping option is set, the
group is created as a shaping group.
report_group Add optional argument -shaping
The -shaping option provides a convenient filter to display information on only the shaping
groups from the list of groups to report.
add_to_group Errors will be displayed
• When adding an object to a shaping group the object must be a shapeable object
• When adding an object to a shaping group, the object must not already be a member of
another shaping group.
• When adding an object to a shaping group the object must exist at the same level of
hierarchy and be a member of the same block as the other members of the groups
• Shaping group relationships should form a tree, meaning that no circular relationships
can exist.

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report_unbound improvement (O-2018.06-SP2)

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report_unbound Improvement
Overview

• Starting in version O-2018.06-SP2, the report_unbound command

is enhanced to report missing layers to help you troubleshoot what
to fix after tech replacement causes a layer to go missing

• If you recreate the missing layer/re-read the tech file having those
layers, then unbound objects should be rebound and will not get
reported in report_unbound command

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report_unbound improvement
User Interface

• The report_unbound command is improved to report unbound on the shape, track,

layer, pin_guide, pin_blockage, routing_guide, routing_corridor_shape and
via_defs object types, which related to layer

• The new eight object types are added in the command option:
– report_unbound -shape
– report_unbound -track
– report_unbound -layer
– report_unbound -pin_guide
– report_unbound -pin_blockage
– report_unbound -routing_guide
– report_unbound -routing_corridor_shape
– report_unbound –via_def

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Netlist Checking Enhancements (O-2018.06-SP4)

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Netlist Checking Enhancements
Overview

• The check_netlist command in IC Compiler II is enhanced to report additional messages

similar to the check_design command in Design Compiler

• New application options are added to enable the new checking features:
– da.check_netlist.allow_multiply_driven_nets_by_inputs_and_outputs
– Set to true to skip the DCHK-034
– da.check_netlist.check_for_wire_loop
– Set to false to skip the DCHK-035
– da.check_netlist.allow_connection_class_violation
– Set to true to skip the DCHK-033

• New options -summary and –multiple_designs are added to check_netlist

– The-summary option enables a brief description for each message shown in the output summary
table
• All of the messages reported from check_netlist are EMS-compatible.

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 Netlist Checking Enhancements
New Messages
• The following new messages are added to the check_netlist command:

Message Message Description Message ICCII option ICCII App-option

Id Type (default on)
DCHK-028 In design '%s', ref '%s' was not used. Warning –cells N/A

DCHK-029 '%s' does not have any output ports. Warning –ports N/A

DCHK-033 In design '%s' net '%s' has a connection class Warning –nets da.check_netlist.allow_connection_class_violation,
violation: false by default
DCHK-034 In design '%s', input port '%s' is connected to a Error –ports da.check_netlist.allow_multiply_driven_nets_by_inputs_and_
multiply-driven net and the drivers include a outputs, false by default
hierarchical output pin
DCHK-035 In design '%s', net '%s' is a wire loop. Error -nets da.check_netlist.check_for_wire_loop
true by default
DCHK-036 In design '%s', leaf cell output pin '%s' is connected Error -cells N/A
to constant net '%s'.
DCHK-037 In design '%s', %s port '%s' is not being used in Warning -ports N/A
accordance with its stated direction.
DCHK-038 In current design '%s' is instantiated %d times. Information -multiple_design N/A

DCHK-039 In design '%s', cell '%s' is unmapped warning -cells N/A

DCHK-042 Use the related options for more information about information -summary N/A
warnings
DCHK-043 In design '%s', cell '%s' does not have a reference. error -cells N/A

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Rule-Based Name Matching (O-2018.06-SP4)

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Rule-Based Name Matching
Overview

• In a design flow, the name of design objects can sometimes change while the script keeps the
original name, causing a name mismatch

• Starting in O-2018.06-SP4, you can use rule-based name matching and use the
set_query_rules command to guide object name searching

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Rule-Based Name Matching
User Interface

• Use the set_query_rules command to specify query rules

set_query_rules # Define query rules
[-hierarchical_separators separators] (List of hierarchical separators)
[-bus_name_notations bus_notations] (List of bus name notations)
[-class class_list] (List of object classes:
Values: cell, port, pin, net,
power_domain, supply_net, supply_set,
supply_port, power_switch, model)
[-regsub regsub] (List of options for Tcl command regsub)
[-wildcard] (Turn on wildcard support)
[-suffix suffix_list] (Turn on predefined suffix rules (_reg _tri))
[-nocase] (Case insensitive)
[-verbose] (Turn on verbose mode)
[-show] (Show the current query options)
[-reset] (Reset to default options)

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Rule-Based Name Matching
Usage

• When you define query rules by using the set_query_rules command

– In the golden UPF flow (when mv.upf.enable_golden_upf is true), the load_upf command
follows the specified query rules
– To enable rule based matching for the get_cells, get_pins, get_ports, get_nets, and
find_objects commands, set the design.enable_rule_based_query application option to true
For example:
set_query_rules -hierarchical_separators {/ _ @} -class cell
find_objects . -pattern INSTDECODE@U1 -object_type inst
get_cells INSTDECODE@U1
#Warning: No cell objects matched 'INSTDECODE@U1' (SEL-004)

set_app_options -name design.enable_rule_based_query -value true

find_objects . -pattern INSTDECODE@U1 -object_type inst
#INSTDECODE/U1
get_cells INSTDECODE@U1
#{INSTDECODE/U1}

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Application Option Tcl Command Enhancements (O-2018.06-SP4)

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Application Option Tcl Command Enhancements
Overview

• You can report all the application options and the differences between application options
between releases or between designs

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Application Option Tcl Command Enhancements
User Interface

• Starting in version O-2018.06-SP4, you can use the following commands to write application
options to file and compare application options:
– write_app_options
– compare_app_options

• In addition, the following commands are enhanced:

– report_app_options
– audit_scripts

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Application Option Tcl Command Enhancements
Usage write_app_options

• To write application option data to a file for comparison and reporting, use the following
command:
write_app_options
[-non_default] (Write options with values different from default)
-output file name (output file name)

– Communicates information about application options and their values

– Compares snapshots of application options from different tool versions, flow steps, RM versions, etc.
– Synenc encoded data file only readable by report_app_options, compare_app_options, and
audit_scripts

 Example
– write_app_options –output 18.06-sp4.data
– Saves encrypted file with all application option data for a particular release
– This file can be used as input to the enhanced audit_scripts command
– This file can be used as one of the inputs to the new compare_app_options command
– This file can be used as an input to report_app_options

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Application Option Tcl Command Enhancements
Usage compare_app_options

• Compares two application option data files written by the write_app_options command:
compare_app_options
-previous_data data_file (Previous data file)
-current_data data_file (Current data file)
[-as_csv] (CSV Format)

– Options:
– -previous_data filename
– Specifies a filename which specifies the data file that represents the basis (or left-side) of the comparison report

– -current_data filename
– Specifies a file name that specifies the data file that represents the current (or right-side) data.
– -as_csv
– Saves the report in plain text CSV format

– Report will also show Added and Removed application options.

– Added are in the -current_data file, but not in the -previous_data file
– Removed are in the -previous_data file, but not in the -current_data file

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Application Option Tcl Command Enhancements
Usage report_app_options

• Enhanced to include a new Source column

– You can now record which line of Tcl Source called set_app_options and report it in the new source
column

• New public option: -data file_name

– Reports application options saved in a data file written by write_app_options

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Application Option Tcl Command Enhancements
Usage audit_scripts

• Auditing application options and variables in a script

audit_scripts
-input script_name_or_path (Location of scripts to be audited)
[-from version] (Data file for pre-defined version)

– The audit_scripts reads a script, examines the application options and variables, and reports application
option or variable names that have changed from a previous version of the tool.
– CONVERT between an application variable and an application option is no longer supported.
– RENAME of an application variable is no longer supported.
– Command options:
– -input script_name_or_path (Unchanged)
– -from version (New)
– Specifies a string from a specific tool version and compares it to the current version.
– The default version is the most recent version
Currently supported -from options are:
-from 17.09-sp5
-from 18.06-sp2

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Example
Recommended Flow for write_app_options and compare_app_options

# Create a data file containing all application options before a specific process
write_app_options -output before.data

# Continue with the process with additional application options

#...
# Create another data file containing all application options
write_app_options -output after.data

# Test compare_app_options
compare_app_options -previous_data before.data -current_data after.data

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