Tutorial PnR: Place and Route

Created for the MSU VLSI program by Pete Semig, Fall 2004
Updated: S05, S06

Document Contents
Introduction
Environment Setup
Synthesis with Synopsys Design Vision
Place & Route with Cadence Silicon Ensemble
Importing the GDSII File into a Virtuoso Library
Simulating from an Extracted Netlist

Introduction
This document will provide students with the methodology for performing place and route (P&R)
with the Synopsys and Cadence tools. We will use a standard cell library created by Illinois Institute
of Technology that is compatible with the MOSIS AMI C5N process. Students will learn how to
perform synthesis with Synopsys Design Vision (aka Design Compiler) and P&R with Cadence’s
Silicon Ensemble.

Environment Setup
The setup for this tutorial is extremely important. Please execute the following series of commands
very carefully:

1. Open a terminal window and go to your class directory. For example,

cd /egr/courses/personal/ece410/<username>/

2. Create two folders called synopsys and se, and then go to the synopsys directory.
mkdir synopsys
mkdir se
cd synopsys

3. Copy some files you will need for this tutorial to your directory with the following command.
cp /egr/courses/personal/ece410/resources/pnr/*.* .
Note: you must include the last ‘.’, with a space between the last ‘*’ and the last ‘.’.
This will copy pnr_setup.tar and adder8.v to your /synopsys directory.

4. Expand the .tar file

tar xvf pnr_setup.tar
This will create directories WORK, db, lef, map, muxcase and v under /synopsys. In these six
directories you will find all the files needed to perform place & route. From here on, references to
these directories will only include the directory name, not the absolute path. For example, if you are
requested to copy a file from the db directory, that is the same as the
/egr/courses/personal/ece410/<username>/synopsys/db directory.

5. Copy the standard cell library you will need for logic synthesis to your directory with the
following commands.
cd /egr/courses/personal/ece410/resources/iit_stdcells/lib/ami05
cp -R IIT_stdcells_ami05 /egr/courses/personal/ece410/<username>/cadence
This completes the environment setup.

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Synthesis with Synopsys Design Vision
This tutorial will guide you through construction of a multiplexer based on provided VHDL code.
The first step is to synthesize the code using the Design Compiler tool from Synopsys.

1. Move to the directory where the multiplexer files are stored.

cd /egr/courses/personal/ece410/<username>/synopsys/muxcase

2. Type source $SOFT/synopsys

3. Type design_vision & to start the

Design Vision tool. The window in Figure
1 will open.

4. To tell Design Vision that we will be

importing a VHDL file, type the following
command at the design vision-t> prompt:
set hdlin_enable_presto_for_vhdl true
Note: you should skip this step if a
Verilog (the default) file is used.

5. Select File >> Setup. The window in

Figure 2 will open. Figure 1: Design Vision window with VHDL
enabling command.
6. Delete the contents in the Link library,
Target library, and Symbol library boxes.

7. Click on the ellipsis (...) next to Link

library.

8. Select Add and locate the

iit05_stdcells.db file from your db
directory. Select OK.

9. Repeat steps 7-8 for Target library.

Leave the Symbol library box blank.
Select OK to close the setup window.
Figure 2: Setup Link and Target Libraries.
10. In the Design Vision window, select File >> Analyze.

11. In the window that opens (Fig. 3), click Add. Specify the muxcase.vhd file from your
muxcase/source directory.

12. Check the Create new library if it does not exist box. Click OK to close the Analyze Designs
window. A window will pop up saying the library already exists. Click OK.

13. Make sure that the bottom of your Design Vision window reports successful compilation as
shown in Figure 4.

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14. In the Design Vision window, select File >>
Elaborate to open the window in Figure 5.

15. Drop down the Library menu and select WORK.

16. Check Reanalyze out-of-date libraries. Click OK.

17. In the Design Vision window, select MUXCASE

in the Logical Hierarchy sub-window (Fig. 6).

18. Select Hierarchy >> Uniquify >> Hierarchy

Figure 3: Analyze Designs window.
19. If you get an error message, click Close.

20. In the Uniquify Hierarchy window click OK. This

window may be hidden behind other windows.

21. In the Design Vision window select Design >>

Compile Design.

22. Select OK to compile the design and return to the

Design Vision window.

23. Select Design >> Check Design. Select OK to Figure 5: Elaborate window.
check the design.

24. Select File >> Save As and save the file as

muxsyn.v in your v directory.

25. Re-save the file as muxsyn.db in your db

directory. Be sure to select the DB(db) Format when
saving the file.

26. To view the schematic that the Synopsys tools

have created from the VHDL file, right-click on Figure 6: Select MUXCASE.
MUXCASE in the Logical Hierarchy sub-window and
select Schematic View. This is not a necessary design
step, but it is interesting to see.

27. Select File >> Exit to exit Design Vision.

Figure 4: Design Vision report of successful compilation.

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Place & Route with Cadence Silicon Ensemble

NOTE: Some students have reported problems running Gnome desktop environment with Silicon
Ensemble. It is recommended that you use the Common Desktop Environment.

GETTING STARTED
1. Create a folder under /egr/courses/personal/ece410/<username>/se called mux and go to that
directory.
cd /egr/courses/personal/ece410/<username>/se
mkdir mux
cd /egr/courses/personal/ece410/<username>/se/mux

2. Type source $SOFT/cadence

3. To launch Silicon Ensemble, type seultra -m=200 &

SETUP
4. Select File >> Import >> LEF

5. Select iit05_stdcells.lef from your

synopsys/lef directory.

6. Click OK. Figure 7 shows the Silicon

Ensemble program window with a
message in the bottom feedback window
that LEF importing was successful.

7. To add Verilog source files, select File

>> Import >> Verilog and click Browse
(near Verilog Source Files).
Figure 7: Import LEF into Silicon Ensemble.
8. In the MultiBrowse window (Fig. 8),
select muxsyn.v from your synopsys/v
directory and click Add.

9. Also add iit05_stdcells.v.se from the

same directory. The trick here is to change
the Filter field from *.v to *.* and press
Enter.

10. Click OK to exit the MultiBrowse

window. An Import Verliog window will
open (Fig. 9). Figure 8: Add Verilog Source Files.

11. Enter MUXCASE for Verilog Top Module. This value is determined by examining the entity
definition within muxcase.vhd (or the module definition within a Verilog file).

12. Delete everything in the Compiled Verilog Reference Libraries box.

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13. Type sample in the Compiled Verilog Output Library box. You
can actually type any name you desire in this box.

14. Delete all exclamation points (!) in the Options section.

15. Select OK to close the Import Verilog window.

FLOORPLANNING
16. From the main window, select Floorplan>> Initialize
Floorplan

17. In the I/O To Core Distance section of the new window (Fig.
10), input 12 microns for both fields.

18. Select Fixed Size in the Die Size Constraint section and input
55 for the Height and 70 for the Width. Figure 9: Import Verilog Dialog.

The actual die size and area are reported

in the message window after initializing
the floorplan (Fig. 11). You may have
to scroll up to see the size and area. The
area is also reported in the file
se/LIBRARY.summary. Look for a line
starting with Area of chip: around line
50. The width and height units are in
nanometers. The area units, square
DBU, are equivalent to square
nanometers in our design.

19. Under Core Area Parameters

change the Row Utilization to 80% and
make sure Flip Every Other Row and
Abut Rows are checked.

20. Click the Calculate button. You

should see some statistics such as row
utilization and number of rows. Then
click OK to close the floorplan window.

21. Back in the main window (Fig. 12), Figure 10: Initialize Floorplan.
select Place >> Ios then click OK.

22. To create power and ground rings, select Route >> Create Ring.

23. In the window that opens (Fig 13), make sure Core ring(s) is selected and change all values of
Width, Spacing, and Offset to 1.5. Click OK. The layout should now look like Figure 14.

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 Figure 11: Initialize Floorplan feedback in message window.

Figure 12: Place Inputs and Outputs. Figure 13: Create Vdd and Gnd Rings.

Figure 14: Vdd and Gnd Rings. Figure 15: Layout after placing cells.

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PLACE AND ROUTE
24. We can now add cells to the floorplan. Select
Place >> Cells.

25. In the window that opens, all boxes should be

unchecked. Click OK to close this window. Back
in the main window, you will see some metal
layers from the added cells (Fig. 15). Since all the
layers are not defined in Silicon Ensemble, you
won’t see all the layers. You’ll see the whole Figure 16: Wire Routing.
design later in Virtuoso.

26. To route the cells to the power and ground

rings, select Route >> Connect Ring. Click OK.
Figure 17: Successful WROUTE.
27. Next we have the tools route all the signals.
Select Route >> WRoute.

28. In the WRoute window (Fig 16), make sure Global and Final Route and Auto Search And
Repair are checked. Click OK and you should see the results shown in Figure 17 at the bottom of
the main window.

29. Now we need to run a couple of checks. Complete the following steps and check the bottom of
the main window for the verifications shown in Figures 18-19.

Select Verify >> Geometry. Click OK.

Select Verify >> Connectivity. Click OK.

Figure 18: Verify Geometry.

Figure 19: Verify Connectivity.

EXPORT LAYOUT
30. The final step here is to export the layout to a format
that can be read by the Cadence layout tools. Select
File >> Export >> GDSII.

31. In the window that opens (Fig. 20), check the GDS-
II File box and enter RoutedMUX.gds2.

32. Check Map File, and Browse to synopsys/map and

select the gds2_seultra.map file.
Figure20: Export GDSII.

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33. Check Structure Name and make sure MUXCASE is entered in that box.

34. Check Library Name and make sure IIT_stdcells_ami05 is in that box.

35. Click OK. The export might take a minute. When you see Process Complete in the main
window, you are done.

36. Exit Silicon Ensemble. If it asks you to save your database, select Yes.

Importing the GDSII File into a Virtuoso Library

1. Go to the following directory:
/egr/courses/personal/ece410/<username>/cadence

2. The Cadence tools should already be sourced so launch them by entering the command icfb &.

3. First we need to connect with the IIT_stdcells_ami05 library. You should have already copied the
directory into your Cadence directory (last step of Environment Setup section). In the Library
Manager, select File >> New >> Library.

4. Under Name, type IIT_stdcells_ami05. Under Path, put a period (.). Click OK. You should now
see the library in the Library Manager. Make sure that you can open some cell layouts before you
continue.

5. In the Command Interpreter Window (CIW) select File >> Import >> Stream.

6. Click the Options button and check Snap XY to Grid Resolution. Click OK.

7. Click the User-Defined Data button and, in LayerMap Table, type (Fig 21)
/egr/courses/personal/ece410/<username>/synopsys/map/gds2_icfb.map. Click OK.

Figure 21: Layer Map Table

8. In Input File, type /egr/courses/personal/ece410/<username>/se/mux/RoutedMUX.gds2

9. In Library Name, type IIT_stdcells_ami05.

10. Click OK. You will probably get a warning. Click OK if this happens.

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11. In the Library Manager, open the layout view of the MUXCASE cell in the IIT_stdcells_ami05
library. (If you cannot see the MUXCASE cell, select View >> Refresh to refresh the window).
You will see some routing and three mux cells (Fig 22).

Figure 22: Initial Virtuoso Layout

12. Now we need to ’flatten’ the mux instances. First

use the mouse to select the entire design. You do this by
left-clicking in the upper left corner and dragging a box
to the lower right corner.

13. With everything selected, go to Edit >> Hierarchy

>> Flatten in the Virtuoso window.

14. Check one level, Flatten Pcells, Preserve Pins, and Figure 23: Flatten Cells
Preserve ROD Objects as in Figure 23. Click OK.

15. Now you should see the entire design, as shown in Figure 24.

16. Run a DRC check. You will find that there are several errors. Each error corresponds to a pin
and we need to redo the pins. You should now see the name and location of each of the pins.

17. Place new Metal1 pin for vdd!, gnd!, A, B, C, D, MUX_OUT, S0, and S1. Be sure to make A,
B, C, D, S0, and S1 inputs. Make MUX_OUT an output. Make vdd! and gnd! jumpers.

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 Figure 24: Final Circuit

After you place the new pins, be sure to delete the old text pins. The text will not disappear after
deleting, but it will disappear after re-running the DRC.

18. Re-run the DRC to verify no errors.

We’re now ready to use the Cadence tools to extract a netlist of the active devices, parasitics
capacitances and interconnections. The extracted netlist can be used to simulate the performance of
the circuit with results that are generally very close to those obtained after fabrication.

Simulating from an Extracted Netlist

To verify functionality of the design, we must extract the layout and simulate the extracted netlist.

STEP 1. Extract Netlist

Extract the netlist for the MUXCASE layout and load the extracted cellview. This process is
described in detail in Tutorial B between DRC and LVS procedures.

STEP 2. Start Analog Environment

• With the extracted view open, in the Virtuoso Layout Editing window select Tools => Analog
Environment to open the Affirma Analog Circuit Design Environment window.

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STEP 3. Setup Analog Simulator
• In Affirma Analog Circuit Design Environment, click on Setup => Simulator/Directory/Host.
• Choose spectre as the Simulator.
• Enter a path for your simulations files and results. You may set this to any valid path, but you
might find it useful to keep all simulations in one directory. For example 410 students might
use /egr/courses/personal/ece410/<username>/se/simulation/muxcase. If you need to run
multiple simulations on the same cell, you can even use different paths for each simulation.

STEP 4. Setup Analog Environment to use Extracted View

• In Affirma Analog Circuit Design Environment, click on Setup => Environment. The
Environment Options dialog box (below) will pop up.

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• In the Environment Options window, under the line Switch View List. type the word
“extracted” before the word “schematic” (see below).
This entry is an ordered list of cell views which contain information that can be simulated. The
simulator (in fact the netlister) will search until it finds one of these cellviews. The default entry
does not contain an extracted cellview. As a result of this modification, the simulator will use the
extracted cellview instead of the schematic cellview to include the effect of parasitic capacitance in
the simulation.

• Make sure to check the Y for Use SPICE Netlist Reader(spp), since the default transistor model
files are written in SPICE syntax. Click OK once you have done this.

STEP 5. Simulation
• A stimulus file for the MUXCASE cell has been created for you. Copy this file from
/egr/courses/personal/ece410/resources/stimulus.txt to an appropriate location in your directory.
• Use this stimulus file to simulate the cell and verify functionality. Refer to Tutorial A for
information about running this simulation.
• Be sure to run the simulation for 360ns.
• When you choose the signals to plotted, the extracted view of the mux should come to the
forefront. Select the signals to be plotted by clicking on the corresponding input and output
nets. The names of the nets should appear in the “Outputs” box in the Affirma Analog Circuit
Design Environment window.
• Verify the circuit functions like you expect a multiplexer to operate.
• Save your simulations results to include in your report.

THE END

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