OpenAccess 2.2.1 Release Notes

Contents

• Version 2.2.1

Note: For an overview of the new features available in 2.2.0, refer to What's New.

Version 2.2.1

• New Features
• Compatibility with Earlier Releases
• API Changes
• Fixed Problems

New Features

Translators

The lib, cell, and view names that you supply to the translators on the command line are now in the OpenAccess Native name space.

Spef Translators

The zlib library, which is required by the Spef translators, is no longer shipped with OpenAccess. For information about acquiring and setting up zlib, see the Installation Instructions.

Also, spef2oa now includes a -tolerate command-line option, which tolerates connectivity mismatches between the SPEF input and the target OpenAccess database. Usually, connectivity mismatches result in an error and processing stops. The –tolerate option reduces these errors to warnings, but some coupling capacitance may be dropped from the parasitic network. If the network cannot be properly connected due to connectivity problems with series devices (such as resistors), the entire network is ignored but processing continues. Note that the SPEF translator does not perform exhaustive node to node checking of the network connectivity. It is possible to construct networks that contain electrical opens regardless of whether this option is used.

Stream Translators

The Stream translators include a new -viaMap option to support inputting and outputting custom via mappings.

Custom Via Mapping File Syntax

# Comment
# Blank lines will be ignored
<Structure Name> <oaCustomViaDef Name> <Layer1 Name/Number> <Layer2 Name/Number> 

Example:

# Custom Via Master List for mydesign
via1 m1m2via m1 10 m2 20
via2 m2m3via m2 20 m3 30

oa2lef Translator

The PITCH, DIAGPITCH, and OFFSET constructs have been moved to the LEFDefaultRouteSpec constraint group. Previously generated tech databases are incompatible because oa2lef will no longer find these constructs in the foundry rules group.

LEF/DEF Mapping Changes

• The lef2oa mapping has changed. Older versions of lef2oa incorrectly stored X pitch and offset values in the oacHorizontalRouteGridPitch and oacHorizontalRouteGridOffset constraints. Now X pitch and offset are correctly mapped to oacVerticalRouteGridPitch and oacVerticalRouteGridOffset. Y pitch and offset values were also incorrectly mapped and are now correctly mapped to oacHorizontalRouteGridPitch and oacHorizontalRouteGridOffset.
• LEF vias are mapped to oaCustomViaDefs. If an existing oaStdViaDef is defined in the technology database with the same name, the oaCustomViaDef is renamed by appending _via. For example, <name> is renamed to <name>_via.
• def2oa searches for oaCustomViaDef <name>, oaCustomViaDef <name>_via, oaStdVia (not oaStdViaDef), and DEF VIA (a via defined locally in the DEF file); the search is performed in the order listed.

Wafer API Changes

Two new wafer functions have been added:

oaTimeStamp             getTimeStamp(oaWaferDataType    type) const;

oaTimeStamp             getTimeStamp(oaAppObjectDef     *def) const;

New Overload for oaCellView::setView

void oaCellView::setView(const oaView *view); // Already exists
void oaCellView::setView(const oaView *view, oaBoolean mustExist); // New overload 

These functions modify the cellView that is associated with the specified view.

oaCellView::setView(const oaView *view) accomplishes this by renaming the existing primary data in the cellView to be of the appropriate type. An exception is thrown if the non-primary data already exists in the cellView of the specified type.

oaCellView::setView(const oaView *view, oaBoolean mustExist) assumes the cellView already contains the appropriate type of data, but that it is not currently marked as the primary data for the cellView. This function makes this data primary. The original data is left in the cellView as non-primary data. The argument mustExist should be set to TRUE. If mustExist is set to FALSE, this function operates identically to the first version.

Note: To maintain drop-in compatibility, these functions are implemented separately, but will be merged together at a later date.

New Turbo DM System Attribute

See Turbo DM System in the Libraries and Design Management section of the Programmers Guide for more information.

FileSys File Locking Use Model

The file locking functionality for the FileSys DM system is fully documented. The lock recovery daemon is now called oaFSLockD.

See File Locking in the Libraries and Design Management section of the Programmers Guide for more information.

Constraints

The distance parameter has been added to the oacMinWireExtension constraint.

Default Compiler Environment

There has been a change to the default compiler environment path settings supplied with OpenAccess. See Default Compiler Environment for details.

Removal of Fatal Exceptions

The following fatal exception classes have been removed:

• oaFatal
• oaDesignFatal
• oaTechFatal
• oaDMFatal
• oaWaferFatal

OpenAccess does not throw exceptions using any of these objects, so they have been eliminated. The expectation is that clients are not using these class types to catch OpenAccess exceptions because OpenAccess does not throw these exception objects.

Almost all clients use the base oaException type in the catch block to get a copy or a reference of the thrown object. There should be no drop-in compatibility issues for these clients, and eliminating these classes now will prevent unnecessary confusion in the future.

Clients that have catch blocks to specially handle these fatal exception types should remove them.

Compatibility with Earlier Releases

• Most users will have to rebuild their tech DBs with the OpenAccess libraries and the lef2oa translator in this release for the following reasons.
  • Due to a bug fix, tech DBs that used the default values for User Units and DBUPerUU in 2.2.0 will now contain incorrect values.
  • The LEF mapping for routing rules has changed because these rules were previously placed in the wrong constraint group. In 2.2.1, the oa2lef translator expects this data to be in the LEFDefaultRouteSpec constraint group.
  • In 2.2.0 constraints placed in the foundry constraint group were incorrectly placed in the tech default constraint group.
  • Older versions of lef2oa incorrectly stored X pitch and offset values in the oacHorizontalRouteGridPitch and oacHorizontalRouteGridOffset constraints. Now X pitch and offset are correctly mapped to oacVerticalRouteGridPitch and oacVerticalRouteGridOffset. Y pitch and offset values were also incorrectly mapped and are now correctly mapped to oacHorizontalRouteGridPitch and oacHorizontalRouteGridOffset.
    
• Because new functions have been added in this release, the oacMinorRevNumber has been incremented. This means that programs compiled with the header files in this release cannot be used with OpenAccess shared libraries from previous 2.2 releases. Programs compiled with earlier versions of 2.2 will continue to run unchanged with the shared libraries in this release. For more information about the oacAPIMinorRevNumber, refer to oaDesign Initialization in the Programmers Guide.
• If you used oaFatal exceptions, you need to remove them and recompile your code. (Most applications do not use these exceptions.) See Removal of Fatal Exceptions for more information.

API Changes

View a summary  of the OpenAccess 2.2.1 changes with respect to 2.2.0.

Fixed Problems

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