softworks 0.2.0

Software and documentation view types in Cadence Virtuoso

Softworks

Software and documentation view types in the Cadence Virtuoso IC design environment.

Overview

Softworks defines cell view types for documentation and software views in the Cadence Virtuoso integrated circuit design environment. It supports automated design of circuit IP and makes it accessible to average designer.
It is an open-source library written in SKILL++ and built on the Virtue SKILL++ framework.

The software views make automated design more accessible to both the average IC design engineer and those with software experience. It allows the tool interface to be simplified to a simple template run script where the inputs are defined in a dictionary and passed to an API function.

The documentation views support the development of IP libraries by attaching the documentation directly to the cells. This makes it easier to communicate the performance of the cell and keep track of it.

Custom Cell Views

View Type	Extensions	Editors	Description
pdf	*.pdf	xpdf	A pdf Document
ppt	*.pptx	open office	A power point presentation
Excel	*.xlsx *.xlsm	open office	A spreadsheet
html	*.html	firefox	A web page
module	*.py *.pyc	VS Code, gedit	A Python module
notebook	*.ipynb	VS Code, gedit	A Python Jupyter notebook
markdown	*.md	VS Code, gedit	A markdown document. VS code enables editing and rendering
yaml	*.yml	VS Code, gedit	A yaml data file
skill	*.il	Skill IDE, gedit	A SKILL code file
skillpp	*.ils	Skill IDE, gedit	A SKILL++ code file

Creating a New View

A new blank document view can be created by using the standard "File -> New -> Cell View..." selection. Then some view types will create a new cellview directly based on a template file while the documentation views will open a GUI. This GUI has the option to either create the new cell view from a template or import an existing file to the cell view.

License

Softworks is MIT licensed, see the LICENSE file for more details.

Installation

1. Make sure Virtuoso IC6.1.8 (though it may work with other IC6 versions) is installed
2. Make sure the following programs are installed to support editing the associated views. If one is not installed then you won't be able to edit that view type.
   • Libre office (pptx, xlsx) which libre
   • xpdf (PDF) which xpdf
   • firefox (HTML) which firefox
3. Install the Virtue SKILL++ framework
4. clone the softworks repo
5. Load the Softworks.init.ils initialization script
   • This can be loaded in the CIW window for a single session
   • This can be done in your .cdsinit in the working directory for a single project
   • This can be loaded by one of the site initialization scripts to load for all projects.