DATC Robust Design Flow 2019

RDF-2019 enhances the DATC RDF to span the entire RTL-to-GDS IC implementation flow, from logic synthesis to detailed routing. The new release represents a significant revision of the previously-reported RDF-2018 flow. Noteworthy vertical extensions include:

• Addition of logic synthesis starting from pure behavioral RTL Verilog RTL
• Floorplanning that includes initial DEF creation, I/O placement and PDN layout generation
• Clock tree synthesis between placement legalization and global routing

A number of horizontal extensions to RDF are achieved by incorporating additional tool options at each stage. Last, RDF-2019 provides significantly enhanced support of and interoperability with industry-standard tools and design formats (LEF/DEF, SPEF, Liberty, SDC, etc.).

RDF-2019 Cloud demonstration: Link.

Getting Started

Pre-requisite

We have tested RDF-2019 on CentOS 7. You need to install the basic development packages, and libtcl8.5.

Running Test

# Set up the OpenROAD tools
cd bin/openroad
./install.sh
cd ../../run

# Setup the workspace; you need Python 3
python ../src/rdf.py --config test.yml --test

# If you set the `--test` flag, the workspace is named `rdf.yymmdd.HHMMSS`
# Go to the workspace and run it
cd rdf.yymmdd.HHMMSS
./run.sh

Configuring RDF Flow

Design benchmark configuration

A benchmark consists of Verilog source codes and a configuration file (YAML format). Please refer to an example design benchmark: Link

Example design configuration file:

name:        tv80s
clock_port:  clk

verilog:     
    - tv80_alu.v
    - tv80_core.v
    - tv80_mcode.v
    - tv80_reg.v
    - tv80s.v

Library configuration

Example library configuration file: link

Flow configuration

Example RDF flow configuration file in YAML format:

---
rdf_path: ../
job_dir: ./

design:  benchmarks/test/i2c
library: techlibs/nangate45

flow:
    - stage: synth
      tool: yosys-abc # ABC or Yosys
      user_parms: 
          max_fanout: 16
          script: resyn2
          map:    map
          
    - stage: floorplan
      tool: TritonFP 
      user_parms:
          target_utilization: 20
          aspect_ratio: 1

    - stage: global_place
      tool: RePlAce         # RePlAce, EhPlacer, ComPLx, NTUPlace
      user_parms: 
          target_density: 0.4

    - stage: detail_place
      tool: opendp
      user_parms: []

    - stage: cts
      tool: TritonCTS
      user_parms:
          target_skew: 50

    - stage: global_route
      tool: FastRoute4-lefdef
      user_parms: []

    - stage: detail_route
      tool: TritonRoute
      user_parms: []

Preparing Libraries

(TBA) Explain using ASAP7 as an example.

magic.tech
tracks.info
tritonCTS LUTs
gds

Adding Your Pont Tool Binaries

./bin/<stage>/<tool_name>/

Each tool must include runner python script, and RDF will call it: <rdf_path>/bin/<stage>/<tool_name>/rdf_<tool_name>.py.

Contributors

Current DATC Committee members

• Jianli Chen - Fuzhou University
• Iris Hui-Ru Jiang - National Taiwan University
• Jinwook Jung - IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center
• Andrew B. Kahng - University of California San Diego
• Victor N. Kravets - IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center
• Yih-Lang Li - National Chiao Tung University

Code committers

• Mingyu Woo - UCSD
• Shih-Ting Lin - NCTU

Tool contributors

• Nima Karimpour and Laleh Behjat - University of Calgary
• Myung-Chul Kim and Igor Markov (for ComPLx)
• Shinichi Nishizawa and Hidetoshi Onodera (for NCTUcell)
• OpenROAD team