This is going to be a short preview of the MyChip tool. The full review will follow in a week or two.

If you are looking for a tool with a windows GUI interface that is powerful, fast, and very user friendly, you may not have to look much further. The MyCad MyChip 4.0 Package looks great when you first boot up. The tool has a nice About page that flashes up and then loads your last project and cells. It will bring up your environment the way that you left it.

The interface for most of the tools that you need are real close and easily accessible. The layer pane defaults on the right of your main window. This works perfect on the side and is great for those users who have used Virtuoso or Opus in the past. There is a command bar that I turned off so that I could use the bind keys more easily. There is a bind key for just about every function you will need in layout. If there is not one for what you want to do, the tool will let you create Macro's as well. As you can see in the image to the left that the page is in WorkBook Mode. This allows you to have multiple layouts open at one time and flip between them. This is a very nice feature that helps out greatly when working on multiple cells within a bigger block.

The tech file is very easy to create and modify for a given project. You open up the Technology Editor through a GUI interface and easily change colors, stipples, layer names, GDS numbers, CIF numbers, line styles, and much more that is associated with the given layer. You can easily add new layers and delete layers that you no longer need as well. The technology editor is easy to use and a great compliment to this already impressive tool.

Placing and creating cells is also very easy. You can edit in place and bounce around through the hierarchy as much as you need to. There is a path function that also works in conjunction with your tech file. The image to the left shows a path being placed.

Rulers are very nicely done as well. They are as user friendly as their more expensive friend Virtuoso. One other nice feature is a function that will graphically show you the hierarchy that you are working in. It displays all the cells in the top block and allows you to navigate through the hierarchy displaying levels down underneath.

If you are looking for a fairly inexpensive tool to learn layout on that is going to have most all of the features of the bigger more expensive tools, look no further. If you are looking to do offsite work or fill an office with inexpensive licenses the Full MyChip 4.0 package is your product. From what I have seen in this tool, I am very impressed and ICLO will be using it to train future layout designers for the industry. The layout designers will be using a tool that looks to have a promising future.

We have not even touched the DRC and LVS capabilities of this tool. We will look at that in our full review.

ICLO