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Review of IC Graph & Calibre |
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| Author: jrollins | |
| Review Date: 7/12/2000 | |
| Tool Expereince: 8 years | |
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I was a Mentor V7/V8 Sysadmin/Cad Manager/Layout Lead for about 8 years, so I thought I would post my impressions of the Mentor tool set.
With the exception of Calibre, the Mentor custom IC tools seem to be all but ecplipsed by Cadence, but I found the tools to be quite capable.
ICGraph, the polygon pusher, in conjuction with AMPLE, the C-like programming (it can be compiled) language, can be made to do almost anything. It is fast (display is much faster than Cadence on identical hardware), highly customizable, and very powerful. The only real problem is that the user will need to write a fair amount of code in order to bind it's most powerful functions to menus and hot keys. For example, menu items like OUTLINE STRETCH and SELECT EDGE need some tweaking to make them more powerful. For my part, I re-wrote the entire menu structure with AMPLE and liked the tool much better than when we first received it.
I particularly liked the transcript feature, which basically gives you the ability to see exactly what commands and AMPLE scripts are executed as you run them, making it easy to learn the syntax of both the CLI and AMPLE.
The schematic editor, Design Architect, is almost identical to ICGraph in command syntax and appearance, and it uses AMPLE as well. I once wrote an AMPLE script to program a static ROM in ICGraph, and was actually able to use the same AMPLE script to program that schematic (from a customer-cupplied HEX input file) with only minor edits.
In conjunction with Calibre, ICGraph and Design Architect link together very nicely, allowing crossprobing between layout and schematic either in real time using SDL or after extraction when in full custom mode.
Calibre itself is an amazing tool. It is amazingly fast, even in "flat" mode, and has the most powerful boolean/extraction tools I've ever seen. It is an "edge-based" tool, which might be a little counter-intuitive for some, but once you get a handle on it you'll find you can do most anything. We were using it to do everything from DRC/LVS to satisfying metal density rules by having it automatically add dummy-metal, mask biasing, process-migration, etc.
The Mentor tools do entail a steep learning curve, like the Cadence toolsset, when you want to move beyond the "factory" setup, and they are expensive. In general I found their support to be good, but nothing like ICED (who will send you a new executable in a day or so if a bug is found). They don't seem to have the Cadence "My way or the Highway" attitude (but then, they don't own the market, either), and they will offer you good support when you are first setting up the tools. Overall, I had a good experience with Mentor.
James Rollins
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