Release of IC614

 I just installed IC614 under linux and when I ran virtuoso I noticed that it did not load anything from my .cdsinit, it overwrote my cds.lib with a template, and commands which i type in the virtuoso prompt do not show up in CIW or get processed. Any ideas?

 Hi Andrew,

 Yes we have a site startup script for environment configuration. The CDS variables which are set are: 

CDS_LAYER_POOL_SIZE=49
CDS_TOP_DIR=/CMC/tools/cadence
CDS_LIC_FILE=...
CDS_LICENSE_FILE=...
CDS_LOG_VERSION=pid
CDSQ=/CMC/tools/cadence/IC-5141/tools/dfII/local
CDS_VHDL=/CMC/tools/cadence/IC-5141/tools/leapfrog
CDS_LOG_FILE=/home/student1/guest2/CDSlogs/CDS.log.29064
CDS_Netlisting_Mode=Analog
CDS_LOAD_ENV=CSF
CDS_VPCD_TLIB=...
CDS_BIN=virtuoso
CDS_HOME=/CMC/tools/cadence/IC-6.1.4
CDS=/CMC/tools/cadence/IC-6.1.4

(CDS_BIN is set within the script according to which kit is invoked, some older kits still use IC5141).

and the script finally executes

doCds="$CDS_DIR $CDS_TECH $CDS_BIN $CDS_ALIAS $CDS_LOG $CDS_DISPLAY &"
echo
eval $doCds

 I noticed in the log file that some new context files are being loaded on startup, namely:

\o Loading menuBuilder.cxt 

\o Loading relXpert.cxt 

Could one of these files be causing the problem?

 I sort of found a "fix". The first time I run IC614 in a clean directory, no menus which are created by the PDK context files show up. When I go to Library Path Editor and merge the cds.lib with the lib.defs which comes with my pdk, save it locally to ./cds.lib, close virtuoso and rerun, the menus are there. Can't really explain why the two are related, any idea Andrew?

 edit:

does not having a cds.lib in my working dir cause this to happen by default? I built a new folder and instead of naming the library file lib.defs i called it cds.lib and everything worked normally.

 Edit #2:

I guess if I had bothered to read the f...... manual I would have figured this out earlier:

Support for lib.defs Library Definition File Removed
The only supported format now is cds.lib. A new CdsLib plugin (release 31.09) allows for
OpenAccess applications to read cds.lib files, where previously they required to use
lib.defs. For more information about the CdsLib plugin, see Migrating lib.defs to cds.lib
Using the CdsLib Plugin in the Virtuoso Design Environment Migration Guide.

I was only using lib.defs, I suppose that when virtuoso didn't find a cds.lib in my working directory it copied the template.

I was just about to reply, and then saw your subsequent edits (note these edits do not get sent as email notifiers and are only visible on the web site).

The whole cds.lib vs lib.defs file was a continual bone of contention because it was just not possible to get the things to stay in sync - especially when lib.defs has less capability than cds.lib, and both can be edited in text editors, so which was the master?

So we decided to move back to cds.lib and use this plugin approach so that other OA tools can use our cds.lib instead of lib.defs.

In general I've been advising people in earlier IC6 versions to just use cds.lib (i.e. do "setenv DD_USE_LIBDEFS NO") to avoid confusion.

Anyway, glad you got to the bottom of it.

As for the menus, I don't really know what that's got to do with it, unless the menus are only accessed by a particular library being in your cds.lib and the menus being set up by the libInit.il within that library (maybe?). It sounds a bit odd.

Regards,

Andrew.

Hi Andrew,

Andrew Beckett said:

(note these edits do not get sent as email notifiers and are only visible on the web site).

I had this in the back of my mind while editing but thought it's better not to bombard people who subscribe via email every time one of my brain cells turns on. Usually when all 4 of them are on together they tell me to RTFM anyways.

Andrew Beckett said:

As for the menus, I don't really know what that's got to do with it, unless the menus are only accessed by a particular library being in your cds.lib and the menus being set up by the libInit.il within that library (maybe?). It sounds a bit odd.

You're right on that one, the libInit.il was indeed in one of the folders defined by cds.lib (or rather, lib.defs).

Thanks,

Tarek