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  3. How to find "file signature" of design files in Cadence...

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How to find "file signature" of design files in Cadence Virtuoso (schematics, layouts, symbols, etc.)

Cocacola
Cocacola over 3 years ago

Hello colleagues,

I am trying to recover the  lost files (design files such as schematic, layout, symbol) using Cadence Virtuoso IC6.1, I have to determine these "files' signature" for my partner to recover these data.

That is to say, to recover these data, I should know the file signature of the schematics, layouts, symbols of the block that I designs.

Any experience on this, or any hints, recommendations from you are highly appreciated.

Thank you very much!

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  • Andrew Beckett
    Andrew Beckett over 3 years ago

    I have no idea what you mean by this. What is the "file signature" you're talking about?

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  • Cocacola
    Cocacola over 3 years ago in reply to Andrew Beckett

    Hello Andrew,

    The "file signature" means the format of the file/data. As I lost the data (designs), the company (who is helping me ask us to determine the "file signature" of the data that helps them to recover the data better.

    For you reference, please have a quick look: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_file_signatures 

    Thanks a lot!

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  • Andrew Beckett
    Andrew Beckett over 3 years ago in reply to Cocacola

    OK, that's similar to the "magic" numbers used by the UNIX file command.

    I'm not aware of any published information on the magic numbers/signatures for OpenAccess database files. Given that the file format is controlled by Si2, that might be the place to ask. I'll ask a little internally to see if anyone knows.

    BTW, I moved this post into an appropriate forum, since the feedback, suggestions and questions forum is for non-technical questions about the forum system itself, not tools.

    Andrew 

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  • Andrew Beckett
    Andrew Beckett over 3 years ago in reply to Andrew Beckett

    I should say that in general the files have the ".oa" suffix - but just restoring individual files is unlikely to be useful. CellViews contain a collection of related data, and you need the entire co-managed set, not just the main cellView database file.

    Andrew

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  • Cocacola
    Cocacola over 3 years ago in reply to Andrew Beckett

    Thank you Andrew, 

    Because the design data in Cadence IC 6.1.7 (we are using this vision), so all the design files are OpenAccess database files. I do not know which is the best way to achieve the magic number of the whole CellView. At the moment, I just open one design (block) with all of the related cellview (schematic, layout, symbol, etc;) to get their own separated magic number.

    I very appreciate if there is any suggestion. 

    And thanks for moving the thread to the appropriate forum.

    Sincerely,

    Ha

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  • Andrew Beckett
    Andrew Beckett over 3 years ago in reply to Cocacola

    I checked with the R&D responsible for the database, and there's been no discussion about a file signature/magic number for OpenAccess databases (there might have been some challenges anyway because there some info in the database related to whether the data was written on a little-endian or big-endian system). So there is no information about a file signature for such data - apologies. I can say that nobody has ever asked for this before!

    Regards,

    Andrew

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