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  3. How to resurrect Virtuoso schematic and export

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How to resurrect Virtuoso schematic and export

AsicMax
AsicMax over 3 years ago

I have Virtuoso schematics of a "digital" design (down to transistor level) I created 10 years ago, and last looked at 5 years ago. That represents the only times I've tried to run Virtuoso in the last 10 years. The installation I had been using had third party simulators whose licenses are no longer available, so cannot run. I was wanting to eventually export them to verilog (and lose all the work done on the pretty schematics, but such is life,) which would be more useful in the long run. I checked and I have access to licenses for Virtuoso_Schematic_Editor_L, *XL, Virtuoso_ADE_Assembler, *Explorer, *MMSIM_Lk, and a bunch of others. In Linux I tried executing "icfb" like I used to but that doesn't work. "virtuoso" executes but it doesn't look anything like I remember. I tried looking through the documentation, but nothing tells me where the "on-off" switch is, so I feel really stupid. I found a Cadence "Virtuoso Schematic Editor Tutorial" for version 5.1.41, July 2007 online, but it too references "icfb".  Once I get the design open, the exporting may still be a challenge because it looks like the export to SystemVerilog requires a special license. I currently have access to "IC" version v6.1.7. (IC06.17.703). Thanks for any suggestions.

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  • ShawnLogan
    ShawnLogan over 3 years ago

    Dear AsicMax,

    AsicMax said:
    I was wanting to eventually export them to verilog (and lose all the work done on the pretty schematics, but such is life,) which would be more useful in the long run. I checked and I have access to licenses for Virtuoso_Schematic_Editor_L, *XL, Virtuoso_ADE_Assembler, *Explorer, *MMSIM_Lk, and a bunch of others. In Linux I tried executing "icfb" like I used to but that doesn't work. "virtuoso" executes but it doesn't look anything like I remember.

    I am sure I am not the "best" one to provide a thorough. complete, and totally correct recommendation AsicMax! Nonetheless, I do recall making the transition to IC6 from IC5.1.41. The issue, as I recall, is not simply importing the 5.1.41 schematics into a working version of IC 6.1. The entire database structure for the schematics changed to Open Access in IC 6.1. Hence, as I recall once again, initially a conversion process was required to change the IC 5.1.41 schematics from its data format to one consistent with Open Access. Once the databased conversion was completed, the schematics could then be read and opened in IC6.1.

    I did find a reference to the process on the Cadence On-line Support site at URL:

    https://support.cadence.com/apex/ArticleAttachmentPortal?id=a1Od0000000nadxEAA&pageName=ArticleContent

    In reviewing the documentation it provides links to, I found the following clause:

    Converting CDB Data

    Support for the cdb2oa translator was removed from IC6.1.8 ISR13. If you still require to migrate design data from CDB to OpenAccess, contact Cadence Customer Support to discuss how to proceed.

    Hence, I think you many need to contact Cadence Customer Support as the migration tool I seem to recall for the schematic database in IC5.1.41 "cdb2oa" is no longer included in installations of IC6.1.8 ISR13 and beyond.

    As noted in my first sentence, I am positive others who monitor this forum can likely provide more - and potentially more accurate - information than I. I just thought I might tell you what I recall in case your need some help right away!

    Shawn

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