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  3. PCELL eval failed, how to debug missing functions?

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PCELL eval failed, how to debug missing functions?

bpdegnan
bpdegnan over 11 years ago

Hello everyone. I'm trying to debug a strange PCELL evaluation error. I had a bunch of layout up and working, but 3 design kit revisions later, I have a bunch of PCELL evaluation errors instead of transistors. I'm sure that this has to do with how my kit is configurued, and I'd like to track it down out of interest. I've tracked down somethings, but I'm not completely familiar with the "internal" gears of Virtuouso. The PCELL error is:

*WARNING* (DB-270001): Pcell evaluation for cmos14soi/nmos/layout has the following error(s):
*WARNING* (DB-270002): ("eval" 0 t nil ("*Error* eval: undefined function" dbSetShapeColor))
*WARNING* (DB-270003): Error kept in "errorDesc" property of the label "pcellEvalFailed" on layer/purpose "marker/error" in the submaster.
Great, so I know that the error is the dbSetShapeColor call. I've found that in the kit using grep:
neko:/kits/cmos14soi/relIBM/cdslib$ grep -r dbSetShapeColor *
Binary file cmos14soi/cmos14soi121.att matches
Binary file cmos14soi/x_single_shape/layout/layout.oa matches
Binary file cmos14soi/cmos14soi610.att matches
Binary file cmos14soi/64bit/cmos14soi121.att matches
Binary file cmos14soi/64bit/cmos14soi610.att matches

So, I now know that my missing function call resides in those .att files. Is there anyway for me to check which/if those .att files are "loaded"? 

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  • theopaone
    theopaone over 11 years ago

     Not killed but made the PDK developer ill by requiring more work as it requires additional testing on multiple releases. The process cmos14soi is probably 14nm so it may require the advanced release capability.

    There are at several ways around this:

    Print a warning and cause a pcell evaluation error.

    Test for release and skip the code if it is not the required release.

    Encapsulate the release specific code in a function and have a version of that function for the advanced release and a no-op function for the rest of us.

    Write pseudo APIs for the missing functionality that only get loaded if the function name is not callable.

    Ted

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  • theopaone
    theopaone over 11 years ago

     Not killed but made the PDK developer ill by requiring more work as it requires additional testing on multiple releases. The process cmos14soi is probably 14nm so it may require the advanced release capability.

    There are at several ways around this:

    Print a warning and cause a pcell evaluation error.

    Test for release and skip the code if it is not the required release.

    Encapsulate the release specific code in a function and have a version of that function for the advanced release and a no-op function for the rest of us.

    Write pseudo APIs for the missing functionality that only get loaded if the function name is not callable.

    Ted

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