How to set a stop point per cell for a config view using SKILL

Fahmy,

The CPH APIs are for physConfigs (with Configure Physical Hierarchy - used to drive the mapping from schematic to layout in Virtuoso Layout Suite XL) and are a (sort of) superset of the HDB (hierarchical database APIs). They shouldn't be used with config views.

You'd use hdbSetObjBindRule with a rule of list('hdbcStopRule t) to add a stop point; the document describes how to do this for a cell, an instance or an occurrence.

For binding to open you'd use list('hdbcBindingRule list(nil nil nil)) as the rule. 

See SKILL: How to create a config view, define the top cell, declare the global bindings, set stop/binding rule etc. Bind a SPICE source file, Specify Reference Verilog, Mark as External HDL text etc.

Andrew

Hi Andrew, 

Thanks for the prompt reply, 

I noticed that when a cell or instance is marked as a stop point, the subckt definition is removed from the netlist which is expected, and the instances definition points to a generic subckt/model keyword "subcircuit" , so including an external file with the definition of the subckt does not work, and with multiple stop points the definitions get ambiguous as they all point to "subcircuit" is this the intended behavior ? 

Thanks, 

Fahmy 

Fahmy,

This is due to what you have in the Spectre simulation information in the CDF for that cell. It has to know how to netlist it - what order the terminals are in, and what to call the component - you can change that in the CDF easily.

Regards,

Andrew

going through the cellviews I noticed that some have the component name blank and other have "subcircuit" in it , I am not sure what is the reason behind that, but if I update the component name in the CDF , where is the information saved , I noticed already that if I change the CDF simulation info in one virtuoso session, it is not visible in a different virtuoso session launched in the same directory, also I can modify the CDF simulation information for read only libraries, so could you help me understand what is the scope of the modifications in this case 

Thanks, 

Fahmy 

If you only change the "Effective" CDF, then it's not saved to disk. You need to update the Base CDF.

As a result, you can't fix this for readonly libraries because it needs to be on disk so that even background netlisting (e.g. in ADE when you are simulating more than one point or have single run optimisation turned off) can pick up the change. If you have an external subckt you're trying to add to simulation this way (and I'm not sure why you'd do it this way rather than picking a view in Virtuoso) you have to start taking care of ensuring the terminal orders match in the CDF too - if they don't match the external file, then it will not be hooked up correctly.

Andrew