******************* The Partitioning Flow !! ******************* When you specify a Partition in First Encounter the constraint on that chosen part of the design automatically changes to fence and when you commit the partition the constraint changes to a Block. Hard Blocks are Green in color in the standard (not-customized ) Encounter GUI. ************************************** General Steps for Partitioning ************************************** 1. Use the Design Import form (Design --> Design Import) to import the entire design which is to be partitioned. 2. Complete the floorplanning for the top-level design. This includes preplacing all the modules that will become partitions in the top level. 3. Use the Specify Partition (Partition --> Specify Partition) form to choose the modules that will become partitions. 4. Use the Placement form (Place --> Place) to run Amoeba placement with Low Effort selected to save CPU time. 5. If the design requires inserting partition feedthrough buffers you should do it at this stage. This step is optional for a design with routing channels and is a must for channelles designs. You would want to run Trial Route before inserting feedthrough buffers especially if you use the showPtnWireX command to generate the selected nets file for the partition feedthrough buffer insertion. 6. If the design requires adding buffers to a partition or allocation placement resources (Placement Isands) for top level buffer placemnt do it at this stage. 7. Use the Trial Route form (Route --> Trial Route) to run Trial Route the partition program uses the trial route data to generate partition pins in the proper location. 8. Use the Partition form (Partition --> Partition), and select Perform Pin Assignment to generate pins for each partition and to convert the partition modules to blocks. 9. Use the Save Partition form (Design --> Save --> Partition) to save the partition. 10. According to design requirements you can also a)Add Partition Pin guides to direct pin placement according to nets allocated to a Pin guide b)Add Partition Pin Blockages to stop allocation of pins on specific metal layers. c)Add Partition Rectangular Cuts to cut the partition to change the shape of a partition to rectilinear . d)Add Partition Feedthrough to insert physical feedthroughs on top of the partition. Note: After the design is partitioned, discard the placement and routing data from the procedure. Cadence recommends starting a new session in the saved partition directories to complete your design work. ************************************** To stitch the partition back at top level ************************************** 1. Import the entire design from the top-level directory that was created or updated when you saved the partition. If any portion of the design (top-level or any partition) was changed by running scan optimization, CTS, or IPO, the changed netlist of the entire design is imported, not the original netlist. This changed netlist is usually created by concatenating each of the partition netlists to the top-level netlist. To do this, use a text editor to manually edit it, or use the Design Import form to create a single Verilog netlist of the entire design 2. Load the top-level floorplan used to partition the entire design 3. Set the Partition forms with Perform Pin Assignment deselected, and partition the design. 4. Load the top-level placement data from the top-level directory. 5. Choose Design --> Load --> Partition. 6. This opens the Load Partition form. In the Load Partition form, enter the directory name where the partition data was saved. 7. Click OK. *******************