softworks 0.4.0

Description:

softworks 0.4.0

Softworks





Software and documentation view types in the Cadence Virtuoso IC design environment.
Overview
Softworks defines cell view types for documentation and software views in
the Cadence Virtuoso integrated circuit design environment. It supports
automated design of circuit IP and makes it accessible to the average designer.
It is an open-source library written in SKILL++ and built on the
Virtue SKILL and Python design automation framework.

The software views make automated design more accessible to both the average
IC design engineer and those with software experience. It allows the
tool interface to be simplified to a simple template run script where the
inputs are defined in a dictionary and passed to an API function.
The documentation views support the development of IP libraries by attaching
the documentation directly to the cells. This makes it easier to communicate
the performance of the cell and keep track of it.
Custom Cell Views



View Type
Extensions
Editors
Description




pdf
*.pdf
xpdf
A pdf Document


ppt
*.pptx
open office
A power point presentation


Excel
*.xlsx *.xlsm
open office
A spreadsheet


html
*.html
firefox
A web page


module
*.py *.pyc
VS Code, gedit
A Python module


notebook
*.ipynb
VS Code, gedit
A Python Jupyter notebook


markdown
*.md
VS Code, gedit
A markdown document. VS code enables editing and rendering


yaml
*.yml
VS Code, gedit
A yaml data file


skill
*.il
Skill IDE, gedit
A SKILL code file


skillpp
*.ils
Skill IDE, gedit
A SKILL++ code file



Creating a New View
A new blank document view can be created by using the standard "File -> New -> Cell View..." selection.
Then some view types will create a new cellview directly based on a template file while the
documentation views will open a GUI. This GUI has the option to either create the new cell view from a template or
import an existing file to the cell view.

License
Softworks is MIT licensed, see the LICENSE file for more details.
Installation


Make sure Virtuoso IC6.1.8 (though it may work with other IC6 versions)
is installed


Make sure the following programs are installed to support editing the
associated views:

Visual Studio Code / vscode
which code
Libre office (pptx, xlsx)
which libre
xpdf (PDF)
which xpdf
firefox (HTML)
which firefox



Install by following
Virtue framework installation instructions.


Install Softworks using the same method as Virtue. If skyworks wasn't a
part of your initial environment definition file when creating the environment,
then you can install them after the fact:


Conda:
conda activate virtuoso # or your environment's name
conda install softworks

Pip:
pip install softworks