[755-1] HW3 Free Advice (fwd)

[Brian Pan <bpan@cs.wisc.edu>]

Some friendly advice for tackling full custom layouts, take it or leave
it. 

1. Start today.  Judging from past projects of similar size, HW3 is
probably going to take 20-25 hours when it's all said and done, especially
if you're not familiar with custom layouts.  Routing on DA can be done
with a bus but in IC, you have to lay out each wire- that's 3x19 wires
just for data ports.  And as with most design projects, verification,
debugging and simulations take as long as the "design" part. 

2. Plan ahead.  Planning the design is important in keeping sanity and
staying away from the 25 hour end of things.  Hierarchical design does not
mean you don't have to think about global routing when you do a cell. 
Sometimes the smallest, most compact cell means chaos for global routing. 
You almost have to design globally and cells at the same time. 

3. Be efficient.  Use the Expert Edit panel- the Easy Edit panel is too
limited.  Use the middle mouse button strokes (press and drag a question
mark with the middle mouse button for help).  Use the layer palette
(Other->Layers->Show Layer Palette...).  It lets you switch between layers
quickly and make layers visible/invisible quickly.  Use hotkeys
(Other->Hotkeys). 

4. Have fun.  Follow these rules and you will have a blessed encounter
with Mentor Graphics IC Station.  Enjoy. 


Brian Pan, panb@cae.wisc.edu

Electrical Engineering University of Wisconsin-Madison
http://www.cae.wisc.edu/~panb