Hi Brian,
On 08/16/18 20:04, Brian Callahan wrote:
[...]
At this point, the only thing I would change is the pkg/DESCR. As it is,
you can combine the first two sentences into one, something like:
graywolf is a fork of TimberWolf 6.3.5, a placement tool used in VLSI
design.
But the middle paragraph of the DESCR doesn't really tell me what this
is or what it does, just that it used to be a project developed at Yale.
Maybe instead that's a spot to explain what a placement tool is or does.
The last bit is fine, it's likely useful especially for those who have
used the original software in the past.
Good point; I tried to rephrase a bit the general description of
TinderWolf as per its authors' presentation in the IEEE Journal of
Solid-State Circuits [1] and mix it with the old middle paragraph (I
would preserve the note about the open source availability of the
software, which is the root cause of graywolf fork), ending up with the
following:
[... snip ...]
graywolf is a fork of TimberWolf 6.3.5, a placement tool used in VLSI
design.
TimberWolf is an integrated set of placement (and routing) programs,
based on the general combinatorial optimization technique known
as simulated annealing. Its last open-source distribution by Yale
University is suitable for standard cell, macro/custom cell, and
gate-array professional-grade placement.
The main improvement in graywolf is that the build process is more
streamlined and that it behaves as a normal tool - you can call it
from anywhere and no environment variables must be set first.
graywolf is mainly used together with Qflow
(http://opencircuitdesign.com/qflow/).
[... snip ...]
If you think we need a more detailed explanation of what placement step
does within VLSI design flow (I think it is superfluous, but I would not
object), we could also add the definition from Wikipedia [2]:
[... snip ...]
graywolf is a fork of TimberWolf 6.3.5, a placement tool used in VLSI
design.
Placement is the portion of the physical design flow that assigns exact
locations for various circuit components within the chip's core area.
TimberWolf is an integrated set of placement (and routing) programs,
based on the general combinatorial optimization technique known
as simulated annealing. Its last open-source distribution by Yale
University is suitable for standard cell, macro/custom cell, and
gate-array professional-grade placement.
The main improvement in graywolf is that the build process is more
streamlined and that it behaves as a normal tool - you can call it
from anywhere and no environment variables must be set first.
graywolf is mainly used together with Qflow
(http://opencircuitdesign.com/qflow/).
[... snip ...]
Let me know what you think.
All the best
[1] https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1052337/
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placement_(EDA)
--
Alessandro DE LAURENZIS
[mailto:[email protected]]
Web: http://www.atlantide.t28.net
LinkedIn: http://it.linkedin.com/in/delaurenzis
