I want to know the forum's view about the Openaccess. Is it anywhere near to becoming the standard data model for EDA tools. Is there anyone:

- Writing new tools on Openaccess
- Porting exting tools to Openaccess
- Developing IP in Openaccess format

Regards,
Umesh

Umesh,

There is a lot of EDA vendor activity in OpenAccess right now. Ciranova released PyCell Studio as a free product for creating OpenAccess PCells earlier this year. OpenAccess versions of both Cadence Virtuoso and Mentor Calibre are coming out over the next couple of months. This combination is particularly powerful, as it should allow Calibre to read the Virtuoso layout database without streaming out to GDSII.

Cadence has also announced new OpenAcccess products including its Precision Router and Physical Verification System (PVS). At DAC in July, other vendors previewed new OpenAccess layout editors, routers and DFM tools which will be available in the near future.

Hi Dave,

Ya, there is activity happening on EDA vendor side with Cadence & Mentor taking the lead. But if I talk to anyone in the IC design community ( Who are going to be the ultimate benefeciery of Openaccess ), they have not even heard of Openaccess and does not seems to be much interested in its development.

Regards,
Umesh

Umesh,

The gating factor for OpenAccess adoption has always been Virtuoso. The production version of VIrtuoso 6.1 on OpenAccess will not be released for another two months. However, hundreds of designers and CAD staff around the world are currently involved with integration and flow development projects.

Check out the user papers here:

http://www.si2.org/?page=680
http://www.si2.org/?page=613

WIth Virtuoso going to OpenAccess, OpenAccess adoption at any company that uses Virtuoso is a matter of when, not if. You will see 80% or more of Virtuoso-based users convert during the next 3-4 years once Virtuoso ships.

Hi Dave,

Thanx for the info.

BTW, we are an EDA startup company based out of India, and have strong Openaccess expertise.

You seems to be associated with Openaccess in some form, which company do you work for ?

Umesh Sisodia
usisodia@circuitsutra.com

Umesh,

Since your August post, Cadence has shipped Virtuoso on OpenAccess, and Mentor has released Calibre on OpenAccess. This means that Calibre can open a Virtuoso database directly, without streaming out to GDSII.

If the design contains SKILL PCells, you can use PCell Xtreme from Ciranova to enable Calibre to read those PCells directly.

This is what people have wanted for years: the ability to take a database directly from one vendor's tools to another vendor's tools without translation.

Dave
Thanx for the update.