the best ic design layout tools ?

[samuel]

virtuoso is very great!

 

[samuel]

L-edit is easy and convenient!

 

[blue_orangee]

I agree with the on up.

 

[pyth2004]

I use Cadence Virtuoso too

 

[cadb0y]

Difference of ASIC and FPGA is ASIC is custom layout. You custom layout ASIC then you send to fabricate. FPGA is many pre-fab gates with many fuses or anti-fuses. You load compile code into, vary like firmware and it program. Some FPGA load from prom everytime on power up, other "burn" once.

 

[Analog_starter]

If you mean analog layout tools, I recommend Laker, especially Laker-L3.

 

[alanbrooke]

Haha, Compare Virtuso to Laker, The virtuso is so poor, and the Laker is very nice!

 

[Jackwang]

Cadence and ADS are both a good choice.
I pefer to ADS for IC design.
for I think its function is more powful.

 

[konqueror]

well i use cadence virtuoso layout tool.
its a very good tool .In my
view for beginners magic is
the best as its very easy to
layout.

 

[tlihu]

Laker is very good but it is only for drawing the layout. For LVS and DRC, Calibre from Mentor is my choice.

 

[qy79]

most use Cadence Virtuoso

 

[qslazio]

ICFB package is enough for me

 

[Nonsense]

Hey, guys,

When we talk over such subjects, we should never forget the cost and effectiveness.

Yes, Cadence, Mentor, ADS are the first class, but small companies can hardly affort them.

The most cost-effective is the best.

 

[philiphsu]

mmm... I feel laker is the best one for me...

 

[xxf_86]

Mentor graphic have some very useful tools such as eldo

 

[dini]

Hi,

Could you specify which tool is more dedicated to layout and testchip design for analog devices?
Which one is more cost effective?

Thanks.

 

[chinito]

for custom layout, virtuoso is the best. I don't know anything about standard cell stuff.

 

[andy1]

I used to use Cadence: PLE for memory and DLE for standard CMOS.

 

[rakko]

A FPGA is a collection of different types of cells/ and/nanad/or/nor/not/flip flops. You get a fixed number of each gate on the die and you program the wiring of these gates with your FPGA software. FPGAs are limited in their speed and usually can not work faster than 150mhz in practice. One other drawback of FPGA is that they are very expensive for example one high end altera FPGA costs over $1500.00. The only advantage of FPGA is that they do not carry an NRE charge.
ASICs on the other hand are very fast up to 4 gigahertz so far and getting faster. In ASIC you select a die size and usually a fixed number of gates fits on this die but there are no restrictions as to what types of cells you are allowed to use on this die. ASICs are much more flexible than FPGA. Basically today if you are a hobbyiest or you are prototyping a demo board you will use FPGAs. In all other cases you use ASICs.

 

[harryzhu]

I'm using virtuoso and run verify with calibre, I heard Laker, but never use it, hearing of a good full-customed layout tools