Regarding Virtuoso XL Layout Editor

[findsriharsha]

hi all,

I am designing a residue stage for pipelined adc. I have just finished the simulation phase and now have to do the layout. I have heard about this Virtuoso XL Layout Editor tool. Could someone answer my following questions regarding that.

1. Is this tool availabe for Windows OS.?

2. Right now i am using Mentor graphics tool for layout. Do you think Virtuoso XL Layout Editor has good features than mentor.?

3. If i have already created some layout cells in Mentor, can i import that into Virtuoso XL Layout Editor.

You solutions will be highly appreciated. Thank you[/b]

 

[oermens]

1. No

can't answer 2 i never used it, 3 is probably yes. you should ask on cadence community forum.

 

[findsriharsha]

Thank you so much.. I didnt know that there is a community for cadence. Thanks anyways..!

 

[cop02ia]

Hi,

All layouts should be able to be opened in any layout tool.
Just export/stream out the layout in GDS format ( .gds files are what you pass on to the foundry for tapeout, so they are standard ).
For Cadence community, maybe you can just check out the company's webpage, there's a group for cadence CAD engineers (www.groups.google.com/group/comp.cad.cadence) .

I've never used Mentor graphics for layout editing but I guess the capabilities would be pretty much the same ( BTW, asking this sort of question is easy to start WW3 )

Best regards.

PS: Right now I'm using Mentor's Calibre to run DRC on a layout in Virtuoso.

 

[eezatiee]

Hi...I've experience using both...

1. You can only used in linux/unix environment(or others i'm not sure) but you can used it parallel with ur windows os..

2.most industry used cadence because it can support higher technology IC design much better. and yes, the features better than mentor graphics.

3. Can..but maybe you might lost some information such as net name..etc...

I hope this will help a bit

 

[Mr.dal]

Hi,
I'm PDK guy and give the answer for you.

1. Is this tool availabe for Windows OS.?
==> Windows will be possible. But most users prefer Linux or Unix than Windows.

2. Right now i am using Mentor graphics tool for layout. Do you think Virtuoso XL Layout Editor has good features than mentor.?
==> You use Mentor IC tool. Before I consider Mentor TDK and search the tool list and customer, most users prefer Cadence VXL than Mentor. Currently most of design kits are developed on Cadence environment and design performance is higher than others.

3. If i have already created some layout cells in Mentor, can i import that into Virtuoso XL Layout Editor.
==> Actually, you should use gds format. I guess you want Schematic driven Layout, right? Don't do that. Pcell will be broken and data will be lost.