Some questions about Synopsys IC Compiler and Cadence Virtuoso

[Yikun]

I am new in the layout design, so I have some questions about the tool.

What's the difference between IC Compiler and Cadence Virtuoso ? Some said ICC if for digital layout, Virtuoso is for Analogy design, that's all?

The second thing, if the ICC can be used for manual design, if can, what kind library needed ?

Thanks very much.

 

[jrwebsterco]

ICC is primarily a timing-driven auto-place&route tool for use with standard-cell libraries (sets of pre-made logic gates that make-up a digital design).
Everything ICC does is based around this goal - it is not the right tool for custom analog layout of individual transistors, resistors, etc.
And for manual design, it's GUI is not designed for hand-drawing fancy resistor or transistor patterns and so on.
HOWEVER, because of all this abstraction, ICC is very good for automating the layout of HUGE multi-million gate designs with complex digital timing-requirements auto-affecting the place and route results, and for auto-creating clock trees and power-rails and so on.

Virtuoso is instead a true full-custom layout tool, and does not have a built-in digital timing analyzer and other things.
(Cadence instead offers its (SOC) Encounter tool for std-cell place & route.)

Synopsys does have some full-custom layout tools, but they are not established with most larger analog IC design companies, and I personally know nothing about them.
(see here: **broken link removed** )

Finally, note that mixed-signal ASICs will very often use Virtuoso to layout the standard-cells and analog blocks, and then all of these blocks can be assembled together in ICC as abstracted cells (since ICC does not care too much about all the details inside those cells).
Conversely, ICC can place & route a digital-core block, which can then be dropped into an analog layout using Virtuoso.

You might want to web-search some of the terms I've mentioned to find more background info on them, since they are key to the differences.
(e.g. "standard-cell" versus "full-custom analog")

 

[Yikun]

Thanks very much, that's really helpful.