Homework 3 - notes

1. Where to put Standard cells:

• Method 1: Copy the standard cells that you are going to use into your working directory.
• Method 2: Copy the whole standard cell library into somewhere of your home directory, where you have write permission. In Magic, use command ":addpath  your_std_cell_lib_path" to set standard cell library search path.

2. Getcell or dump:

• Both are OK. I suggest to use "getcell".
• For "getcell", relabel the ports you are interested in.
• For "dump", please be aware that you might have duplicated labels in your layout where you don't want them connected but they do connected together because of the same label name. Use "extract unique" for extraction. Check its usage by command ":help extract" in Magic.

3. IRSIM Simulation:

• Set "Vdd!" to "h", not "Vdd". Check what's the notations of power supply and ground in your ".sim" file. As you've experienced, IRSIM is very strict on format! Type extract net names in your ".sim" files. The technology files for 0.25um technology can be downloaded here: tsmc025.prm

4. HSpice simulation:

• Use model file t5bk_params.inc
• HSpice simulation will be very time consumming because of the complexity of the circuit.