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Technology File
The technology file tells Xic all it knows about the layers and
display attributes, as well as being a general source of
initialization information. The name of the file is ``xic_tech'', and an extension .xxx can be added to the name,
so that if Xic is started with the -Txxx option, the
technology file with the extension will be used. For example, ``xic -Ttrw'' would cause Xic to read xic_tech.trw.
It is legitimate to start Xic without reading a technology file, by
using ``xic -T''. In this case, new layers will be assigned as
needed as cells are read in. This can be useful for examining an
undocumented GDSII file, for example. Once the layout has been read
in, new colors and fill styles can be assigned, and the Save
Tech command in the Attributes Menu used to dump an appropriate
technology file for the next time.
The technology file is expected to be found along the library search
path, which can be set with the environment variable XIC_LIB_PATH. The default path is
( . /usr/local/share/xictools/xic/startup ).
The default technology file has been provided by your system
administrator. A personalized version can be generated with the Save Tech command.
The technology file generally begins with comment lines explaining the
process that the file supports. The order of the sections that follow
is rather flexible, though the printer driver blocks should appear
last. It is recommended that one follow the ordering described here,
which is the order used by Xic when generating a technology file,
to be on the safe side. None of the sections is required to exist.
Technology files for XicII and Xiv are simplified, omitting the
sections that apply to unsupported features.
At the top of the file are macro definitions using the Set or
Define keywords, and !set lines for setting global
variables. The introductory part of the file further consists of
optional path specifications. The layer blocks follow, which is where
the core information about the particular technology resides. The
electrical layers are defined first, followed by user-defined design
rules, followed by the physical layer definitions.
The physical layers are followed by the device blocks, where physical
characteristics for device extraction are given. These are followed
by script function definitions. Finally, there is a section
containing display attribute specifiers and other parameters, and the
hard-copy driver parameter blocks.
Long lines can be continued in the technology file by using backslash
continuation. For example, the following would be read as one line:
This a line to be continued, the backslash
\
must be the last character in the line.
The technology file has a macro facility which can be used to simplify
the constructs and to customize the file to a particular variation of
the technology.
The technology file may contain the following keyword/value pair
near the top of the file:
- Technology name
The name can be any character token (no white space allowed)
and gives a name to the technology. This is not directly used by
Xic, but but the name is placed in the macro name space of
the macro preprocessor used when reading various types of input
files, including the device library. The name is displayed in the
status line of the main window, and is part of the information
available for output in scripts and elsewhere.
- DeviceLibrary libname
The libname is the name of a device library file which provides
device outlines for use in schematics. If not given, the name
defaults to ``device.lib''. The libname should be a file
name, without any directory path. A file by that name should be found
in the library search path on program startup.
- ModelLibrary libname
The libname is the name of a model library file which provides
SPICE models for use in SPICE output. If not given, the name defaults
to ``model.lib''. A file by that name should be found in the
library search path on program startup.
- ModelSubdir dirname
The dirname is the name of a subdirectory of the directories of
the library search path, in which are found SPICE model files. All
directories of this name found in the library path will be searched
for SPICE models. If not given, the name defaults to ``models''.
- ReadCds filename
This is part of the CadenceTM compatibility package (see
2.7). The filename is the name of or path to a
design resource or text-mode technology file. The full path should be
given unless the file is in the library search path. This keyword
should appear twice, first for the design resource file, and again for
the (Cadence) technology file, if these are separate files. This will
define the physical layers and attributes such as colors and fill
patterns. Layers defined in the present Xic technology file will
be in addition to these.
- ReadCdsLmap filename
This is part of the CadenceTM compatibility package (see
2.7). The filename is a path to a Virtuoso
layer-mapping file, which provides GDSII layer/datatype numbers for
the layers. This can be used in addition to, and must be called
after, ReadCds. It is used to import the Stream mapping for
the layers.
Subsections
Next: Technology File Comments
Up: File Formats
Previous: File Formats
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Stephen R. Whiteley
2012-04-01