Research and Open-Source EDA Tools
Abstract: This presentation describes the IC design flow when performing research with open-source, non-academic EDA tools. The tools maintained and develop by Tim are used as examples (e.g., magic, netgen, capiche, open_pdks, and others), but he will discuss other commercial and organizational open-source tools, such as OpenROAD, LibreLane, and others. Tim’s talk is outlined below:
(1) History of open-source EDA tools
(2) Magic's cutting edge (at the time) DRC and parasitic extraction
(3) The Dark Ages of Open-Source EDA
(4) The first open PDK development: Efabless, Google, and SkyWater
(5) Circuit design and synthesis examples: MultiGiG to Raven to today
(6) Magic's extraction revisited: FasterCap and Capiche
(7) Hierarchical R-C extraction with analytical capacitor models
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- ECE Department
- 200 University Ave. W.
- Waterloo, Ontario
- Canada N2L 3G4
- Building: EIT
- Room Number: 3142
Speakers
Tim of Open Circuit Deisgn
Research and Open-Source EDA Tools
Biography:
Tim Edwards is an open-source silicon advocate and principal in the consulting/contracting company Open Circuit Design, which specializes in open-source EDA tool development and custom chip design. He is the developer and maintainer of multiple popular open-source software tools for EDA, including magic (custom layout), netgen (LVS), and open_pdks (PDK compiler). As Senior Vice-President of Analog at Efabless from 2014 to 2025, he was one of the principal developers of the sky130 and gf180MCU open PDKs, and has assisted in the development of IHP’s sg13g2 and sg13cmos5l open PDKs. Tim designed the Efabless "Raven" RISC-V SoC chip in 2018 using an all-open-source tool flow, architected the "Caravel" multi-project harness chip and its derivatives, and ran the "Chipalooza" analog circuit design challenge.
Address:Open Circuit Design, , Baltimore, Maryland, United States