Installation of Synopsys EDA tools

Most of the EDA tools used in the VLSI Industry are designed for use in UNIX operating system. These tools must require licenses to work which can be purchased from EDA Companies or a company that is authorized for sales and supports. Synopsys tools can be purchased either from www.synopsys.com or from authorized sales and support partner www.eigen.in (in India). 

Once you buy the tools, they provide login credentials on their website. Using the login credential the licenses and tools can be downloaded to your local machine/server. We can also update the licenses whenever it gets expired and we can also download the latest release of any tools from the website using the login credential. For Synopsys tools, we need to login into their official website https://solvnet.synopsys.com to download the tools and licenses.

Generally, EDA companies provide support to install the tools and help in case of any issue, but it's better to know the installation process of tools and basic debugging to manage the tools in our own hands. The following section is going to describe how to download and install the Synopsys tools in your local machine/server.

Step-1: Download the synopsys installer, SCL and tools setup files

Go to https://solvnet.synopsys.com and login with your login credentials.

Solvenet Login

After login, you need to download:

1. Synopsys Installer (An application which provinde nice gui interface to install the tools)
2. SCL (Synopsys Common Licensing)
3. All the EDA tools which you have license and want to install.
4. Synopsys license (Incase it is not set already)

Step-2: Launch the synopsys installer GUI

Step-2.1: Open the terminal with root prevelage and go to the directory where synopsys installer is downloaded.

Step-2.2: Provide the execute permission to the synopsysInstaller.

chmod 755 synopsysInstaller_V3.2.run

Step-2.3: Run the following commands to unpack the installer ( -d switch is for creating a directory)

 ./synopsysInstaller_V3.2.run -d installer

Step-2.4: Go to installer directory created in above step and if you see the contents, it will look like. 

cd installer

ls installer 

 

Step-2.5: Now we have to launch the installer in GUI mode by following command.

./installer -gui 

Step-3: Provide the source location (installation setup directory) and destination location (directory where you want to install the tool)

Step-3.1: After above step a GUI will be opened up. Now when we click to start, it will ask to site ID which is provided by synopsys when you purchase the tool.

Step-3.2: Next we need to provide the source location where the tools is kept which we want to install.

Step-3.3: Next we need to provide the destination location where we want to install the tool.

Step-3.4: Next we need to accept and proceed, after that installation will be started.

 In the same way, we can install all the tools.Once we done with installation we need to configure the license and set a path of all the tools in form of a bashrc/cshrc file. That will be explained in seprate article.

Thanks

 

 

EDA tools in ASIC Industry

  We have noticed that when a person enters into the ASIC industry, He/She comes across various EDA tools of different EDA companies.  It's natural for experienced professionals that the name of tools/company easily gets remembered, but for the freshers, they often forget the name because it's new for them. It has also been noticed that in interviews sometimes interviewers ask the tool's name on which candidate has worked just to get the idea that which areas they have explored. Although remembering the tool's name does not define the level of intelligence of the candidate but of course, if you are not able to tell the name of the tools on which you have worked, will not give a good impression before the interviewer. It is always good to keep some information beyond your initial experience. For example, one might have worked only one STA tool say primeTime, but it's good to know what are other tools being used in Industry. 

This article will let you know the major EDA tools which are being widely used in the ASIC industry for different purposes. Each tool has some specialty over others but that is not a part of this article. We are not going to compare them. Here we will learn the popular tools used in ASIC Industries for various purposes and their company name. 

Kidly note that there are only a handful of EDA companies exists in the industry because If we look over the history of EDA company, we will find that there are lots of mergers and acquisitions had happened in this sector in past. Many new companies have come with their new innovative tool in past but somehow those have been acquired by the big players of this sector, and finally, the number of major EDA companies in the industry is very handful namely Cadence Design System, Synopsys, Mentor Graphics (now Siemens) and few more.

 Here we will categorize the major tools and their vendor as per their utility. I request to my readers there are lots of updates going on, many new tools beings launched every year, Therefore if I missed something important keep adding those in the comments, I will keep updating the list.

	Purposes	Tool	company
	RTL Simulations	VCS	Synopsys
		Xcelium	Cadence Design System
		NC-Sim	Cadence Design System
		QuestaSim	Mentor Graphics (Now Siemens)
		ModelSim	Mentor Graphics (Now Siemens)
		ISE Simulator	Xilinx
		Incisive	Cadence Design System
	RTL Signoff	SpyGlass	Synopsys
		JasperGold	Cadence Design System
	Logic Synthesis	Fusion Compiler (RTL-to-GDSII solution)	Synopsys
		Design Compiler	Synopsy
		Genus Synthesis Solution	Cadence Design System
		RTL Compiler (upgraded to Genus)	Cadence Design System
	LEC	Conformal	Cadence Design System
		Formality	Synopsys
	Place and Route	Innovus	Cadence Design System
		IC Compiler (ICC)	Synopsys
		Encounter (upgraded to Innovus)	Cadence Design System
	RC Extraction	Quantus RC Extraction	Cadence Design System
		StarRC	Synopsys
	STA	primeTime	Synopsys
		Tempus	Cadence Design System
		Tweaker	Dorado (Now a part of Synopsys)
		Encounter Timing System (ETS)	Cadence Design System
	IR Analysis	Voltus	Cadence Design System
		RedHawk	Ansys
	Pyhsical Verification (Fill, DRC, LVS, Antenna, PERC)	Calibre	Mentor Graphics (Now Siemens)
		IC Validator	Synopsys
		Pegasus	Cadence Design System
		PVS (Physical Verification System)	Cadence Design System
	Power simulation	Jules	Cadence Design System

There are some other useful tools here.

	Tools	Used for	Company Name
	OrCAD	PCB Design, Digital Design	Cadence Design System
	Spectre	SPICE Simulation	Cadence Design System
	HSPICE	SPICE Simulation	Synopsys
	Virtuoso	Schematic and Layout Editor	Cadence Design System
	Custom Designer	Schematic and Layout Editor	Synopsys
	Abstract	Abstract generation (.lef)	Cadence Design System
	Custom Waveview	Waveform viewer of simulated result	Synopsys
	Sentaurus SDevice	Device Simulator	Synopsys
	Sentaurus SProcess	Processes editor	Synopsys
	Sentaurus Sedit	GUI of device editor	Synopsys
	Svisual	visual tool for device and waveform	Synopsys
	3D TCAD	3D Device simulation	Synopsys
	Silvaco TCAD	TCAD Tool	Silvaco
	ICCAP	Device characterization/Testing	KeySight
	Liberate	Library characterization (.lib)	Cadence Design System
	LT Spice	A free SPICE simulator	Linear Technology

Thank You! 

If you feel, Something important is missing from this list, feel free to comment.