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2007년 12월 20일 목요일

Open-source EDA toolkit targets Unix

출처: http://www.scdsource.com/article.php?id=62

Open-source EDA toolkit targets Unix

By Richard Goering, 12/18/07

Using open-source EDA software today may require a difficult porting job to one's platform of choice. To ease that burden, startup ReyesSoft has launched the OpenEDA Toolkit 1.0, which ports popular open-source EDA software programs to several Unix-based platforms.

The toolkit is the first public offering from ReyesSoft (Fairfax, Calif.), a consulting firm run by Ed Immenschuh, founder and president. Immenschuh primarily has a software background, although he's worked with hardware engineers and written Verilog code. Through these experiences, he became aware of the high costs of commercial EDA software.

"I used to work for Silicon Graphics, and one of my friends tried to start up a network hardware company," Immenschuh said. "One problem was the cost of the tools. They were really, really expensive, anywhere from $20,000 to $40,000 per user."

While there are a number of open-source EDA programs, they're written mainly for Linux, Immenschuh said. If someone wants to run such a program on a Unix platform, they may have to download the source and do a "build" themselves. Not all Unix machines offer the full capability for doing so. "Some ports can be simple, while others can be hours long," he said. "There are always bugs, or something wrong with the compiler, or something else that prevents things from building."

The OpenEDA Toolkit ports open-source EDA software to Solaris Sparc and x86, Apple OS X 10.4, HP-UX 11i, Cygwin for Microsoft Windows, and Linux. The following open-source software packages are included:

Alliance CAD, which includes a VHDL compiler, simulator, logic synthesis, and automatic IC placement and routing.
Icarus Verilog, a command-line Verilog compiler for logic simulation and synthesis.
gEDA, an ongoing project that currently includes schematic capture, attribute management, bill of materials (BOM) generation, netlisting, analog and digital simulation, and printed circuit board (PCB) layout.
FreeHDL, a command-line VHDL-1993 compliant compiler.
Electric, which includes custom IC layout, a schematic drawing package, and a hardware description language specification.
GTKWave, a waveform output viewer.
PCB, an interactive PCB editor for the X11 window system.
Gerbv, a viewer for Gerber files generated from PCB CAD systems.
Gnucap, the Gnu Circuit Analysis Package, a general-purpose circuit simulator.
NgSpice, a mixed-level/mixed-signal circuit simulator.

Immenschuh said the toolkit is aimed at small companies that can't afford commercial EDA tools, as well as university students, some of whom may be using legacy Unix platforms. Following release of this toolkit, Immenschuh said, ReyesSoft hopes to go on to other open-source projects in areas such as 3D graphics and media streaming.

The OpenEDA Toolkit is available for $100 for the basic version. Purchasers can also buy one-year subscriptions to receive ongoing updates, and can buy a support package. For every purchase, ReyesSoft will donate 10 percent of the profits to open-source developers and projects, or to environmental organizations working to slow global warming.

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