Cadence

Introduction

Cadence Design Systems, Inc (NASDAQ: CDNS) is an American electronic design automation (EDA) software and engineering services company, founded in 1988 by the merger of SDA Systems and ECAD, Inc. The company produces software for designing integrated circuits (also known as "chips"), and printed circuit boards.

Availability

Cadence is available on CSE and SENS Linux 64-bit systems.

Environment Variables

To initialize your Cadence session, you must first set the Cadence environment variables. The procedures are different on CSE and SENS systems:

CSE Systems

Choose one of these methods to set your Cadence environment variables:

  • Automatically set Cadence environment variables every time you start a new session by adding these lines of code to your .cshrc file: 

    
#
# Cadence environment variables
#

set domain = `hostname -d`

if ( ${domain} == 'cse.buffalo.edu' ) then
   set base_dir = /util/cadence
else if ( ${domain} == 'eng.buffalo.edu' ) then
   set base_dir = /util-cse/cadence
endif

if (-f ${base_dir}/.cshrc_cadence) then
  source ${base_dir}/.cshrc_cadence
endif

  • Manually set Cadence environment variables every time you start a new session by sourcing the .cshrc_cadence file: 

    % source /util/cadence/.cshrc_cadence

SENS Systems

Open a terminal window and type: 

% use cadence

Usage

Compute Systems Feature Release Description Invocation
Red Hat Linux (64-bit) Environment Variables Source this script to set your Cadence environment variables before running any Cadence applications. Cadence applications will fail if you don't set environment variables. % source /util/cadence/.cshrc_cadence
Encounter(R) Test and Diagnostics: ET101 Test and diagnostics software % /util/cadence/et/bin/et
Encounter RTL Compiler RC111 Encounter RTL Compiler allows engineers to look across the entire design as they employ concurrent optimization techniques, such as making tradeoffs among timing, area, and power. % /util/cadence/rc/tools/bin/rc -gui
Encounter(TM) RTL-to-GDSII System EDI1100 Full-chip implementation in a single system. The SoC Encounter System provides fast and flexible feasibility analysis, giving engineers an early, accurate view of whether the most complex designs will meet their targets and be physically realizable. It offers the latest low-power design and yield capabilities and provides a predictable path to design closure. % /util/cadence/edi/bin/encounter
NC-Verilog IUS82 28200: Cadence(R) NC-Verilog(R) Simulator % /util/cadence/ius/tools/bin/nclaunch
OrCAD Allegro SPB165

OrCAD features are available in the following products: 

PX3710	Allegro PCB Design CIS-XL
PS2200	Allegro AMS Simulator

% /util/cadence/spb/tools/pcb/bin/allegro
Virtuoso Spectre MMSIM72 38500: Virtuoso(R) Spectre(R) Simulator % /util/cadence/mmsim/tools/bin/spectre
Virtuoso ® IC617 Custom Integrated Circuit (IC) design tools. % /util/cadence/ic/bin/virtuoso -64

Help

Cadence Online Support

UB Cadence students may sign up for Cadence Online Support accounts. This personal account enables you to search the Cadence Online Support database for product information and solutions. You will have access to Cadence Resource Libraries and will be able to subscribe to Cadence Online Support email notifications if you choose.

  1. Email cse-consult@buffalo.edu and ask for a Cadence Academic Online Support Account.
  2. cse-consult will make a copy of the Cadence Academic Online Support Request Form, fill it in with your account information, and mail it to Cadence Support Manager Cheryl Mendenhall.
  3. Wait for confirmation, sent to your UBIT account, that Cadence has created your Cadence account.
  4. Visit https://support.cadence.com, login with your new Cadence account credentials.

Cadence Help System

Access the online Cadence Help system: 

% cdnshelp

Notes

  1. CSE 493/593 Introduction to VLSI Electronics students: Download init files from:

    /util/cadence/CSE493_593/init_files/

  2. Cadence's license server runs on helios. The license server process name is FlexLM (lmgrd). The license file is /usr/local/etc/licenses.dat.
  3. Test remote host to Cadence license server connectivity: 
    ~% cd /util/cadence/share/license/
license% ./test_inst

People

  1. Cheryl Mendenhall, Sr Program Coordinator.
  2. Leo Danilovich, SENS UNIX Administrator.
  3. Ramalingam Sridhar, Principal Investigator and Instructor.
  4. Shambhu Upadhyaya, Principal Investigator and Instructor.

References

  1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadence_Design_Systems
  2. http://www.cadence.com/
  3. http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~rsridhar/ubcadence/
  4. http://www.cadence.com/support/university/Pages/support.aspx
  5. http://www.arm.com/products/physicalip/standardcell.html