1. Cadence Foundation flow and db Tcl commands in Encounter

2. Cadence Foundation flow
Cadence Foundation flow s(FF) are the recommended procedures for implementing flat, hierarchical, and low-power/CPF designs using the EDI system software
FF provides a set scripts that gives an easy way to automate these flows
The scripts generated from FF are a starting point for building an implementation environment, but we can customize the scripts at various points in the flow

3. Overview
Specifying the flow to run
Scripts for steps in the flow
Subscripts
Plug-in scripts

4. Overview Inputs for FF are
setup.tcl
edi_config.tcl
lp_config.tcl
The setup.tcl contains a single source of all design data required to run design
The edi_config.tcl contains flow variables which can be used to customize the flow
The lp_config.tcl file is used for low power designs

5. Using input files for FF, we can run Cadence genflow script to create the implementation environment with run scripts
For any customization in the flow, edit setup.tcl, edi_config.tcl and lp_config.tcl

6. Specifying the flow to run
The EDI system software selects the flow to run as follows
If the vars(cpf_file) variable is defined, the low-power flow is run
If the vars(partition_list) variable is defined, the hierarchical flow is run
If neither of these flows is defined, the flat flow is run

7. Scripts for steps in the flow
Each script runs independently, starting from the database created by the previous step and creating a database when it completes

8. Subscripts
In addition to the setup.tcl script, the flow scripts use the following subscripts internally
utils.tcl – common procedure for all foundation flows
procs.tcl procedures that execute the EDI foundation flows

9. Plug-in scripts
To customize the flow, plug-ins can be added into the flow
These plug-ins lets us to include design- specific requirements while leaving the flow scripts unchanged
Create a plug-in file in PLUG directory and place it in edi_config.tcl file

11. Db tcl commands EDI uses tcl shell for user command-line interface
For each and every operation we do will have equivalent tcl command. This tcl command can be found in encounter.cmd file

12. Db commands Tcl commands in EDI are 3 types
Pre defined commands with existing functionality
Fe-tcl commands
Db tcl commands

13. Pre-defined commands
These pre-defined commands will have a defined functionality and can be found in EDI command reference
These commands does a specific task as explained in the command reference
e.g. placeDesign --- placed all instances
Can be only used as the commands in tcl procedure script

14. Fe-tcl commands
These fp-tcl commands are set of tcl procedures which can be used to query data inside EDI
There are atleast around 3000 fp-tcl commands in EDI
Very hard to remember
Can be used to write our own tcl procedure scripts

15. Example fe tcl script
proc user_get_all_ios { } {
set ioList {}
dbForEachCellFTerm [dbgTopCell] ftermId {
set ioList [concat $ioList [dbFTermName $ftermId]] }
return $ioList

16. Db-tcl commands New and very fast way of accessing the data from EDI
No need to remember so many commands
Very much helpful for tcl programming and automaton in EDI

17. To list all the attributes AND their values use a double question mark
Using a single question mark will show you a list of the attributes available at this level. > dbGet head.? > head: allCells dbUnits layers mfgGrid objType props
To list all the attributes AND their values use a double question mark
Another starting point using dbget is ‘top’
Using top, we can access all design based info
E.g. Examples using dbget
>dbget head.layers.name
>YM0 M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M7 M8 M9 CA V1 V2 V3 V4 V5 V6 V7 V8 OVERLAP
>dbget top.name