1. ICCAD-2002 Open Source Panel Andrew B
ICCAD-2002 Open Source Panel Andrew B. Kahng UC San Diego CSE & ECE Depts. Igor L. Markov Univ. of Michigan EECS Dept.

2. Experience With Open Source Project
Project: UCLA Physical Design Tools (MLPart, Capo, …)
Open-source partitioning and placement tools – MIT license
LEF/DEF interface, runs on Linux and Solaris (+ Windows)
Students: Andrew Caldwell (Simplex/Cadence), Igor Markov (Univ. of Michigan) + Saurabh Adya (Univ. of Michigan)
Much effort in installation scripts, revision control, code clarity
Ongoing maintenance, improvements: Capo8.5 (2002) >> Capo8.0 (2000)
Academia: CMU, GIT, UCLA, UCSD, UCSB, UCSC, UMinn, UMich, …
Industry: IBM, Intel, Cadence, Philips, Synplicity, Ammocore, …
Available in MARCO GSRC Bookshelf, openeda.org, etc.
GSRC Bookshelf:
Repository for CAD-IP reuse
One of three initiatives to close Design Technology Productivity Gap

3. Experience With Open Source Project
Uses in Academia
Work on competing placers (20th C: TimberWolf; 21st C: Capo)
UCLA, ICCAD-2000; Binghamton, DAC-2001, etc.
Improvement by pre- or post-processing (UCSB, ICCAD-2002)
Embed into larger design flows (Michigan, ISPD-2002)
Evaluate home-grown sub-solvers (plug in place of Capo components)
Uses in Industry
Use source code for prototyping commercial tools (e.g., Cadence)
Benchmark internal tools (e.g., Intel, IBM)
Educational uses (IBM, Intel, Synplicity)
“Plan B” uses (IBM, Synplicity)
Component-based plug-and-play (Intel)
Try novel PD flows, e.g., use Capo before synthesis

4. Problems and Frustrations
Nothing unexpected
Very non-trivial software expertise required
OS, compilers, C++, software engineering
Serious level of commitment required
Students graduate !
Non-trivial effort to support platforms, configurations
E.g., Magma was using an older C++ compiler we could not support
Compilers are changing all the time
Unfair comparisons and claims
Make simple preprocessor  claim new tool with better results
Tune competing software to specially-made benchmarks
Tune benchmarks to competing software and avoid standard test cases
Very few others are open-sourcing: slow culture change

5. How We Overcame Problems/Frustrations
Perseverance
Leveraging the open-source nature of the project
We know it is a win
Better software is developed
Easier to get funding
Useful in teaching
Motivates graduate students
Keeps our research moving (no artificial barrier to competition)
DAC-2000 Capo paper is the most-cited VLSI CAD paper from 2000, according to Citeseer
“Problems and Frustrations” are NOT an issue: Open Source Is The Right Thing To Do