1. Andrew Kahng – November 2002 ICCAD-2002 Open Source Panel Andrew B. Kahng UC San Diego CSE & ECE Depts. Igor L. Markov Univ. of Michigan EECS Dept. abk@ucsd.edu http://vlsicad.ucsd.edu/~abk/TALKS/

2. Andrew Kahng – November 2002 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: http://gigascale.org/bookshelf/ –Repository for CAD-IP reuse –One of three initiatives to close Design Technology Productivity Gap

3. Andrew Kahng – November 2002 Experience With Open Source Project Uses in Academia –Work on competing placers (20 th C: TimberWolf; 21 st 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. Andrew Kahng – November 2002 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. Andrew Kahng – November 2002 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