EEC 116 - Tutorial Errata
Listed below are things in our installation that are different than
the tutorials. It also includes other helpful advice, such as
changed shortcuts or macros.
- Tutorial #1
- Do not precede commands by a colon (:) when you type
long commands from the text window. However, pressing the
colon while the layout window is active is a handy macro to
enter commands and keep the layout window active.
- Replace magic with magic116 when
starting magic from a terminal window.
- Section 3 and 4 are now irrelevant.
- Changing the box by holding down the mouse buttons does
not work anymore. Just use single clicks and the keypad
instead.
- Tutorial #2
- The C key is not bound to the command
'select less'.
- The 'translate' command is now bound to the
m key.
- The directional 'stretch' and 'move'
commands are now bound to the keypad.
- Do not use labels with the "!" character. These global
labels are unnecessary since nodes should be connected
electrically anyway. Also use "Vdd" and "Gnd" for power
and ground (required by IRSIM).
- Use "point" labels (by left clicking and right clicking
in the same spot) instead of box labels (a yellow box
around a region). Box labels seem to cause students more
problems.
- You can also use 'plot pnm file.pnm' for an
alternative output format. This is better for large
designs.
- Tutorial #3
- There is a fouth tool, the "pick" tool, used for moving
regions of paint.
- In the "wire" tool, use left-click to select a material,
move the mouse to extend the leg and left-click again to
create a wire. The selected leg will still be active so use
right-click to finish the wire.
- Tutorial #4
- The i key, not the f key is bound to
the 'select cell' command.
- Tutorial #5
- The 'openwrapper' command opens a new window
with scroll bars and menus.
- Section 2.2 and 2.3 are now irrelevant.
- The 'windowpositions' command now does
nothing.
- The "color" specialopen window does nothing.
- Tutorial #6
- You can turn DRC checking on and off using the
DRC button on the menu bar, which also shows the
number of DRC errors in the entire circuit.
- Tutorial #7
- This tutorial covers advanced topics.
- Tutorial #8
- The ext2sim program is no longer included, and
has been replaced by the built-in magic command
'exttosim'.
- To produce .node and .al files run the commands
'exttosim labels on' and 'exttosim alias on'
before running 'exttosim'.
- Tutorial #9
- This tutorial is mostly irrelevant. The CIF format is
rarely used anymore, and magic now supports the industry
standard GDS-II format.
- Tutorial #10
- The net2ir program is no longer included.
- The 'iroute' command is no longer bound to the
key Ctrl + R.
- This tutorial covers advanced topics.
- Tutorial #11
- This tutorial no longer applies, see
Tcl Tutorial #4.
- Tcl Tutorial #1
- This tutorial gives a brief introduction to writing
more complex macro functions made possible through TCL,
which can use control logic.
- Tcl Tutorial #4
- Start irsim within magic using the command
'irsim TSMC.18' to load the correct
technology file.
Other modifications for EEC 116 only:
- Only make labels as "points" meaning small "+" shapes and never
covering a larger region. This avoids some problems.
- Normally for every gate or module, make each "signal" input only at one
physical input. In other words, normally you should never have two
inputs for the same signal at two different "I/O pins", especially if
those two pins are not connected internally.
Updates:
2005/04/21, 21:00 Written
2005/04/29, 23:45 Added no "!" in labels
2006/04/06, 22:00 First complete pass
2007/04/17, Added 116 modifications