Open Source VLSI design tools suitable for Final year BE Project works


VLSI design has become an important area for most of the ECE, EEE and CSE final year Projects. However,using commercial VLSI CAD is usually ends up in problems during project demonstration, since the environments used in Project centres/ Industry are rarely reproducible in academic institutions.
This article provides some insight on the most popular open-source CAD tools that can be used in the academic field.
Electic tool shows the best compatibility with different platforms, and also have plenty of design and check functions in a friendly user interface.
Magic tool, which has a long history in VLSI design, has the best technical support and documentation, and it provides both stable and development versions for different use. It is very attractive to the academic institute users.
Alliance tool, which can only run in Unix/Linux platforms, has the best usage stability and good balance in functions. But its popularity is limited by its strict operation system requirement. Even in Linux, it requires a re-compile with specific compiler. It also increases the complexity of the installation.
In conclusion, Electric tool is highly recommended for Windows users. Yet, in Unix/Linux
systems, Electric doesn’t have significant advantage as it does in Windows. Magic and Alliance are also competitive for their own features. Magic may be more suitable for education that focuses on software development and Alliance may be good for education that focuses on design skill. This comparison is hopefully useful for those who are looking for a suitable VLSI CAD tool for academic purposes.
Microcontroller

embedded.system

RESTFUL