Sunday, April 26, 2009

Synopsys Innovator and Designware System Level Library

THESE PROGRAMS ARE DEFINITELY 32 BIT

SystemC is perfectly happy on x86_64 however the pre-compiled libraries shipped inside the Designware System Library are not. Ah-ha, you say, "I shall compile them in 32 bit mode". However there is a problem: they depend on qt-devel.i386 which can't be installed on the same system as qt-devel.x86_64. So there.

Another word of warning for the clever:

THE BUILD SCRIPTS WILL WORK, BUT GENERATE EXECUTABLES THAT SEGFAULT.

Make/g++ don't quit on the qt linking error. Several hours of condensed hacking wasted as I didn't spot it. Another reason to use virtual machines to avoid these kinds of problems when using CAD tools. [see above for more details on the segfault issues]

DATE2009

What a great conference. I attended the workshop on Embedded Multicore computing as well as a similar tutorial.

Lots of very good people here with good ideas. Got the chance to get some real IC architecting off the ground and acquired a lot of good material for the SystemC based architecture course.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Installing Synopsys Synthesis and IC Compiler in the same directory

These are also known as syn and icc and include the all important executables and libraries to run dc_shell and icc_shell. These are part of the Galaxy platform. Synthesis provides tools for turning HDL into PDK specific netlists and IC Compiler for place and routing.

You can install Synthesis and IC Compiler for different operating systems into the same directory
  • As they are part of the same system (Galaxy) they can be installed into the same directory to save space and simplify installations scripts.
  • Be sure to get the same release and service pack from EST into the same directory.
  • Retrieve the common files and all the OS/Architecture specific parts you want (for example linux and amd64)
  • Run the installer on the directory and you will be able to select syn and icc and subsequently the architecture specific versions.
Hope this helps keep things simple.

Laird Tpcm 7250 is as good as Honeywell PTM7950 as thermal paste / interface for PC

[This is not very scientific, however it is notable. At 7.5W/m-K vs the installed SYY-157 at 15.7 W/m-K it performed better in real world lo...