magic/doc/textfiles/LEF.txt

LEF extensions to Magic-7.2
-------------------------------------
1) Ports

   A new method exists for declaring a cell to be a subcircuit.
   This involves the creation of ports, which are a special kind
   of label.  The existence of any port in a cell marks that cell
   as a subcircuit, which causes it to be treated differently
   during the process of extraction and netlist generation:

   a) Subcircuits are extracted as usual, except for the presence
      of the "port" keyword for each port in the .ext file.

   b) Exttosim (ext2sim) operates as usual, because the netlist is
      not hierarchical.

   c) Exttospice (ext2spice) will generate an "X" record for each
      instance of the subcircuit cell, rather than flattening the
      cell.  To simulate in SPICE, a ".subckt" record for the cell
      must be added to the SPICE deck.  This behavior can be
      subverted in the Tcl-based magic by using "exttospice subcircuits
      off", in which case all subcircuits will be flattened.

   d) The "extresis" command will ignore the contents of subcircuits.
      On the other hand, after doing "extresis geometry", subsequent
      use of "extresis" will generate a ".fh" file containing the
      detailed three-dimensional geometry of the cell in the format
      of nodes and segments used by the FastHenry field equation
      solver.  This is unrelated to the LEF module.

   A new command "port" turns labels into ports.  The syntax of
   the command is:

	port [option], where [option] is one of:

		class	[type]		get [set] port class type
		use	[type]		get [set] port use type
		index	[number]	get [set] port number
		connections [dir...]	get [set] port connection directions
		make [index] [dir...]	turn a label into a port
		remove			turn a port back into a label
		help			print this help information
		<index> [<directions>]

   To use the port command, a label must first exist, and the cursor box
   must overlap the label, and only that label.

   The index indicates the order of the port in the argument list of the
   subcircuit definition and calls.  The ordering of ports must match 
   the order of arguments to any .subckt record used in a SPICE simulation
   of the cell.

   The directions given to "connections" must be one or more of "n", "s",
   "e", and "w" (with no spaces in between; e.g., "port connections nsew").
   They indicate the edge of the port to which connections may be made to
   the cell.  This is unused by LEF, which uses more detailed information
   about metal routing and obstructions inside the cell to determine how
   to attach to a pin.  In the abbreviated command usage "port <index>",
   a default direction will be determined by the position of the text on
   the label.

   Class and use types correspond to LEF classes and uses for pins.

   Valid class types are:
	default
	input
	output
	tristate
	bidirectional, inout
	feedthrough, feedthru

   Valid use types are:
	default
	analog
	signal, digital
	power
	ground
	clock

2) Properties

   While the "port" command and method specifies information about pins,
   LEF also supports information about the cell itself.  The "property"
   command is a general-purpose interface for attaching key-value pairs
   to a cell, which are saved in the output and may be parsed by any
   function.  Keys relevant to the LEF module begin with the text "LEF".
   LEF-related keys are:

	LEFclass	corresponding to LEF "CLASS"
	LEFsource	corresponding to LEF "SOURCE"
	LEFsymmetry	corresponding to LEF "SYMMETRY"

   The string value attached to each key is written to the LEF output
   verbatim, thus any value may be used that is acceptable LEF syntax.

   The property command has the following syntax:

	property [<key> [<value>]]

   With no arguments, "property" returns all the key-value pairs defined
   for the current edit cell.  Given the key argument only, it returns
   the value attached to the indicated key.  Given both arguments, it
   assigns the string value to the indicated key.  A value which is an
   empty string ("") will cause the key to become undefined.  Values
   which consist of more than one word must be enclosed in quotes.

   Example:	property LEFsymmetry "X Y"

3) LEF file generation

   A LEF-definition file with extension ".lef" may be written for each
   cell.  This file contains detailed information required for placing
   and routing the cell, including all information regarding pins,
   ports, and obstructions on the metallization layers.  The syntax of
   the LEF command is:

	lef write [<cell>]

   to write a .lef file for a single cell.  If <cell> is not specified,
   then the output will be for the current edit cell.  All cells in a
   design my be written using the syntax:

	lef writeall