magic/doc/latexfiles/tut10.tex

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% Magic tutorial number 10
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\def\mytitle{Magic Tutorial \#10: The Interactive Router}

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\begin{center}
  {\bfseries \Large \mytitle} \\
  \vspace*{0.5in}
  {\itshape Michael Arnold} \\
  \vspace*{0.5in}
   O Division \\
   Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory \\
   Livermore, CA  94550 \\
  \vspace*{0.25in}
  This tutorial corresponds to Magic version 7. \\
\end{center}
\vspace*{0.5in}

{\noindent\bfseries\large Tutorials to read first:}
\starti
   \> Magic Tutorial \#1: Getting Started \\
   \> Magic Tutorial \#2: Basic Painting and Selection \\
   \> Magic Tutorial \#4: Cell Hierarchies
\endi

{\noindent\bfseries\large Commands introduced in this tutorial:}
\starti
   \> :iroute
\endi

{\noindent\bfseries\large Macros introduced in this tutorial:}

\starti
   \> \^{}R, \^{}N
\endi

\vspace*{0.25in}
\section{Introduction}

The Magic interactive router, {\itshape Irouter}, provides an interactive interface
to Magic's internal maze router.  It is intended as an aid to manual
routing.  Routing is done one connection at a time, the user specifying 
a starting point and destination areas prior to each connection.  The user 
determines the order in which signals are routed and how multi-point nets
are decomposed into point-to-area connections.  In addition parameters and
special Magic {\itshape hint} layers permit the user to control the nature
of the routes.  Typically the user determines the overall path of a connection,
and leaves the details of satisfying the design-rules, and detouring around or 
over minor obstacles, to the router.

The interactive router is not designed for fully 
automatic routing:  interactions between nets 
are not considered, and net decomposition is 
not automatic.  Thus netlists are generally
not suitable input for the Irouter.  However it can be convenient to obtain
endpoint information from netlists.  The {\itshape Net2ir} program uses
netlist information to generate commands 
to the Irouter with appropriate endpoints for specified
signals.  Typically a user might
setup parameters and hints to river-route a set of connections,
and then generate Irouter commands with the appropriate endpoints via
Net2ir.  For details on Net2ir see the
manual page {\itshape net2ir(1)}.

This tutorial provides detailed information on the use 
of the Irouter.  On-line help, Irouter 
subcommands, Irouter parameters, and hint-layers are explained.

\section{Getting Started---`Cntl-R', `Cntl-N', `:iroute' and `:iroute help'}

To make a connection with the Irouter, place the cursor over one
end of the desired connection (the {\itshape start-point}) and the box at the
other end (the {\itshape destination-area}).  Then type

\starti
   \ii {\bfseries Cntl-R}
\endi

Note that the box must be big 
enough to allow the route to terminate entirely within it.  A 
design-rule correct connection between the cursor and the box should 
appear.  The macro 

\starti
   \ii {\bfseries Cntl-R}
\endi

and the long commands

\starti
   \ii {\bfseries :iroute} \\
   \ii {\bfseries :iroute route}
\endi

are all equivalent.  They invoke the Irouter to connect the cursor with
the interior of the box.  Note that the last connection is always left
selected.   This allows further terminals to be
connected to the route with the second Irouter macro, {\bfseries Cntl-N}.  Try
typing

\starti
   \ii {\bfseries Cntl-N}
\endi

A connection between the cursor and the previous route should appear.  In
general {\bfseries Cntl-N} routes from the cursor to the selection.

There are a number of commands to set parameters and otherwise interact with
the Irouter.  These commands have the general form

\starti
   \ii {\bfseries :iroute}{\itshape  subcommand }[{\itshape arguments}]
\endi

For a list of subcommands and a short description of each, type

\starti
   \ii {\bfseries :iroute help}
\endi

Usage information on a subcommand can be obtained by typing

\starti
   \ii {\bfseries :iroute help }[{\itshape subcommand}]
\endi

As with Magic in general, unique abbreviations of subcommands and most of their
arguments are permitted.  Case is generally ignored.

\section{:Undo and Cntl-C}

As with other Magic commands, the results of {\bfseries :iroute} can be undone
with {\bfseries :undo}, and if the Irouter is taking too long it can be interrupted
with {\bfseries Cntl-C}.  This makes it easy to refine the results of the Irouter
by trial and error.  If you don't like the
results of a route, undo it, tweak the Irouter parameters or hints you are
using and try again.  If the Irouter is taking too long, you can very
likely speed things up by interrupting it, resetting 
performance related parameters, and trying again.  The details of 
parameters and
hints are described later in this document.

\section{More about Making Connections---`:iroute route'}

Start points for routes can be specified via the cursor, 
labels, or coordinates.  Destination areas can be specified via the box,
labels, coordinates or the selection.  In addition start and destination
layers can be specified explicitly.  For the syntax of all these options
type

\starti
   \ii {\bfseries :iroute help route}
\endi

When a start point lies on top of existing geometry
it is assumed that a connection to that material is desired.  If this is
not the case, the desired starting layer must be explicitly
specified.  When routing to the selection it is assumed that connection
to the selected material is desired.  By default, routes to the box 
may terminate on any active route layer.  If you are having trouble connecting 
to a large region, it may
be because the connection point or area is too far in the interior of the
region.  Try moving it toward the edge.  (Alternately see the discussion
of the {\itshape penetration} parameter in the wizard section below.)

\section{Hints}

Magic has three built-in layers for graphical 
control of the Irouter, {\bfseries fence} ({\bfseries f}), 
{\bfseries magnet} ({\bfseries mag}), and {\bfseries rotate}
({\bfseries r}).  These layers
can be painted and erased just like other Magic layers.  The effect 
each has on the Irouter is described below.

\subsection{The Fence Layer}

The Irouter won't cross fence boundaries.  Thus the fence layer is useful
both for carving out routing-regions and for blocking routing in given
areas.  It is frequently useful to indicate the broad path of one or
a series of routes with fence.  In addition to guiding the route, the
use of fences can greatly speed up the router by limiting the search.

\subsection{The Magnet Layer}

Magnets attract the route.  They can be used to pull routes in a
given direction, e.g., towards one edge of a channel.  Over use of
magnets can make routing slow.  In particular magnets that are long and
far away from the actual route can cause performance problems.  (If
you are having problems with magnets and performance, see also the 
discussion of the {\itshape penalty} parameter in the wizard section below.)

\subsection{The Rotate Layer}

The Irouter associates different weights with horizontal and vertical
routes (see the layer-parameter section below).  This is so that 
a preferred routing direction can be established for each layer.  When
two good route-layers are available (as in a two-layer-metal process)
interference between routes can be minimized by assigning opposite
preferred directions to the layers.

The rotate layer locally inverts the preferred directions.  An example
use of the rotate layer might involve an {\bfseries L}-shaped bus.
The natural preferred directions on one leg of the {\bfseries L} are the opposite
from the other, and thus one leg needs to be 
marked with the rotate layer.

\section{Subcells}

As with painting and other operations in Magic, the Irouter's
output is written to the cell being edited.  What the router sees, that
is which features act as obstacles, is determined by the
window the route is issued to (or other designated reference window -
see the wizard
section.)  The contents of subcells expanded in the route window 
are visible to the Irouter, but it only sees the bounding boxes
of unexpanded subcells.  These bounding boxes appear on a special 
{\bfseries SUBCELL}  pseudo-layer.  The spacing parameters to the {\bfseries SUBCELL}
layer determine exactly how the Irouter treats unexpanded subcells.
(See the section on spacing parameters below.)  By default, the
spacings to the {\bfseries SUBCELL} layer are large enough to guarantee that
no design-rules will be violated, regardless of the contents of 
unexpanded subcells.  Routes can be terminated
at unexpanded subcells in the same fashion that connections to 
other pre-existing features are made.

\section{Layer Parameters---`:iroute layers'}

{\itshape Route-layers}, specified in the {\bfseries mzrouter} section of the
technology file, are the layers potentially available
to the Irouter for routing.  The {\bfseries layer} subcommand gives access
to parameters associated with these route-layers.   Many of the
parameters are weights for factors in the Irouter cost-function.  The
Irouter strives for the cheapest possible route.  Thus the balance between
the factors in the cost-function determines the character of the
routes:  which layers are used in which directions, and the number of
contacts and jogs can be controlled in this way.  But
be careful!  Changes in these parameters can also
profoundly influence performance.  Other parameters determine 
which of the route-layers are actually available for routing and
the width of routes on each layer.  It is a good idea to inactivate
route-layers not being used anyway, as this speeds up routing.

The layers subcommand takes a variable number of arguments.

\starti
   \ii {\bfseries :iroute layers}
\endi

prints a table with one row for each route-layer giving all parameter
values.

\starti
   \ii {\bfseries :iroute layers}{\itshape  type}
\endi

prints all parameters associated with route-layer {\itshape type}.

\starti
   \ii {\bfseries :iroute layers}{\itshape  type parameter}
\endi

prints the value of {\itshape parameter} for layer {\itshape type}.
If {\itshape type} is `{\bfseries *}', the value of {\itshape parameter}
is printed for all layers.

\starti
   \ii {\bfseries :iroute layers} {\itshape type parameter value}
\endi

sets {\itshape parameter} to {\itshape value} on layer {\itshape type}.
If {\itshape type} is `{\bfseries *}', {\itshape parameter} is set to
{\itshape value} on all layers.

\starti
   \ii {\bfseries :iroute layers} {\itshape type} {\bfseries *}
	{\itshape  value1 value2 }\dots{\itshape  valuen}
\endi

sets a row in the parameter table.

\starti
   \ii {\bfseries :iroute layers *}{\itshape  parameter value1 \dots valuen} 
\endi

sets a column in the table.

There are six layer parameters.

\begin{itemize}
   \item {\bfseries active} \\
	Takes the value of {\bfseries YES} (the default) or {\bfseries NO}.  Only
	active layers are used by the Irouter.

   \item {\bfseries width} \\
	Width of routing created by the Irouter on the given layer.  The
	default is the minimum width permitted by the design rules.

   \item {\bfseries hcost} \\
	Cost per unit-length for horizontal segments on this layer.

   \item {\bfseries vcost} \\
	Cost per unit-length for vertical segments.

   \item {\bfseries jogcost} \\
	Cost per jog (transition from horizontal to vertical segment).

   \item {\bfseries hintcost} \\
	Cost per unit-area between actual route and magnet segment.  
\end{itemize}

\section{Contact Parameters---`:iroute contacts'}

The {\bfseries contacts} subcommand gives access to a table of parameters for 
contact-types used in routing, one row of parameters per type.  The syntax is 
identical to that of the {\bfseries layers} subcommand described above, and 
parameters are printed and set in the same way.

There are three contact-parameters.

\begin{itemize}
   \item {\bfseries active} \\
	Takes the value of {\bfseries YES} (the default) or {\bfseries NO}.  Only
	active contact types are used by the Irouter.

   \item {\bfseries width} \\
	Diameter of contacts of this type created by the Irouter.  The
	default is the minimum width permitted by the design-rules.

   \item {\bfseries cost} \\
	Cost per contact charged by the Irouter cost-function.
\end{itemize}

\section{Spacing Parameters---`:iroute spacing'}

The spacing parameters specify minimum
spacings between the route-types
(route-layers and route-contacts) and arbitrary Magic types.
These spacings are the design-rules
used internally by the Irouter during routing.  Default
values are derived from the {\bfseries drc} section
of the technology file.  These values can be
overridden in the {\bfseries mzrouter} section of the 
technology file.  (See the {\itshape Magic Maintainers Manual on Technology Files}
for details.)  Spacings can be examined and changed at any
time with the {\bfseries spacing} subcommand.  Spacing values can
be {\bfseries nil}, {\bfseries 0}, or positive integers.  A value of {\bfseries nil}
means there is no spacing constraint between the route-layer and the given type.  A
value of {\bfseries 0} means the route-layer may not overlap the given type.  If
a positive value is specified, the Irouter will maintain the
given spacing between new routing on the specified 
route-layer and pre-existing features of the specified type (except when
connecting to the type at an end-point of the new route).

The {\bfseries spacing} subcommand takes several forms.

\starti
   \ii {\bfseries :iroute spacing}
\endi

prints spacings for all route-types.  (Nil spacings are omitted.)

\starti
   \ii {\bfseries :iroute spacing} {\itshape route-type}
\endi

prints spacings for {\itshape route-type}.  (Nil spacings are omitted.)

\starti
   \ii {\bfseries :iroute spacing} {\itshape route-type type}
\endi

prints the spacing between {\itshape route-type} and {\itshape type}.

\starti
   \ii {\bfseries :iroute spacing} {\itshape route-type type value}
\endi

sets the spacing between {\itshape route-type} and {\itshape type} to {\itshape value}.

The spacings associated with each route-type are 
the ones that are observed when the
Irouter places that route-type.  To change the spacing between two 
route-types, two spacing parameters must be changed:  the spacing to
the first type when routing on the second, and the spacing to
the second type when routing on the first.

Spacings to the {\bfseries SUBCELL} pseudo-type give the minimum spacing between
a route-type and unexpanded subcells.  The {\bfseries SUBCELL} spacing for a given
route-layer defaults to the maximum spacing to the route-layer required
by the design-rules (in the
{\bfseries drc} section of the technology file).  This ensures that
no design-rules will be violated regardless of the contents of the
subcell.  If subcell designs are constrained in a fashion that permits
closer spacings to some layers, the {\bfseries SUBCELL} spacings can be
changed to take advantage of this.

\section{Search Parameters---`:search'}

The Mzrouter search is windowed.  Early in the search only partial paths 
near the start point are considered; as the search progresses the window
is moved towards the goal.  This prevents combinatorial explosion during
the search, but still permits the exploration of alternatives at all stages.
The {\bfseries search} subcommand permits access to two parameters
controlling the windowed search, {\bfseries rate}, and {\bfseries width}.  The {\bfseries rate}
parameter determines how fast the window is shifted towards the goal, and
the {\bfseries width} parameter gives the width of the window.  The units are
comparable with those used in the cost parameters.  If the router is taking
too long to complete, try increasing {\bfseries rate}.  If the router is
choosing poor routes, try decreasing {\bfseries rate}.  The window width should
probably be at least twice the rate. 

The subcommand has this form:

\starti
   \ii {\bfseries :iroute search} [{\itshape parameter}] [{\itshape value}]
\endi

If {\itshape value} is omitted, the current value is printed, if {\itshape parameter}
is omitted as well, both parameter values are printed.

\section{Messages---`:iroute verbosity'}

The number of messages printed by the Irouter is controlled by 

\starti
   \ii {\bfseries :iroute verbosity}{\itshape  value}
\endi

If verbosity is set to {\bfseries 0}, only errors and warnings 
are printed.  A value
of {\bfseries 1} (the default) results in short messages.
A value of {\bfseries 2} causes statistics to be printed.

\section{Version---`:iroute version'}
 
The subcommand

\starti
   \ii {\bfseries :iroute version}
\endi

prints the Irouter version in use.

\section{Saving and Restoring Parameters---`:iroute save'}

The command

\starti
   \ii {\bfseries :iroute save} {\itshape file}{\bfseries .ir}
\endi

saves away the current settings of all the Irouter parameters in file
{\itshape file}{\bfseries .ir}.  Parameters can be reset to these values
at any time with the command

\starti
   \ii {\bfseries :source} {\itshape file}{\bfseries .ir}
\endi

This feature can be used to setup parameter-sets appropriate to different
routing contexts.  Note that the extension {\bfseries .ir} is recommended 
for Irouter parameter-files.

\section{Wizard Parameters---`:iroute wizard'}

Miscellaneous parameters that are probably not of interest 
to the casual user are
accessed via the {\bfseries wizard} subcommand.  The parameters are as follows:

\begin{itemize}
\item {\bfseries bloom}
Takes on a non-negative integer value.  This controls the amount of
compulsory searching from a focus, before the next focus is picked
based on the cost-function and window position.  In practice {\bfseries 1} 
(the default value)
seems to be the best value.  This parameter may be removed in the future.

\item {\bfseries boundsIncrement}
Takes on the value {\bfseries AUTOMATIC} or a positive integer.  Determines in
what size chunks the layout is preprocessed for routing.  This
preprocessing (blockage generation) takes a significant fraction of the
routing time, thus performance may well be improved by experimenting with
this parameter.

\item {\bfseries estimate}
Takes on a boolean value.  If {\bfseries ON} (the default) an estimation plane 
is generated prior to each route that permits 
cost-to-completion estimates to factor in subcells and fence regions.  This
can be very important to efficient routing.  Its rarely useful to turn
estimation off.

\item {\bfseries expandDests}
Takes on a boolean value.  If {\bfseries ON} (not the default) destination areas
are expanded to include all of any nodes they overlap.  This is particularly
useful if the Irouter is being invoked from a script, since it is 
difficult to determine optimal destination areas automatically.

\item {\bfseries penalty}
Takes on a rational value (default is 1024.0).  It is not strictly
true that the router searches only within its window.  Paths behind
the window are also considered, but with cost penalized by the 
product of their distance to the window
and the penalty factor.  It was originally thought that small
penalties might be desirable, but experience, so far, has shown that large
penalties work better.  In particular it is important that the ratio between
the actual cost of a route and the initial estimate is less than the
value of {\bfseries penalty}, otherwise the search can explode (take 
practically forever).  If you suspect this is happening, you can set
{\bfseries verbosity} to {\bfseries 2} to check, or just increase the value
of {\bfseries penalty}.  In summary it appears that the value of penalty doesn't
matter much as long as it is large (but not so large as to cause 
overflows).  It will probably be removed in the future.

\item {\bfseries penetration}
This parameter takes the value {\bfseries AUTOMATIC} or a positive integer.  It
determines how far into a blocked area the router will
penetrate to make a connection.  Note however the router will in no case
violate spacing constraints to nodes not involved in the route.

\item {\bfseries window}
This parameter takes the value {\bfseries COMMAND} (the default) or a window id 
(small integers).  It determines the reference window for routes.  The router
sees the world as it appears in the reference window, e.g., it sees the
contents of subcells expanded in the reference window.  If {\bfseries window}
is set to {\bfseries COMMAND} the reference window is the one that contained the
cursor when the route was invoked.  To set the reference window to a fixed
window, place the cursor in that window and type:
\starti
   \ii {\bfseries :iroute wizard window .}
\endi
\end{itemize}

\begin{thebibliography}{1}
   \bibitem{arnold} M.H. Arnold and W.S. Scott,
	\newblock ``An Interactive Maze Router with Hints'',
	\newblock {\itshape Proceedings of the 25th Design Automation Conference},
	\newblock June 1988, pp. 672--676.
\end{thebibliography}

\end{document}