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magic-vlsi-wasm

Magic VLSI layout tool, compiled to WebAssembly as a headless library. Runs in Node.js, browsers, and Web Workers — no X11, no Tk, no native dependencies.

Use it to programmatically read and write .mag, .gds, .cif, .ext, and SPICE netlists; run DRC; extract parasitics — anywhere JavaScript runs.

Install

npm install magic-vlsi-wasm

Requires Node.js 18 or newer.

Quick start

import createMagic from 'magic-vlsi-wasm';

const { runCommand, FS } = await createMagic();

// Write a layout into Magic's virtual filesystem
FS.writeFile('/work/inv.mag', layoutBytes);

// Run Magic commands
runCommand('tech load minimum');
runCommand('load /work/inv');
runCommand('gds write /work/inv');

// Read the result back out
const gdsBytes = FS.readFile('/work/inv.gds');

The scmos technology family (scmos, minimum, nmos, ...) is embedded in the WASM binary and available out of the box. Custom tech files can be written into the VFS at /magic/sys/current/<name>.tech.

API

createMagic(options?): Promise<MagicInstance>

options is forwarded to the underlying Emscripten module. Useful keys:

Key	Default	Purpose
`wasmBinary`	fetched lazily	Pre-fetched ArrayBuffer of `magic.wasm` (skips a network round-trip in browsers)
`print`	`console.log`	Callback for each stdout line
`printErr`	`console.error`	Callback for each stderr line

The returned MagicInstance exposes:

Method	Description
`runCommand(cmd: string)`	Dispatch a single Magic command. Returns 0 on success.
`sourceFile(path: string)`	Execute a script from the virtual filesystem.
`init()`	Force initialization. Idempotent — `runCommand` and `sourceFile` call it for you.
`update()`	Drive a display-update cycle. No-op in this headless build.
`FS`	Emscripten virtual filesystem. See the Emscripten docs.

Full TypeScript types ship in index.d.ts.

Examples

The package ships runnable examples for the most common workflows. After installing, run one directly:

node node_modules/magic-vlsi-wasm/examples/extract.js
node node_modules/magic-vlsi-wasm/examples/gds.js
node node_modules/magic-vlsi-wasm/examples/drc.js
node node_modules/magic-vlsi-wasm/examples/cif.js

Or, when developing inside this repo:

npm test           # full suite (extract, gds, drc, cif)
npm run test:gds   # GDS write only
npm run test:drc   # DRC check only
npm run test:cif   # CIF write only

Each example is self-contained and reads examples/siliwiz.{mag,tech} by default. See examples/ for the source.

Build from source

If you want to rebuild the WASM module yourself, see toolchains/emscripten/README.md. The short version:

bash npm/build.sh           # debug build, copies magic.js + magic.wasm into npm/
bash npm/build.sh --release # optimized
bash npm/build.sh --test    # build + run tests
bash npm/build.sh --pack    # build + produce magic-vlsi-wasm-<version>.tgz

You will need an activated emsdk checkout (Magic pins emsdk 3.1.56 — see the comment in npm/build.sh).

Limitations

Headless only. There is no display driver, so commands that draw to a window (view, findbox, interactive macros) are no-ops.
WASM memory starts at 32 MB and grows as needed. Very large GDS imports may need INITIAL_MEMORY bumped (rebuild required).
Single-threaded. WASM modules are not thread-safe — create one instance per worker.

License

Bundled test technology

The example layout (examples/siliwiz.mag) and technology file (examples/siliwiz.tech) are derived from the SiliWiz educational silicon design tool. They are bundled here only as a runnable smoke test for the WASM build. The technology file is © R. Timothy Edwards, Open Circuit Design, 2023, marked by the author as containing no proprietary information.

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