Changelog.md

2.2.0

CLI

• Exposed Flow.start(overwrite=) as --overwrite, which removes a run directory before running the flow (if it exists)

Steps

• Created Odb.ManualGlobalPlacement

  • Can create a global placement for instances. Intended for manually-instantiated buffers that require a certain regional placement or similar.
  • Uses new variable MANUAL_GLOBAL_PLACEMENTS, a mapping from instance names to the Instance class.

• Created Odb.CellFrequencyTables

  • Creates a number of tables to show the cell frequencies by:
    • Cells
    • Buffer cells only
    • Cell Function
    • SCL

• OpenROAD.*

  • All steps that modify views now update design cell metrics using OpenROAD's report_design_area_metrics

• OpenROAD.ResizerTimingPostGRT

  • Added GRT_RESIZER_RUN_GRT to control whether global routing is re-run after this step, which is usually required but may be redundant in some custom flows.

• OpenROAD.RepairDesignPostGRT

  • Added GRT_DESIGN_REPAIR_RUN_GRT to control whether global routing is re-run after this step, which is usually required but may be redundant in some custom flows.

• OpenROAD.STA*

  • New report clock.rpt created with information about each clock in a specific domain

• OpenROAD.WriteViews

  • Added OPENROAD_LEF_BLOAT_OCCUPIED_LAYERS with a default value of true

• Yosys.*Synthesis

  • ABC scripts used now created dynamically and dumped as a .abc file into the step directory.
  • Implemented many of the suggestions by @ravenslofty from YosysHQ, some behind flags:
    • SYNTH_ABC_DFF: Adds -dff to abc invocations (except the ones inside synth)
    • SYNTH_ABC_BOOTH: Activates the booth pass as part of synth
    • SYNTH_ABC_USE_MFS3: Uses mfs3 in all strategies before retime
    • SYNTH_ABC_AREA_USE_NF: Attempts delay-based mapping with a really high delay value instead of area-based mapping.

• Yosys.JsonHeader, Yosys.*Synthesis

  • Internal: * Steps are no longer TclSteps: rewritten in Python and now use libyosys. While there are no functional changes, this enhances the codebase's consistency and helps avoid tokenization-related security issues.

Flows

• Classic
  • Emplaced Odb.ManualGlobalPlacement immediately preceding OpenROAD.DetailedPlacement.
  • Emplaced Odb.CellFrequencyTables after OpenROAD.FillInsertion

Tool Updates

• OpenROAD -> bbe940134bddf836894bfd1fe02153f4a38f8ae5

  • OpenSTA -> 20925bb00965c1199c45aca0318c2baeb4042c5a
  • Removed "stable" version of OpenSTA

• Updated nix-eda to 0814aa6: more orthodox approach to managing dependencies by overlaying them on top of nixpkgs, which fixes an occasional "repeated allocation" issue and helps make override behavior more consistent.

  • Yosys and first-party plugins -> 0.46
  • klayout -> 0.29.4
  • magic -> 8.3.489
  • netgen -> 1.5.278
  • OpenROAD now used with new withPythonPackages features to use Python packages specifically for the OpenROAD environment

• OpenLane itself no longer included in devShells.*.dev, devShells.*.docs

  • These shells are intended to be actual dev shells, i.e. used to develop OpenLane, and needing OpenLane to pass tests to run these shells makes no sense.

• Open PDKs -> 0fe599b (Recommended for chipIgnite 2409/2411+ shuttles)

Misc. Enhancements/Bugfixes

• openlane.common.metrics
  • aggregate_metrics(): Added support for aggregation of N-modifier levels
• openlane.config.Config
  • YAML 1.2 configuration files now accepted using .yaml or .yml extensions, with the same featureset as JSON files.
  • The first configuration (file/dict) supplied no longer needs to be a complete configuration so long as any required variables are supplied in later configurations. Missing variables are only checked on the complete configuration.
  • Internally reworked how config files and command-line overrides are parsed.
• Fixed bug with deprecated variable translations of {CLOCK,SIGNAL}_WIRE_RC_LAYERS.

Documentation

• Added info on YAML configuration files.
• Documentation for Instance dataclass generalized to include instances of cells and not macros.

2.1.11

Steps

• OpenROAD.STA*PnR

  • Fixed timing__*_r2r__ws__corner metrics reporting the wrong value

2.1.10

Misc. Enhancements/Bugfixes

• openlane.config.Variable

  • Fixed an issue when strict type-checking is disabled where empty strings would crash iterable objects.

Tool Updates

• Fixed mypy to 1.9.0 to match NixOS 24.05.

• Checked poetry.lock into version control to improve reproducibility.

2.1.9

Steps

• OpenROAD.CheckAntennas

  • Fixed table being printed to file with wrong width.

• OpenROAD.STA*PnR

  • Fixed table being printed to file with wrong width.

Flows

• SynthesisExploration

  • Fixed table being printed to file with wrong width.

2.1.8

Steps

• OpenROAD.STA*PnR

  • Fixed a bug in STA metrics where paths with exactly zero slack are counted as violations.

2.1.7

Steps

• Odb.Remove*Obstructions

  • Rework obstruction matching code to not use IEEE 754 in any capacity
  • Fixed bug where non-integral obstructions would not be matched correctly (thanks @urish!)

2.1.6

Steps

• Yosys.Synthesis

  • Fixed bug where hilomap command was invoked incorrectly (thanks @htfab!)

2.1.5

Steps

• Odb.SetPowerConnections

  • Fixed an issue introduced in 2.1.1 where modules that are defined as part of hierarchical netlists would be considered macros and then cause a crash when they are inevitably not found in the design database.
    • Explicitly mention that macros that are not on the top level will not be connected, and emit warnings if a hierarchical netlist is detected.

Documentation

• Updated macro documentation to further clarify how instances should be named and how names should be added to the configuration.

2.1.4

Steps

• OpenROAD.STA*PNR
  • New environment variable made accessible to SDC files used during Multi-Corner STA steps, OPENLANE_SDC_IDEAL_CLOCKS, set to 1 for pre-PnR. Band-aid until the SDC situation is properly discussed and addressed (in a potentially breaking change.)
  • Fixed issue where the clock was always propagated after STAPrePNR regardless the information in the SDC file.
  • For backwards compatibility, STAPrePNR unsets all propagated clocks and the rest set all propagated clocks IF the SDC file lacks the strings set_propagated_clock or unset_propagated_clock.

2.1.3

Tool Updates

• Bundled an downgraded OpenSTA bundled with OpenLane to work around critical bug for hierarchical static timing analysis: parallaxsw/OpenSTA#82
  • Version of OpenSTA linked against OpenROAD unchanged.

Testing

• CI now uses DeterminateSystems Nix Installer for all Nix installations as well as the Magic Nix Cache Action instead of the nonfunctional attempt at local file-based substituters

Documentation

• Installation documents now use the less-brittle Determinate Systems Nix installer, as well as adding warnings about the apt version of Nix.

• Added an OpenROAD Flow Scripts-inspired Diagram to the Readme.

2.1.2

Steps

• OpenROAD.*

  • Fixed an issue where the validation for PDN_MACRO_CONNECTIONS would partially match net names, unlike OpenROAD itself
  • Internal string escaping consistency

2.1.1

Steps

• Odb.SetPowerConnections

  • Internally reworked pin detection behavior so power pins are found in the LEF first then matched in the Verilog, fixing a corner-cases where unconnected buses would be candidates for power pins, then promptly cause a crash as they only exist in the layout as separate pins.

• OpenROAD.IOPlacement, OpenROAD.GlobalPlacementSkipIO

  • FP_IO_MODE renamed to FP_PPL_MODE: translation behavior for OpenLane 1-style FP_IO_MODE with integers added behind deprecated name FP_IO_MODE.

• Yosys.*Synthesis

  • Restored filtering of defparam from output netlists to avoid surprisingly still extant OpenSTA limitation.

Testing

• Added file to exclude step unit tests purely to speed-up turnaround time for PRs (as sometimes a test would need to be deleted/temporarily disabled without updating the submodule, see #475 for a similar situation)

• Mac CI now uses an artifact of the PDK

  • Unlike the Linux runners, Mac runners:
    • Are disproportionately affected by rate-limiting: cannot pull from GitHub using Volare
    • Do not support caches created on Ubuntu, even with enableCrossOsArchive

2.1.0: The "Customization and Control" Update

CLI

• Overhauled how the PDK commandline options work, using a decorator instead of doing everything in a callback
• --smoke-test/--run-example are now no longer callbacks, and --run-example now supports more options (e.g. another PDK, another flow, etc.)
• Docker subprocesses
  • Are now always run interactively and can be interrupted.
  • Are now run using execlp, replacing the Python interpreter altogether

Steps

• Created Checker.NetlistAssignStatements

  • Outputs warnings or errors (depending on ERROR_ON_NL_ASSIGN_STATEMENTS) when assign statements are found in the netlist of the input state (assign statements cause some issues with some tools)

• KLayout.OpenGUI

  • Renamed KLAYOUT_PRIORITIZE_GDS to KLAYOUT_GUI_USE_GDS to be consistent with the Magic steps.
  • Script no longer relies on the click library as the internal Python interpreter more often than not has trouble finding the site packages (and indeed the site packages includes its own pya/klayout which is its own headache.)

• Magic.*

  • All steps now use a new processor, openlane.steps.magic.MagicOutputProcessor, to capture and count errors
  • Fixed magicrc being abspath'd before command invocation (breaks reproducibles)
  • _MAGIC_SCRIPT is now set in prepare_env instead of run_subprocess (so it can be intercepted for reproducibles)

• New step, Magic.OpenGUI, which opens either DEF files or GDS files in magic

• Magic.SpiceExtraction:

  • A feedback.xml is now created, with the contents being the SPICE Extraction feedback in the KLayout marker database format
  • Created MAGIC_EXT_ABSTRACT_CELLS: a list of regular expressions that are matched against the design's cells names what are abstracted (black-boxed) during extraction.

• Netgen.LVS:

  • Added LVS_FLATTEN_CELLS: A list of cells to flatten in LVS.
  • Added LVS_INCLUDE_MARCOS_NETLIST. If enabled macros' netlist are loaded when running LVS. Either pnl or nl or vh views are selected.
  • Updated Netgen setup file to equate cells inside macros where the GDS is generated with blackbox macro option

• Odb.ApplyDEFTemplate: Thanks @smunaut

  • DEF template pin placement status (e.g. PLACED, FIXED) now always propagated to work around PDN generation removing placed but unconnected power pins.
  • Fixed crashes when copying power pins from a template where the net name and the power pin name may be different (or one net may be connected to multiple power pins.)

• Odb.ReportDisconnectedPins

  • Disconnected dummy instances created during CTS, prefixed clkload, are now ignored.

• Odb.SetPowerConnections

  • Internal: Restructure power_utils.py to provide better error messages and use dictionaries instead of oddball iterator-based filtering

• Created OpenROAD.DEFtoODB

  • Useful for custom flows, where the DEF is modified but the ODB needs to be updated to reflect these modifications

• OpenROAD.*

  • OpenROAD scripts now set set_wire_rc for the average values of the layers grouped by routing direction. All layers in the routing range are used if either SIGNAL_WIRE_RC_LAYERS or CLOCK_WIRE_RC_LAYERS are null.
  • Slight internal Tcl code reorganization.

• OpenROAD.Floorplan

  • Added soft placement obstructions via new variable PL_SOFT_OBSTRUCTIONS.

• OpenROAD.RepairDesignPostGPL

  • Added new variable DESIGN_REPAIR_REMOVE_BUFFERS, which will instruct OpenROAD to remove synthesis buffers so there's more flexibility during design repair: see https://github.com/The-OpenROAD-Project/OpenROAD/blob/ad54bbe88b561d1c30451d8a3c85ad11c1692905/src/rsz/README.md?plain=1#L185

• Yosys.*

  • Added new variable YOSYS_LOG_LEVEL, which controls the verbosity of Yosys output

• Yosys.*Synthesis

  • Moved the rename of top module to before selecting it. This fixes a problem DFFRAM where needed modules are optimised away and then synthesis fails. (Thanks @donnie-j!)

  • Syntheses with SYNTH_ELABORATE_ONLY no longer report undriven nets as a check error (frequently for some top-level integrations, output pins are left undriven entirely to save space.)

Flows

• Created new mono-step flow, OpenInMagic, which runs Magic.OpenGUI
• VHDLClassic is now based on Classic with appropriate `Substitutions

Tool Updates

• All tool nix derivations now have rev/version and sha256 as one of their parameters, allowing them to be easily replaced with .override.

• OpenLane 2 now uses nix-eda for some of its dependencies

  • nixpkgs -> 24.05
  • klayout -> 0.29.1
  • magic -> 8.3.483/291ba96
    • now uses tk with X11 on macOS, to prevent crashes when attempting to use the GUI
  • netgen -> bf67d3c
  • forAllSystems built into nix-eda, now composes overlays for nixpkgs based on the withInputs field, allowing for easier overriding

• volare -> 0.18.1

• ioplace_parser -> 0.3.0

• openroad -> b16bda7

  • Removed OpenLane-specific patch for querying existence of antenna information
  • openroad-abc -> ef5389d
    • ABC_USE_NAMESPACE now set, value also injected into header files
  • opensta -> e01d3f1

• Python build tool changed from setuptools to poetry, which properly verifies that all version ranges are within constraints

  • Updated wrong Python package version ranges that all happen to work

• Nix devshells now use numtide/devshell, which creates an executable to enter the environment, allowing for easy repacking

• Docker image creation now uses a Nix derivation based on that of the official Nix Docker image, which includes a full Nix installation in the image (so users may add tools and apps in the container at their leisure.)

• mdformat promoted from overlay to packages.

Misc. Enhancements/Bugfixes

• openlane.flows.SequentialFlow

  • Substitutions can now
    • be done at the class level by assigning to Substitutions
    • be done in config.json files using a dictionary in the field .meta.substituting_steps
    • emplace steps before or after existing steps, e.g. +STEP, -STEP
  • Step names for from, to, skip and only are now fuzzy-matched using rapidfuzz to give suggestions in error messages
    • If the environment variable _i_want_openlane_to_fuzzy_match_steps_and_im_willing_to_accept_the_risks is set to 1, the suggestions are used automatically (not recommended)
  • Gating config vars are now simply removed if they do not target a valid step (so removed steps in a substituted flow do not cause a FlowException)

• openlane.common

  • DRC: Work around a weird macOS-only bug where boxes in exported KLayout marker databases would not function properly: see KLayout/klayout#1550
  • GenericDictEncoder: Fixed crash when attempting to dump a Decimal of infinite value

• openlane.common.config

  • Trailing commas are now permitted when converting from a string format (which are necessary because of the ambiguity of lists of lists.)

• openlane.steps.DefaultOutputProcessor

  • %OL_METRICS_F now uses Decimals instead of Floats

• openlane.steps.Step.create_reproducible

  • PDK_ROOT now included if the PDK is included but not flattened so Magic steps can work

• openlane.steps.TclStep

  • Internal: Internal environment variables prefixed with _ are no longer rerouted to _env.tcl, instead being passed raw (to help with creating reproducibles)

• Universal flow configuration variable

  • DATA_WIRE_RC_LAYER renamed to SIGNAL_WIRE_RC_LAYERS, CLOCK_WIRE_RC_LAYER renamed to CLOCK_WIRE_RC_LAYERS, with translation behavior and data type changed to List[str]?
  • Universal PDK variables SIGNAL_WIRE_RC_LAYERS/CLOCK_WIRE_RC_LAYERS no longer have default values for all PDKs (are null.)

• Fixed new typing inconsistencies exposed by mypy.

• Removed loop header genvar declaration from examples (limited compatibility with some tools)

Documentation

• Created a new document on writing plugins.

• Updated the architecture document to reflect changes and clarify some elements.

• Updated documentation of the state submodule.

• Updated Usage/Writing Custom Flows to document step substitution

• Fixed a number of broken links.

2.0.11

Misc Enhancements/Bugfixes

• Fixed a deadlock in some situations because of OpenROAD.STAPrePNR using the global thread-pool for OpenLane, which may be used to run the step itself.

2.0.10

Tool Updates

• Relaxed rich version range to allow Rich 13.
  • Matches Volare's version range and allows CACE and OpenLane 2 to be installed in the same Python environment.

2.0.9

CLI

• Fixed --ef-save-views-to saving to signoff/<design>/openlane instead of signoff/<design>/openlane-signoff (which makes less sense but is the established convention at Efabless.)

Steps

• OpenROAD.*

  • Fixed environment contamination with deprecated variables that may be used by user-supplied PDN or SDC files.

• OpenROAD.GeneratePDN

  • Restored compatibility with some ancient OpenLane PDN config files.

Tool Updates

• Updated ioplace_parser to 0.2.0
  • Fixes regressions in pin regular expression parsing.

2.0.8

Steps

• Odb.DiodePortInsertion, Odb.DiodesOnPorts
  • Fixed bug where diodes were never inserted on outputs, and added unit tests to that effect.

2.0.7

Misc Enhancements/Bugfixes

• Overhauled Tcl configuration loading code to fix a number of bugs that may occur when a Tcl file sources another Tcl file, such as for TinyTapeout configs (thanks @htfab)

2.0.6

Misc. Enhancements/Bugfixes

• Fixed a crash on Linux distributions where /etc/lsb-release includes comments.

2.0.5

Misc. Enhancements/Bugfixes

• The flow warning summary now only shows the first instance of any warning emitted, instead showing two numbers for identical warnings in other steps and for similar warnings (e.g. same OpenROAD code.)

2.0.4

Steps

• Odb.SetPowerConnections

  • Fixed bug where instances with special characters in their name and power pins are not equal to those of the SCL would not get connected.
  • Added assertion that exactly one pin is connected for every operation.

• Yosys.GenerateJSONHeader

  • Netlist is now flattened so Odb.SetPowerConnections can properly set pins for nested macros with power pin names not equal to those of the SCL.

2.0.3

Tool Updates

• Updated OpenROAD to d423155, OpenSTA to a7f3421
  • Addresses an antenna repair bug

Testing

• Updated a number of unit tests to reflect new OpenROAD error codes.
• Fixed failing design integration tests.

2.0.2

Steps

• Odb.ReportDisconnectedPins
  • Fixed table not being written to step directory
  • Fixed bug where table widths were not being set properly
  • Fixed bug where pins with USE SIGNAL would be considered power pins

2.0.1

Steps

• OpenROAD.*
• Fixed alert about unmatched regexes in PDN_MACRO_CONNECTIONS not being properly marked as an [ERROR].
• Fixed crash when steps that generate OpenROAD alerts that are suppressed by the flow experience a non-zero exit.

2.0.0

Docs

• Updated messaging to be a bit more consistent wrt OpenLane 1 vs OpenLane 2.

2.0.0rc3

CLI

• Resolved bug causing nonexistent mounted volumes to be created as root when using a non-rootless container engine with --dockerized.
• Fixed issue where PIP versions of OpenLane would not be able to copy examples properly.
• Environment detection scripts no longer use nix-info, saving time.

Steps

• OpenROAD.STAPrePnR

  • Now performs multicorner STA pre-PnR according to STA_CORNERS; although if two corners have identical file lists the latter corner is skipped
  • Internally rearranged class structure so STA pre and post PnR share as much code as possible

• Yosys.*

  • Fixes a bug where synthesis checks were not passed properly when SYNTH_ELABORATE_ONLY is true.
  • Internal:
    • Created new namespace, yosys_ol, to encapsulate a number of reusable functions for modularity and readability
    • Created two new functions ol_proc and ol_synth; to encapsulate our modified synth and proc instead of them being strewn across synthesize.tcl
    • ABC script construction moved to standalone file

Misc

• openlane.steps
  • Step
    • .start() no longer prints logs at the beginning as it may not necessarily exist

2.0.0rc2

CLI

• openlane.steps
  • eject *now overrides psutils.Popen() instead of run_subprocess, allowing it to run at a lower level
  • PATH, PYTHONPATH now excluded from run.sh

Steps

• Checker.PowerGridViolations

  • Fixed mistakenly added whitespace in FP_PDN_CHECK_NODES

• Magic.WriteLEF

  • Added new variable MAGIC_WRITE_LEF_PINONLY, which writes the LEF with with the -pinonly option; declaring nets connected to pins on the same metal layer as obstructions and not part of the pin

• OpenROAD.*, Odb.*

  • Outputs now processed first by new class OpenROADOutputProcessor, which captures warnings and errors from OpenROAD into a data structure and emits them using OpenLane's logger

• OpenROAD.CTS

  • Made CTS_MAX_CAP a non-PDK value, and also optional as the values in the PDK configuration are bad and OpenROAD does a better job without it
  • CTS no longer passes MAX_TRANSITION_CONSTRAINT, instead using a new variable CTS_MAX_SLEW if it exists
  • Fixed issue where no arguments were passed to configure_cts_characterization
  • Fixed bug where an incorrect value was passed to the -max_slew option

• Odb.ApplyDEFTemplate

  • Added new variable, FP_TEMPLATE_COPY_POWER_PINS, that always copies power pins from the DEF template
  • Power pins are now filtered and exempt from placement otherwise, allowing the step to be runnable after PDN generation

• Odb.CustomIOPlacement

  • Power pins are now filtered and exempt from placement, allowing the step to be runnable after PDN generation
  • FP_IO_VLENGTH, FP_IO_HLENGTH are now both optional PDK variables
  • The values are now used properly instead of a taking the maximum of both for both kinds of pins
  • For PDKs that do not specify them, the script calculates default values based on the layers' rules
  • QUIT_ON_UNMATCHED_IO now migrates to new variable ERRORS_ON_UNMATCHED_IO, an enumeration of four variables that controls whether errors are emitted in:
    • no situation
    • situations where pins in the design are missing from the config file (default, matching openlane 1)
    • situations where pins in the config file are missing from the design (new)
    • either situation
  • Better error message for too many pins on the same side

• OpenROAD.GlobalPlacement

  • Added PL_MIN_PHI_COEFFICIENT, PL_MAX_PHI_COEFFICIENT for when global placement diverges

• OpenROAD.GlobalPlacementSkipIO

  • PL_TIMING_DRIVEN and PL_ROUTABILITY_DRIVEN no longer passed (useless with -skip_io)

• OpenROAD.IOPlacement

  • FP_IO_VLENGTH, FP_IO_HLENGTH, FP_IO_MIN_DISTANCE are now all optional PDK variables
    • For PDKs that do not specify them, OpenROAD calculates default values based on the layers' rules

• OpenROAD.ManualMacroPlacement

  • API Break: Verilog names of macros are now considered instead of DEF names in the event of a mismatch (e.g. for instances with [] or / in the name.)

• OpenROAD.STAPrePnR, OpenROAD.STAPostPnR

  • Added new configuration variable EXTRA_SPEFS ONLY for backwards compatibility with OpenLane 1 that should not otherwise be used

• OpenROAD.STAPrePNR

  • Unset clock propagation for this step (misleading as the clock should be ideal before CTS)

• Verilator.Lint

  • Now works with the preprocessor macro VERILOG_POWER_DEFINE being defined - justification is that most macros come with a powered netlist than a regular netlist
  • CELL_BB_VERILOG_MODELS is no longer used, with the blackbox models always getting generated (so power pins can be included)
  • __openlane__, __pnr__, PDK_{pdk_name} and SCL_{scl_name} are all always defined as preprocessor macros
  • Fixed issue where the order of files may not be preserved for macros, causing linting to fail
  • Internally adjusted how linter flags are set; a .vlt file is used to turn off certain linting rules for the black-box models instead of copying and wrapping the black-box comments in comments

• Yosys.*

  • __openlane__, __pnr__, PDK_{pdk_name} and SCL_{scl_name} are all always defined as preprocessor macros

• Yosys.JsonHeader

  • Now reads generated black-boxed models of the standard cells with power pins instead of lib files, allowing power pins to be explicitly specified for hand-instantiated cells as well without issue

Flows

• Classic
  • Added Odb.AddRoutingObstructions before global routing
  • Added Odb.RemoveRoutingObstructions after detailed routing
  • Moved PDN generation steps before Global Placement

Tool Updates

• magic -> 8.3.466/bfd938b
  • Addresses a bug with reading DEF files using generated vias
• Updated KLayout to 0.28.17-1
  • Relaxes PIP version range to accept newer patches (not newer minor versions)

Testing

• Added an OpenLane 1-compatible configuration for aes_user_project_wrapper to test back-compat
• Ensured open_proj_timer config matches OpenLane 1's as closely as possible
• Updated unit tests because newer versions of flake8 hate pytest.fixture() for some reason
• Updated step unit tests that look for OpenROAD alerts to use captured alerts instead of checking the log.

Misc. Enhancements/Bugfixes

• openlane.common
  • Toolbox
    • New method, get_timing_files_categorized, returns the three design formats in, get this, three separate lists
• openlane.config
  • Config
    • No longer attempts to migrate EXTRA_SPEFS to MACROS because of side-effects (e.g. the dummy paths)
  • PDK backwards-compatibility script now skips migrating LIB_* if LIB already exists
    • "Default" constraints made exclusive to sky130 and gf180mcu
• openlane.steps.Step
  • run_subprocess: New concept of "output processors"- classes that may do processing on the output of a step to parse it
    • Default output parsing behavior implemented as DefaultOutputProcessor
    • run_subprocess no longer returns just metrics, rather, metrics are returned under the key generated_metrics when the DefaultOutputProcessor is used along with the results of other output processors
• Slightly adjusted widths of printed tables across the codebase for readability.

API Breaks

• OpenROAD.ManualMacroPlacement

  • Verilog names of macros are now considered instead of DEF names in the event of a mismatch (e.g. for instances with [] or / in the name.)

• openlane.steps.Step

  • run_subprocess no longer returns just metrics, rather, metrics are returned under the key generated_metrics when the DefaultOutputProcessor is used along with the results of other output processors

Documentation

• Adapted timing closure guide by @shalan to OpenLane 2
  • Converted to MyST Markdown
  • All images made dark-mode friendly
  • References to variables all now resolve properly
• Fixed a number of inconsistencies and broken links.

2.0.0rc1

CLI

• Fixed --ef-save-views-to not saving .mag, .gds views

Steps

• Checker.*
  • Created new ERROR_ON variables with the removed QUIT_ON variables from the Classic flow being added as deprecated names for these variables.
  • Disabling ERROR_ON* (previously QUIT_ON*) no longer bypasses a step entirely. A warning will be generated and the flow will not quit.
• Checker.TimingViolations
  • TIMING_VIOLATIONS_CORNERS renamed to TIMING_VIOLATION_CORNERS
  • Now creates a new variable <violation_type>_VIOLATION_CORNERS for its subclasses. This allows for fine-grained control of the IPVT corners checked by each subclass.
  • Now generates errors for violations occuring at TIMING_VIOLATION_CORNERS (unless the subclass variable override is defined) and generates warnings for violations in the rest of the IPVT corners.
• Checker.HoldViolations
  • Added HOLD_VIOLATION_CORNERS which takes precedence over TIMING_VIOLATION_CORNERS
• Checker.SetupViolations
  • Added SETUP_VIOLATION_CORNERS acting similar to HOLD_VIOLATION_CORNERS.
• Created Checker.MaxCapViolations
  • Reports maximum capacitance violations.
  • Added MAX_CAP_VIOLATION_CORNERS. It defaults to [""] which is the value for matching no corners (i.e. all violations are reported as warnings).
• Created Checker.MaxSlewViolations
  • Reports maximum slew violations.
  • Added MAX_SLEW_VIOLATION_CORNERS. It defaults to [""] which is the value for matching no corners (i.e. all violations are reported as warnings).
• OpenROAD.GlobalPlacementSkipIO
  • Fixed a bug where PL_TARGET_DENSITY_PCT is calculated base on FP_CORE_UTIL in designs with FP_SIZING set to absolute. The behavior now matches OpenROAD.GlobalPlacement.
• Yosys.*
  • Verilog files are now read with -noautowire. This changes the default default_nettype to none, no longer tolerating implicitly declared wires unless default_nettype is explicitly set to something else in a particular source file.

Flows

• Classic, VHDLClassic
  • API Break: Removed all QUIT_ON* variables from the flow itself
  • Added Checker.MaxSlewViolations
  • Added Checker.MaxCapViolations

Tool Updates

• Updated black to 23 + matching formatting changes to the code
• Makefile no longer creates venvs for most targets
• Default Nix shell no longer includes development-specific tools (jdupes, alejandra, pytest…), new devShell dev includes these tools and more

Testing

• Created two coverage commands in the Makefile, one for infrastructure unit tests and the other for step unit tests

Misc. Enhancements/Bugfixes

• openlane.flows.Flow:
  • All warnings captured are now printed at the end of the flow à la OpenLane 1.
• openlane.flows.SequentialFlow:
  • Deferred errors are now handled in the same way normal errors are.
• Various internal environment variables changed from _lower_snake_case to _UPPER_SNAKE_CASE for (relative) consistency
• openlane.common.TclUtils
  • Empty strings now escaped as ""
• openlane.steps.Step
  • Printing of last 10 lines of a file now uses a ring buffer instead of concatenating then splitting then joining
• openlane.steps.TclStep
  • Various handcrafted joins in subclasses now use TclStep.value_to_tcl or TclUtils.join
  • API Break: value_to_tcl no longer converts dataclasses to JSON, rather, they're converted to Tcl dicts
  • API Break: run_subprocess now intercepts and passes most environment variables are now passed indirectly, i.e., a file is made and placed under the variable _TCL_ENV_IN, which is then to be sourced by scripts. This helps avoid the 1 MiB args + env limit in macOS / 2 MiB args + env limit in Linux.

API Breaks

• API Break: Removed all QUIT_ON* variables from the the Classic, VHDLClassic per se, however they are not translated variables.

Documentation

• Fixed bug with newcomer's guide (thanks @calvbore)

2.0.0b17

CLI

• Multiple configuration files now supported, incl. mixes of JSON and Tcl files
• Added new flag, --show-progress-bar/--hide-progress-bar, also self-explanatory
• Added new flag, --run-example, which instantiates and runs one of the example designs
• Added new flag, --condensed, which sets logging.options.condensed_mode and changes the default for showing the progress bar to False
• Added new entry script, openlane.config, which allows configuration files to be interactively generated
• Fixed bug where 0 config files causes a crash

Steps

• All steps:
  • Change skipped-step warns to info if the skip should not necessarily be a cause for alarm
  • Suppressed warnings about dead processes when tracking subprocess resource usage
  • Fixed crash when subprocesses emit non-UTF-8 output: Now a proper StepException is raised
• Created KLayout.DRC
  • Only compatible with sky130 (skipped for other PDKs)
• Created Checker.PowerGridViolations
  • Raises deferred step error if design__power_grid_violation__count is nonzero
• Created Checker.SetupViolations , Checker.HoldViolations to check setup/hold timing violations
  • Add config variable TIMING_VIOLATIONS_CORNERS, which is a list of wildcards to match corners those steps will flag an error on.
• KLayout.OpenGUI
  • Added a new boolean config var, KLAYOUT_EDITOR_MODE to that enables editor mode in KLayout
  • Added new variable KLAYOUT_PRIORITIZE_GDS, which as the name implies, prioritizes GDS over DEF if there's a GDS in the input state.
  • cwd for subprocess set to step directory for convenience
  • Fixed bug where viewer mode was not working
• Odb.*, KLayout.*
  • Subprocesses now inherit sys.path in PYTHONPATH which allows nix run to work properly
• Odb.ApplyDEFTemplate
  • Added FP_TEMPLATE_MATCH_MODE, with values strict (default) or permissive with strict raising an error if any pins are missing from either the template or the design.
  • Warn when the template DEF die area is different from the design die area.
  • No longer copies the die area from the DEF template file-- floorplanning needs to be executed correctly first. DIE_AREA
• Odb.CustomIOPlacement
  • Completely re-implemented pin placement file parser in Antlr4 for more thorough syntax and semantic checking at https://github.com/efabless/ioplace_parser
  • Formalized concept of annotations; documented three annotations: @min_distance, @bit_major, and @bus_major.
  • Rewrote openlane/scripts/odbpy/io_place.py to rely on the new parser + general cleanup
• Odb.ManualMacroPlacement
  • Instances missing placement information are no longer treated as errors and are simply skipped so it can be passed on to other steps (or if is information about a nested macro)
• Created new step Odb.WriteVerilogHeader
  • Writes a .vh file using info from the layout post-PDN generation and the Verilog header
• OpenROAD.*
  • Updated to handle EXTRA_EXCLUDED_CELLS
  • No longer trimming liberty files, relying on set_dont_use instead
• OpenROAD.CheckAntennas
  • Added new antenna_summary.rpt file with a summary table for antennas matching that of OpenLane 1
• OpenROAD.Floorplan
  • PL_TARGET_DENSITY_PCT default calculation now prioritizes using metric design__instance__utilization if available.
  • Fixed a crash where obstructions were passed as floats instead of database unit integers and caused a crash.
• OpenROAD.GeneratePDN
  • Renamed DESIGN_IS_CORE to FP_PDN_MULTILAYER, which is more accurate to its functionality
  • Removed comments about assumptions as to the PDN stack config with regards to top-level integrations vs macros: macros can have two PDN layers and a core ring
  • Fixed issue where a PDN core ring would still be created on two layers even if FP_PDN_MULTILAYER is set to false- an error is thrown now
  • Fixed issue where FP_PDN_VSPACING is not passed to add_pdn_stripe when FP_PDN_MULTILAYER is set to false (thanks @mole99)
  • API Break: FP_PDN_CHECK_NODES is no longer a config variable for this step. The relevant checks are always run now, however, they do not cause the flow to exit immediately, rather, they generate design__power_grid_violation__count metrics.
• OpenROAD.GlobalPlacementSkipIO
  • Updated to do nothing when FP_DEF_TEMPLATE is defined
• OpenROAD.IOPlacement
  • Updated to do nothing when FP_DEF_TEMPLATE is defined.
• OpenROAD.IRDropReport
  • Added VSRC_LOC_FILES for IR Drop, printing a warning if not given a value
  • Rewrote internal IR drop script
• OpenROAD.Resizer*, OpenROAD.RepairDesign
  • RSZ_DONT_USE_CELLS removed, added as a deprecated name for EXTRA_EXCLUDED_CELLS
• OpenROAD.STAPostPNR
  • Added hold/setup reg-to-reg worst violation to STA summary table.
  • Added hold/setup tns to STA summary table.
  • Slack values of zero are now highlighted green instead of red.
  • Changed summary table column header from reg-to-reg to Reg to Reg Paths for readability
  • Fixed slacks for Reg to Reg Paths only showing negative values.
• Yosys.*
  • Updated to handle EXTRA_EXCLUDED_CELLS
  • Internally replaced various " ".joins to TclUtils.join
  • Implementation detail: "internal" variables to be lowercase and prefixed with an underscore as a pseudo-convention
  • Turned read_deps into one sourced script that is generated by Python instead of a Tcl function (as was the case for .EQY)
  • For maximum compatibility, priority of views used of macros changed, now, in that order it's
    • Verilog Header
    • Netlist/Powered Netlist
    • Lib File
  • Fixed bug where Lighter would not be executed properly
• Yosys.Synthesis
  • Updated error for bad area/delay format to make a bit more sense
  • Updated internal stat calls to Yosys to pass the liberty arguments so the area can be consistently calculated
  • Fixed bug where custom technology maps were not properly applied
  • Removed SYNTH_STRATEGY value AREA 4 -- never existed or worked

Flows

• All flows
  • Added a flow.log, logging at a VERBOSE log level
  • Properly implemented filtering for error.log and warning.log
  • Constructors updated to support multiple configuration files
• Universal Flow Configuration Variables
  • Created TRISTATE_CELLS, accepting TRISTATE_CELL_PREFIX from OpenLane 1 with translation behavior
  • Created new PDK variable MAX_CAPACITANCE_CONSTRAINT
    • Also added to base.sdc
  • Created new variable EXTRA_EXCLUDED_CELLS, which allows the user to exclude more cells throughout the entire flow
  • Renamed PRIMARY_SIGNOFF_TOOL to PRIMARY_GDSII_STREAMOUT_TOOL with translation behavior
  • Renamed GPIO_PADS_PREFIX to GPIO_PAD_CELLS with translation behavior
  • Renamed FP_WELLTAP_CELL to WELLTAP_CELL with translation behavior
  • Renamed FP_ENDCAP_CELL to ENDCAP_CELL with translation behavior
  • Renamed SYNTH_EXCLUSION_CELL_LIST to SYNTH_EXCLUDED_CELL_FILE with translation behavior
  • Renamed PNR_EXCLUSION_CELL_LIST to PNR_EXCLUDED_CELL_FILE with translation behavior
• SynthesisExploration
  • Added new flow, SynthesisExploration, that tries all synthesis strategies in parallel, performs STA and reports key area and delay metrics
• Classic
  • ApplyDEFTemplate now takes precedence over CustomIOPlacement, matching OpenLane 1
  • Added Checker.PowerGridViolations to the flow, gated by QUIT_ON_PDN_VIOLATIONS (which has a deprecated name of FP_PDN_CHECK_NODES) for back-compat with OpenLane 1 configurations
  • Added Checker.SetupViolations, Checker.HoldViolations to the end of the flow
    • Both gated by QUIT_ON_TIMING_VIOLATIONS
    • Each gated by QUIT_ON_SETUP_VIOLATIONS, QUIT_ON_HOLD_VIOLATIONS respectively

Tool Updates

• Repository turned into a Flake with openlane as the default output package and the previous shell environment as the default output devShell
  • flake-compat used so nix-shell continues to work as you'd expect for classic nix
• All package .nix files
  • Now follow the nixpkgs convention of explicitly listing the dependencies instead of taking pkgs as an argument
  • Have a meta field
• Reformatted all Nix code using alejandra
• Updated Open PDKs to bdc9412
• Updated OpenROAD to 75f2f32
  • Added some conveniences for manual compilation to the Nix derivation
• Updated Volare to 0.16.0/4732594
  • New class in API, the Family class, helps provide more meaningful error reporting if the user provides an invalid PDK variant (and resolves to a variant if just a PDK name is provided)
• Updated Yosys to 0.38/543faed
  • Added Yosys F4PGA SDC plugin (currently unused)
• Added KLayout's python module to the explicit list of requirements

Testing

• Added various IPM designs to the CI
• Added a full caravel user project example (wrapper + example) to the CI
• Greatly expanded unit tests for individual steps

Misc. Enhancements/Bugfixes

• Created new folder in module, examples which contains example designs (of which spm is used as a smoke test)
• __main__
  • Two new commandline flags added
  • --save-views-to: Saves all views to a directory in a structure after successful flow completion using State.save_snapshot
  • --ef-save-views-to: Saves all views to a directory in the Efabless format/convention, such as the one used by Caravel User Project.
• openlane.logging
  • LogLevels is now an IntEnum instead of a class with global variables
  • Create a custom formatter for logging output instead of passing the formatting options as text to the logger
  • Created new log level, SUBPROCESS, between DEBUG and VERBOSE, and made it the new default
  • Create a separate handler for logs with level SUBPROCESS that doesn't print timestamps, level, etc
  • New global singleton options created, which allows to configure both:
    • condensed_mode: boolean to make the logs terser and suppress messages with SUBPROCESS level unconditionally
    • show_progress_bar: boolean, self-explanatory
  • API Break: Removed LogLevelsDict, LogLevels[] now works just fine
  • Changed all instances of WARN to WARNING for consistency
  • Fixed bug where VERBOSE logging in internal plain output mode simply used print
• openlane.state
  • Added new DesignFormat: VERILOG_HEADER
• openlane.common
  • Toolbox
    • Objects no longer create a folder immediately upon construction
    • remove_cells_from_lib now accepts wildcard patterns to match against cells (to match the behavior of OpenROAD steps)
    • get_macro_views can now take more than one DesignFormat for unless_exist
  • New click type, IntEnumChoice, which turns integer enums into a set of choices accepting either the enum name or value
  • New function process_list_file to process .gitignore-style files (list element/comment/empty line)
• openlane.config
  • Updated to support an arbitrary number of a combination of Tcl files, JSON files and python dictionaries (or any object conforming to Mapping) to create configuration files, each with their own Meta values
  • design_dir can now be set explicitly, but if unset will take dirname of last config file passed (if applicable)
  • Internally unified how Tcl-based configurations and others are parsed
  • Instance fields location, orientation now optional
  • Macro has two new views now, vh and pnl
  • New DesignFormat added: * openlane.config.DesignFormat
• openlane.steps
  • __main__
    • Use default --pdk-root for run command
  • Step
    • load()'s pdk_root flag can now be passed as None where it will default to cwd
    • New method load_finished() to load concluded steps (which loads the output state and step directory)
    • factory
      • New method from_step_config() which attempts to load a step from an input configuration file
        • Reworked step-loading function to use from_step_config() where appropriate
    • create_reproducible()
      • Added flatten to public API, which flattens the file structure with the exception of the PDK, which is saved to pdk/$PDK
      • Modified behavior of flatten to allow including the PDK (which isn't flattened)
      • Generated run_ol.sh now passes ARGV to the final command (backwards compatible with old behavior)
        • Primary use for this: run command now accepts --pdk-root flag
    • Added runtime to *.process_stats.json
  • openlane.flows
    • Added new instance variable, config_resolved_path, which contains the path to the resolved.json of a run
    • Flows resuming existing runs now load previously concluded steps into self.step_objects so they may be inspected
• Fixed an issue where Docker images did not properly have dependencies of dependencies set in PYTHONPATH.
• Fixed a corner case where some OpenLane 1 JSON configs that use Tcl-style dicts that include paths would fail conversion to a Python dict
• Fixed a bug with ejected reproducible scripts keeping some nix store paths.
• Fixed Docker images not having TMPDIR set by default
• Updated Nix overlays to detect Darwin properly, added another fix for jshon
• Updated Nix derivation to ignore __pycache__ files
• Suppressed tracebacks in more situations (too shouty)
• Removed PYTHONPATH from default.nix - OpenLane now passes its site-packages to subprocesses (less jank) (but still a bit jank)

API Breaks

• Universal Flow Configuration Variables
  • CTS_ROOT_BUFFER, CTS_CLK_BUFFERS and CTS_MAX_CAP all moved to OpenROAD.CTS
  • IGNORE_DISCONNECTED_MODULES moved to Odb.ReportDisconnectedPins
  • GPL_CELL_PADDING moved to OpenROAD.GlobalPlacement
  • DPL_CELL_PADDING moved to steps that have the rest of the dpl variables
  • GRT_LAYER_ADJUSTMENTS moved to steps that have the rest of the routing layer variables
  • Moved GRT_OBS to Odb.AddRoutingObstructions as a deprecated name for ROUTING_OBSTRUCTIONS
  • Removed FP_CONTEXT_DEF, FP_CONTEXT_LEF, and FP_PADFRAME_CFG: To be implemented
  • Removed LVS_INSERT_POWER_PINS, RUN_CVC, LEC_ENABLE, CHECK_ASSIGN_STATEMENTS
• Moved DesignFormat, DesignFormatObject from openlane.common to openlane.state
• openlane.common.Toolbox.remove_cells_from_lib no longer accepts as_cell_lists as an argument, requiring the use of process_list_file instead
• Removed LogLevelsDict, LogLevels[] now works just fine

Documentation

• Added Glossary
• Added FAQ
• Added note on restarting Nix after configuring the Cachix substituter
• Added a first stab at (conservative) minimum requirements for running OpenLane- you can definitely get away with less at your own risk
• Added extensions to make the documentation better to write and use:
  • sphinx-tippy for tooltips
  • sphinx-copybutton for copying terminal commands
  • sphinxcontrib-spelling so we don't write "Verliog"
• Custom extension so Flows, Steps and Variables can be referenced using custom MyST roles
• Added a new target to the Makefile, watch-docs, which watches for changes to rebuild the docs (requires nodemon)
• Separated the "Getting Started" guide into a tutorial for newcomers and a migration guide for OpenLane veterans
• Changed all .png files to .webp (saves considerable space, around 66% per image)
• Updated all Microsoft Windows screenshots to a cool 150% UI scale
• Updated generated documentation for steps, flows and universal configuration variable
• Updated Readme to reflect aarch64 support
• Updated docstrings across the board for spelling and terminology mistakes

2.0.0b16

Steps

• All:
  • Changed type of DIE_AREA and and CORE_AREA to Optional[Tuple[Decimal, Decimal, Decimal, Decimal]]
• KLayout.*:
  • Propagated venv sitepackages to PYTHONPATH
  • Rewrote scripts to use either the Python API or use arguments passed via KLAYOUT_ARGV instead of the weird -rd pseudo-serialization
• KLayout.XOR:
  • Fixed threads not working properly
  • KLAYOUT_XOR_THREADS is now optional, with the thread count being equal to your thread count by default
  • Added new variable, KLAYOUT_XOR_TILE_SIZE, which is the size of the side of a tile in microns (the tile size must be sufficiently smaller than the design for KLayout to bother threading)
  • Added info prints for thread count
• Magic.*:
  • Base MagicStep no longer overrides run, but does override run_subprocess
  • openlane/scripts/magic/common/read.tcl is now a list of read-related Tcl functions used across all Magic scripts
  • Added new variable MAGIC_CAPTURE_ERRORS to best-effort capture and throw errors generated by Magic.
• Magic.StreamOut:
  • Internally set MAGTYPE to mag
  • Change sequence as follows
    • Old sequence:
      1. Read tech LEF
      2. Read macro LEF views (if applicable)
      3. Read design DEF
      4. Read macro GDS views (if applicable)
      5. Write final GDS
    • New sequence:
      1. Read tech LEF
      2. Read PDK SCL/GDS
      3. Depending on the value of MAGIC_MACRO_STD_CELL_SOURCE, if applicable:
         • Read macro GDS views as a black-box
         • Read macro GDS views, de-referencing standard cells (i.e. using PDK definitions)
      4. Write final GDS
    • Rationale: The old flow triggers a bug where references for cells inside a macro's GDS view were broken broken. A workaround was suggested by Tim Edwards and the new flow was adapted from his workaround.
      • Additionally, the new flow is just plain more explicit and straightforward.
  • Updated to throw errors when MAGIC_MACRO_STD_CELL_SOURCE is set to macro and:
    • Multiple GDS files are defined per macro
    • A macro's GDS file does not have a PR boundary
• Odb.*
  • Added openlane/scripts/odbpy to PYTHONPATH
  • Propagated venv sitepackages to PYTHONPATH
  • openlane/scripts/odbpy/defutil.py:
    • Added validation for obstruction commands
    • Added exit codes for validation errors in obstruction commands
    • Added a command to remove obstructions
    • Enhanced obstructions regex matching to account for >5 items in an obstruction definition.
• Created obstruction-related steps
  • Odb.AddRoutingObstructions: Step for adding metal-layer obstructions to a design
  • Odb.RemoveRoutingObstructions: Step for removing metal-layer obstructions from a design.
    • The preceding two steps, and their derivatives, should be used in tandem, i.e., obstructions should be added then removed later in the flow.
  • Odb.AddPDNObstructions: A subclass of Odb.AddRoutingObstructions that adds routing (metal-layer) obstructions that apply only to the PDN, using the variable PDN_OBSTRUCTIONS. Runs before PDN generation.
  • Odb.RemovePDNObstructions: A subclass Odb.RemoveRoutingObstructions that removes obstructions added by Odb.AddPDNObstructions.
• Odb.DiodesOnPorts, Odb.HeuristicDiodeInsertion:
  • Now automatically runs DPL and GRT to legalize after insertion
  • Old behavior kept using new steps: Odb.PortDiodePlacement and Odb.FuzzyDiodeInsertion.
  • Updated underlying script to have some more debugging options/be more resilient
  • Fixed a bug where attempting to insert another diode of the same name would cause a crash
• OpenROAD.*:
  • Added three new entries to set of DesignFormats:
    • POWERED_NETLIST_SDF_FRIENDLY
    • POWERED_NETLIST_NO_PHYSICAL_CELLS
    • OPENROAD_LEF
  • Added openlane/scripts/odbpy to PYTHONPATH
  • Propagated venv sitepackages to PYTHONPATH
• OpenROAD.WriteViews
  • Writes the aforementioned new design formats
• OpenROAD.CTS, CVCRV.ERC (unused):
  • Replaced legacy calls to Step.run causing crashes in some situations
• Created OpenROAD.CutRows
• OpenROAD.CutRows, OpenROAD.TapDecapInsertion:
  • Renamed FP_TAP_VERTICAL_HALO to FP_MACRO_VERTICAL_HALO, FP_TAP_HORIZONTAL_HALO to FP_MACRO_HORIZONTAL_HALO
    • Rationale: Halo doesn't only affect tap insertion, it also affects cut rows generated in the floorplan. This affects cell insertion and power rails and anything related to floorplan and std cell placement.
• OpenROAD.DetailedRouting:
  • Added info prints for thread count
• OpenROAD.Floorplan:
  • Added new variable FP_OBSTRUCTIONS to specify obstructions during floorplanning
  • Added a new PDK variable, EXTRA_SITES, which specifies additional sites to use for floorplanning (as overlapping rows) even when:
    • Cells without double-heights are not used
    • Double-height cells with missing or mislabeled LEF SITE(s) are used
• Part of OpenROAD.GlobalRouting spun off as OpenROAD.RepairAntennas
  • Added OpenROAD.RepairAntennas to Classic flow after Odb.HeuristicDiodeInsertion; gated by RUN_ANTENNA_REPAIR (with a deprecated name of GRT_REPAIR_ANTENNAS for backwards compat)
• OpenROAD.IOPlacement, OpenROAD.GlobalPlacementSkipIO
  • Added new value for FP_IO_MODE which places I/O pins by annealing
• OpenROAD.ResizerTiming*:
  • Added PL_RESIZER_GATE_CLONING and GRT_RESIZER_GATE_CLONING respectively, which control OpenROAD's ability to perform gate cloning while running repair_timing (default: true)
• OpenROAD.STAPostPNR
  • Added timing__unannotated_nets__count to record number of annotated nets reports during post-PnR STA
  • Added timing__unannotated_nets_filtered__count which filters the former's count based on whether a net has a wire. A wire indicates if a net has physical implementation. If a net doesn't have a wire then it can be waived and filtered out.
• Verilator.Lint:
  • Fixed bug where inferred latch warnings were not properly processed
• Yosys.*Synthesis:
  • Per comments from Yosys Team (1) (2)
    • Replaced instances of ABC command rewrite with drw -l with new variable SYNTH_ABC_LEGACY_REWRITE being set to true restoring the older functionality (false by default)
    • Replaced instances of ABC command refactor with drf -l with new variable SYNTH_ABC_LEGACY_REFACTOR being set to true restoring the older functionality (false by default)
  • New variable, USE_SYNLIG, enables the use of the Synlig frontend in place of the Yosys Verilog frontend for files enumerated in VERILOG_FILES (disabled by default)
  • New variable, SYNLIG_DEFER, enables the experimental -defer feature (see this part of Synlig's readme) (disabled by default)
  • Underlying scripts reworked to unify how Verilog files, preprocessor definitions and top level parameters are handled
  • Exempt SystemVerilog "$assert"s from "unmapped cells"
  • Metric design__latch__count renamed to design__inferred_latch__count
  • Fixed SYNTH_NO_FLAT not working.

Flows

• Classic flow
  • Odb.DiodesOnPorts and Odb.HeuristicDiodeInsertion now run after OpenROAD.RepairDesignPostGRT (as the latter may create some long wires) but still before Odb.ResizerTimingPostGRT (as timing repairs take priority)
  • OpenROAD.CheckAntennas added after OpenROAD.DetailedRouting
  • OpenROAD.CutRows added before OpenROAD.TapDecapInsertion
  • OpenROAD.AddPDNObstructions and OpenROAD.RemovePDNObstructions now sandwich OpenROAD.GeneratePDN
• Internally updated implementation of VHDLClassic flow to dynamically create .Steps from Classic

Documentation

• docs/source/index:
  • Changed markup language from RST to Markdown
  • Better disambiguation between OpenLane 1 and OpenLane 2
  • Removed reference to unused utilities
  • Hid top-level toctree polluting the landing page
  • Fixed links to incorrect repository
• Corners and STA: Now indexed; details some violations
• Updated documentation of openlane.config.Variable.pdk to make it a bit clearer

Tool Updates

• Nix:
  • Upgraded Nix Package Pin to 3526897
  • Added support for aarch64-linux and aarch64-darwin
  • Created new overlays:
    • cbc: Use c++14 instead of the default c++17 (register declarations)
    • lemon-graph: sed patch register declaration
    • spdlog-internal-fmt: spdlog but with its internal fmt as the external fmt causes some problems
    • clp to support aarch64-linux
    • cairo: to enable X11 support on macOS
    • or-tools: to use a new SDK on x86-64-darwin (see this
    • clp to support aarch64-linux
  • Reworked Nix derivations for the OpenLane shell, OpenLane, and the Docker image
    • Made OpenLane 2's src derivation allowlist-based rather than gitignore-based (smaller source derivations)
    • Added a new argument to default.nix, system, as builtins.currentSystem is not available when using nix flakes (where in documentation it is described as "non-hermetic and impure": see https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Flakes). This change allows passing the system as argument and thus restores compatibility with nix flakes.
• Completely revamp Notebook
  • Rewrite Nix setup section to be more tolerant of non-Colab setups
  • Rewrite OpenLane dependencies to use a better method of installing OpenLane's dependencies/hack in tkinter if it's missing (as it will be on local environments)
  • Added descriptions for all steps used
  • Added RCX, STAPostPNR, LVS and DRC
• Added Surelog to the included utilities
• Extended CI to handle Linux aarch64 builds
• Excluded yosys-ghdl plugin from ARM-based builds and from macOS - never worked
• Upgraded KLayout to 0.28.13
  • Made KLayout derivation more orthodox- distinct configure, build and install steps
  • Made KLayout Python modules available to all Python scripts
  • macOS: All KLayout Mach-O binaries patched to find the correct dylibs without DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH
• Upgraded Magic to 83ed73a
  • Enabled cairo support on macOS, which allows Mac users to use the Magic GUI
  • Removed mesa_glu on macOS
• Fixed Yosys plugins propagating Yosys, causing conflicts
• Updated unit tests to work with some env changes in Python 3.11
• Removed StringEnum
• Updated OpenPDKs to e0f692f
• Updated OpenROAD to 6f9b2bb
  • OpenSTA is now built standalone just like openroad-abc for modularity purposes
  • Fixes issue where post-GRT resizing run-time and memory consumption got out of hand: see The-OpenROAD-Project/OpenROAD#4121 (comment) for one example
• Updated Verilator to v5.018 to fix a couple crashes, including a persistent one with spm on Apple Silicon
• Updated Volare to 0.15.1
  • OpenLane now doesn't attempt to enable when using volare- it points the Config object to the specific version directory for said PDK
• Updated Yosys to 0.34/daad9ed
  • Added the Synlig Yosys SystemVerilog Plugin

API Breaks

• openlane.steps.step.Step.load: Argument state_in_path renamed state_in, also takes State objects
• openlane.config.Config:
  • For JSON configurations using meta.version = 2, DIE_AREA and CORE_AREA can no longer be provided as strings, and must be provided as an array of four numeric elements.
  • Removed global state when Config.interactive is used, state_in now explicitly required
    • Rationale: the little convenience offered is far outdone by the annoyance of most steps being non re-entrant, so trying to run the same cell twice is almost always a crash.
• OpenROAD.CTS:
  • Removed CTS_TOLERANCE: no longer supported by OpenROAD
• OpenROAD.Floorplan:
  • Removed PLACE_SITE_HEIGHT and PLACE_SITE_WIDTH: redundant
• OpenROAD.GlobalRouting:
  • Removed GRT_REPAIR_ANTENNAS. See details above.
• Odb.DiodesOnPorts, Odb.HeuristicDiodeInsertion:
  • Updated HEURISTIC_ANTENNA_THRESHOLD to be a non-optional PDK variable with default variables added in openlane/config/pdk_compat.py
• Magic.StreamOut:
  • Removed MAGIC_GDS_ALLOW_ABSTRACT: Bad practice
• Removed openlane.common.StringEnum: Use Literal['string1', 'string2', …]

Misc. Enhancements/Bugfixes

• Added exit code propagation when a StepError is caused by CalledProcessError
• Added default Toolbox when Toolbox is not defined for a step
• Created a .process_stats.json file for every subprocess that has general statistics about a process's total elapsed time and resource consumption
• Created method openlane.common.Path.startswith
• Expanded openlane.common.copy_recursive to support dataclasses
• openlane.state.State._repr_html_ to better handle recursive outputs.
• openlane.config.Config
  • Fixed bug in private methods where pdkpath was not being set in some scenarios
  • Fixed _repr_markdown_ to use correct syntax identifier for YAML in Markdown
• Fixes and tweaks for step reproducibles:
  • openlane.steps create-reproducible has new flag, --no-include-pdk, which excludes PDK files from reproducibles and make any reference to them utilize pdk_dir::
  • Slight internal rework for openlane.steps.Step.create_reproducible to support flattened file structures suitable for testing
  • Reproducibles now no longer include views of the design not explicitly declared in step .inputs
• Fixed tuple loading for config variables
• Fixed unit test for tuple loading for config variables
• Fixed missing orientations for MACRO variables

Testing

• Created step unit testing infrastructure, relying on specially-laid out folders that provide input data with the ability to add a per-step input data preprocessor and output
  • Requires --step-rx flag to be passed to pytest
  • Created submodule to host step tests
  • Added step to Nix build that utilizes the step unit testing infrastructure
  • Some space/data duplication avoidance measures: Allow missing state.json for empty state and creation of .ref files
• Created a new internal subcommand, openlane.steps create-test, which creates a flat reproducible that can be more easily added as a step unit
• Ported aes_user_project_wrapper from OpenLane 1
• Added user_proj_timer from https://github.com/efabless/openframe_timer_example/tree/main/openlane/user_proj_timer
• Changed manual_macro_placement_test design to have a macro with orientation FN as a test for the aforemention
• Enable post-GRT resizer for aes_core, spm and aes
• Disabled latch linting for salsa20

2.0.0b15

• Added IcarusVerilog as a dependency to OpenLane, and GTKWave as a Nix shell dependency
• Added power metric reporting to OpenSTA-based steps
• Updated OpenROAD to bdc8e94
• Updated Yosys to 0.33 / 2584903
  • Changed Yosys build process to use an external ABC as ABC takes 8 billion years to build (estimate)
  • Patched Yosys and dependent utilities to use BSD libedit
  • Reimplemented how Yosys plugins work in Nix, so they're all loaded with Yosys
    • Added derivations for:
      • SymbiYosys
      • eqy
      • Lighter
      • GHDL Yosys Plugin
  • Created Yosys.EQY, a step based on EQY that runs at the very end of the flow comparing the RTL inputs and outputs (disabled by default)
  • Modified Yosys.Synthesis to support Lighter, which greatly reduces power consumption by clock-gating D-flipflops (disabled by default, set USE_LIGHTER to true to activate)
  • Created new step, VHDLSynthesis
    • Created new experimental flow, VHDLClassic, incorporating said step and removing Verilog-specific steps
• Latches without always_latch are now reported as a lint error if the variable LINTER_ERROR_ON_LATCH is set to True (which it is by default)
  • Added latch design to fastest test set for both supported PDKs
• Fixed a race condition with openlane/steps/step.py::Step::run_subprocess
• Fixed a bug where glob introduced nondeterminism, as glob returns files in an arbitrary order on some filesystems: https://docs.python.org/3.8/library/glob.html?highlight=sorted
  • All glob results were simply sorted.
• Fixed a bug where openlane/common/toolbox.py::Toolbox::create_blackbox_model constructs and uses an invalid Path.
• Fixed Checker.YosysSynthChecks ID to match class name
• Fixed Odb.SetPowerConnections missing from step factory
• Fixed OpenROAD.GlobalRouting missing GRT_ANTENNA_MARGIN from OpenLane 1
• Fixed Verilator.Lint incorrectly calling Verilator by appending the list of defines to the list of files
• Renamed SYNTH_DEFINES to VERILOG_DEFINES with translation behavior
• Renamed SYNTH_POWER_DEFINE to VERILOG_POWER_DEFINE with translation behavior
• Removed SYNTH_READ_BLACKBOX_LIB, now always loaded

2.0.0b14

• Added PNR_SDC_FILE to all OpenROAD steps
• Added SIGNOFF_SDC_FILE to OpenROAD.STAPostPNR
• Added report_design_area_metrics to OpenROAD scripts that potentially modify the layout
• Added comprehensive documentation on PDKs
• Added documentation for migrating the Macro object
• Added validation for unknown keys for the Macro object
• Added testing for openlane.common.toolbox::Toolbox::create_blackbox_model, openlane.common.toolbox::Toolbox::get_lib_voltage, openlane.flows.sequential::SequentialFlow::__init_subclass__=
• Updated OpenROAD to 0a6d0fd: There is an API break in OpenDB APIs:
  • odb.read_def now takes a dbTech and a Path string instead of a dbDatabase and a Path string.
  • The dbTech object can be obtained via the getTech method on dbDatabase objects: db.getTech(), for example.
  • Liberty files without default operating conditions break in PSM- libparse-python added as a workaround until the PDKs are fixed
• BASE_SDC_FILE renamed to FALLBACK_SDC_FILE with translation
  • Move FALLBACK_SDC_FILE to universal flow variables
• OpenROAD scripts internally now always read SDC_IN instead of CURRENT_SDC
  • SDC_IN set to either PNR_SDC_FILE or SIGNOFF_SDC_FILE by the appropriate steps
• Reimplemented I/O placement in the Classic flow based on the one in ORFS, i.e.:

  "We start the loop in ORFS by ignoring io placement while doing global placement, then do io placement, then re-run global placement considering IOs. Its not perfect but that's the use." - @maliberty

• open_pdks -> dd7771c
• Volare -> 0.12.8
• Changed gf180mcu tests to use gf180mcuD, the new recommended variant of gf180mcu
• Fixed bug with gating config variables with wildcards only affecting the first matching step
• Fixed detecting if PL_TARGET_DENSITY_PCT is not defined
• Fixed antenna repair: now re-legalizes after repair which was missing
  • Fixed failing designs in Extended Test Set

2.0.0b13

• Add Linting
  • Added Nix derivation for: Verilator
  • Added the following steps:
    • Verilator.Lint
    • Checker.LintTimingConstructs
    • Checker.LintWarnings
  • Emplaced the three new steps at the beginning of the flow
  • Added Classic flow variable:
    • RUN_LINTER w/ deprecated name (RUN_VERILATOR)
  • Added step variables:
    • QUIT_ON_LINTER_ERRORS -w/ deprecated name (QUIT_ON_VERILATOR_ERRORS)
    • QUIT_ON_LINTER_WARNINGS w/ deprecated name (QUIT_ON_VERILATOR_WARNINGS)
    • QUIT_ON_LINTER_TIMING_CONSTRUCTS
    • LINTER_RELATIVE_INCLUDES w/ deprecated (VERILATOR_REALTIVE_INCLUDES)
    • LINTER_DEFINES
  • Added metrics:
    • design__lint_errors__count
• Added support for Flow-specific configuration variables
  • Added a config_vars property to Flow
  • Added a gating_config_vars property to SequentialFlow, essentially replacing flow_control_variable (breaking change) with deprecation warnings for the latter
  • Added more consistent runtime handling of "abstract class properties"
  • Folded all OpenLane 1-style RUN_ variables into Classic Flow
• Added an undocumented CVC step- upstream no longer supporting CVC in flows
• open_pdks -> 1341f54
• yosys -> 14d50a1 to match OL1
• Restored ancient {DATA,CLOCK}_WIRE_RC_LAYER variables, with translation behavior from WIRE_RC_LAYER to DATA_WIRE_RC_LAYER
• Created new PDK variable CELL_SPICE_MODELS to handle .spice models of the SCLs instead of globbing in-step
• Changed default value of MAGIC_DRC_USE_GDS
• Fixed an issue where CI would fail when vars.CACHIX_CACHE is not defined (affected pull requests)
• Fixed an issue with Nix in environment surveys
• Fixed an issue where openlane/scripts/openroad/pdn.tcl used a deprecated name for a variable
• Fixed a bug where KLayout category names were lacking enclosing single quotes
• Fixed a number of broken links and entries in the documentation

2.0.0b12

• Added diode padding to dpl_cell_pad.tcl
• Added FULL_LIBS to YosysStep without any redactions
• Moved all PDN variables to the the OpenROAD.GeneratePDN step as step-specific PDK variables
• Updated PDN documentation to make sense and added an illustrated diagram of values
• Slightly reordered Classic Flow so detailed placement happens right after Odb.HeuristicDiodeInsertion
• Fixed translation of FP_PDN_MACRO_HOOKS when a string is provided (only splitting if a , is found)
• Removed extraneous check_placement -verbose after common/dpl.tcl sources in OpenROAD scripts

2.0.0b11

• Added new mag format to design formats, populated by Magic.StreamOut
• Added support for stdin in reproducibles (mainly for Magic): ejected reproducibles now save the input and use it
• Added three new PDK variables to all Magic-based steps: MAGIC_PDK_SETUP, CELL_MAGS, and CELL_MAGLEFS, which explicitly list some files Magic constructed from PDK_ROOT, as well as codifying a convention that variables must explicitly list files being used.
• Added new variable to Magic.SpiceExtraction, MAGIC_EXT_ABSTRACT, which allows for cell/submodule-level LVS rather than transistor-level LVS.
• Changed SPEF file saving to only strip asterisks instead of underscores as well, matching the folders
• Fixed an issue where OpenLane's type-checking only accepted a single value for Literals in violation of "Shortening unions of literals," PEP-586
• Fixed an issue where command-line overrides were still treated as strict variables
• Fixed an issue where rule() would print a line even when log levels would not allow it
• Fixed an issue where PDK_ROOT was of type str
• Updated documentation to provide information on conventions for declaring variables
  • Deprecated StringEnums, now favoring Literal['str1', 'str2', …]

2.0.0b10

• Add new commandline options: --docker-tty/--docker-no-tty, controlling the -t flag of Docker and compatible container engines which allocates a virtual tty
• Convert CI to use --dockerized instead of a plain docker run

2.0.0b9

• Flow.start() now registers two handlers, one for errors and one for warnings, and forwards them to step_dir/{errors,warnings}.log respectively
• Created CELL_SPICE_MODELS as a PDK variable to handle .spice models of the SCLs instead of globbing in-step
• Added a "dummy path" for macro translation purposes that always validates and is ignored by self.toolbox.get_macro_views
• Reduced reliance on absolute paths
  • Special exception carved out for STEP_DIR, SCRIPTS_DIR
  • Made KLayout scripts more resilient to relative pathing
• Created new "eject" feature, which would make reproducibles for steps relying on subprocesses independent of OpenLane
  • scripts directory copied in entirety into ejected reproducibles
• Updated Open PDKs to e3b630d
• Updated Yosys to 14d50a1
• Updated CI to handle missing vars.CACHIX_CACHE
• Updated Volare to 0.12.3 to use new authentication and user agent
• Downgraded Magic to 0afe4d8 to match OL1
• Restored ancient {DATA,CLOCK}_WIRE_RC_LAYER variables, with translation behavior from WIRE_RC_LAYER to DATA_WIRE_RC_LAYER
• Fixed issue with Step.load() re-validating values, which affected reproducibles
• Timing signoff no longer prints if log level is higher than VERBOSE
• Use parse_float=Decimal consistently when loading JSON strings to avoid fun floating point errors
• Removed dependency on State module from odb scripts
• Removed custom PYTHONPATH setting from OdbStep (which was mostly to mitigate problems fixed in #86)

2.0.0b8

• Rename incorrectly-named metric rename clock__max_slew_violation__count to design__max_slew_violation__count
• Fix clock skew metric aggregation by using -inf instead of inf

2.0.0b7

• Internally reworked Config module
  • Variable objects now have a Boolean property, .pdk, which is set to True if the variable is expected to be provided by the PDK
  • List of common flow variables now incorporate both option config variables and PDK config variables, with the aforementioned flag used to tell them apart.
  • Individual Steps may now freely declare PDK variable, with the implication that if a Flow or one of its constituent Steps has one or more variables not declared by the current PDK, the Step (and Flow) are incompatible with the PDK.
  • Mutable data structures are used during the construction of Config to avoid constant copying of immutable dictionaries
    • Multiple private instance methods converted to private classmethods to deal with mutable data structures instead of constantly making Config copies
  • Getting raw values from the PDK memoized to avoid having to call the Tcl interpreter repeatedly
  • All Step objects, not just those used with an interactive configuration, can now be given overrides upon construction using keyword arguments.
• A number of previously-universal PDK variables are now declared by the Steps and made non-optional, i.e., the Step can expect them to be declared by the PDK if the configuration is successfully validated.
• PDK, PDK_ROOT are no longer considered "PDK" variables as PDK variables depend on them
• PRIMARY_SIGNOFF_TOOL now a PDK variable and a string so OpenLane is not limited to two signoff tools
• Toolbox.render_png() now relies on a new Step called KLayout.Render
• Config.interactive() fixed, new Nix-based Colab notebook to be uploaded Soon™
• Assorted documentation updates and bugfixes

2.0.0b6

• Added Odb.ApplyDEFTemplate to Classic Flow
• Added RUN_TAP_DECAP_INSERTION as a deprecated name for RUN_TAP_ENDCAP_INSERTION

2.0.0b5

• Added refg:: to documentation
• Fixed issue where "worst clock skew" metrics were aggregated incorrectly
• Fixed issue with referencing files outside the design directory

2.0.0b4

• Updated documentation for run_subprocess
• Updated Volare to 0.11.2
• Fixed a bug with Toolbox method memoization
• Unknown key errors only emit a warning now if the key is used as a Variable's name anywhere linked to OpenLane. This allows using the same config file with multiple flows without errors.

2.0.0b3

• Added ability to create reproducible for any step using instance method Step.create_reproducible()
• Added ability to load and run Step from Config and State JSON files, working for both existing step folders and new reproducibles
• Added new CLI- under either the script openlane.steps or python3 -m openlane.steps, exposing the two functionalities above.
• Added internal ability to load a Config without attempting to load the PDK configuration data- i.e., only rely on the user's input
• Extended Meta objects to support Step ID and OpenLane version.
• Moved tests from source tree to test/ folder, refactoring as necessary
• Internal utils module folded into common module, with elements publicly documented
• Removed tcl_reproducible

2.0.0b2

• Updated Magic to 952b20d
• Added new variable, MAGIC_EXT_SHORT_RESISTOR to Magic.SpiceExtraction, disabled by default

2.0.0b1

• Added unit testing and coverage reporting for core infrastructure features (80%+)
• Added running unit tests in the CI for different Python versions
• Moved CI designs out-of-tree
• Various documentation improvements
• Common Module
  • Created new TclUtils to handle common Tcl interactions, i.e., evaluating the environment and testing
  • Made Tcl environment evaluation no longer rely on the filesystem
  • Made Tcl environment evaluation restore the environment after the fact
  • Moved Path from State module to common
  • Moved parsing metric modifiers and such from Toolbox
• Config Module
  • Updated PDK migration script to be a bit more resilient
  • Fixed bug where meta did not get copied properly with Config copies
  • Rewrote configuration dictionary preprocessor again
• Flow Module
  • Sequential flows now handle duplicate Step IDs by adding a suffix
• Logging Module
  • Logging rewritten to use Python logger with rich handler, the latter of which suppressed during unit testing
• State Module
  • State.save_snapshot() now also saves a JSON representation of metrics
  • Fixed metric cloning
• Step Module
  • Report start/end locii also end up in the log file
  • Utils
  • DRC module now uses . to separate category layer and rule in name

2.0.0a55

• Updated OpenROAD to 02ea75b
• Updated Volare to 0.9.2
• Added guide on updating utilities with Nix

2.0.0a54

• Updated Magic to 0afe4d8:

Corrected an error introduced by the code added recently for support

of command logging, which caused the "select cell <instance>" command
option to become invalid;  this command option is used by the
parameterized cell generator and makes it impossible to edit the
parameterized cells.

2.0.0a53

• Reworked Tcl unsafe string escaping to use home-cooked functions instead of "shlex"

2.0.0a52

• Added three designs to the gf180mcu test set
• Magic GDS writes now check log for Calma output error before proceeding further
• Moved constraint variables to PDK
  • SYNTH_CAP_LOAD renamed to OUTPUT_CAP_LOAD
• Deprecated names for variables now take priority: allows overriding PDK variables properly
• Updated Magic to 8b3bb1a
• Updated PDK to 78b7bc3
• Updated Volare to 0.8.0 to support zstd-compressed PDKs
• Temporarily removed manual_macro_placement_test from the sky130 test set pending a weird bug

2.0.0a51

• Updated Netgen to 87d8759

2.0.0a50

• JSON configuration files with meta.version: 2 and dictionary configurations now both subject to stricter validation
  • Strings no longer automatically converted to lists, dicts, numbers, Booleans, et cetera
  • Numbers no longer automatically converted to Booleans
  • Unrecognized keys throw an error instead of a warning
• Steps now only keep a copy of configuration variables that are either common or explicitly declared
  • Explicitly declare global routing variables for resizer steps
  • Explicitly declare MagicStep variables for DRC step
• CLOCK_PORT type changed from Optional[List[str]] to Union[str, List[str], None]
• JSON globs behavior adjusted, now always returns List - conversion handled after preprocessing
• Rewrote resolve.py as a proper preprocessor
  • Proper recursion into Mappings and Sequences (so refs:: may be resolved in arbitrarily deep objects)
  • Defer most validation and conversion to Config object
• Fixed internal issue where some_of of a Union with more than two variables of which one is None just returns the same Union
• Fixed issue where expr:: turns results into strings
• µniformity, now all use U+00B5 MICRO SIGN
• Removed default values that ref::/expr:: other variables
• Removed unused variable

2.0.0a49

• Made designs synthesized by Yosys keep their name after chparam

2.0.0a48

• Created openlane.flows.cloup_flow_opts, which assigns a number of cloup commandline options to an external function for convenience.
• Moved handling of last_run inside Flow.start
• Moved handling of volare, setting log level and threadpool count to cloup_flow_opts

2.0.0a47

• Update Magic, Netgen, and Yosys
• Made SYNTH_ELABORATE_ONLY functional
• Minor internal rearchitecture of common and commandline options

2.0.0a46

• Start on API cleanup in preparation for beta
• Common and Logging isolated into own modules
• Improved documentation on various parts of the codebase.
• Delineated public, private and protected class members:
  • If undocumented or starts with __, private
  • If decorated with @openlane.common.protected, protected
  • Else public
• Class members renamed to reflect the above
• Adjusted documentation generation to use RST and proper titles
• Flow progress bar hooks encapsulated in new FlowProgressBar object
  • Old methods still exist, issue a DeprecationWarning

API Breaks

• Top level import openlane now only has the version. To get access to Flow or Step, try from openlane.flows import Flow
• Flow.get/Step.get no longer exist: use Flow.factory.get/Step.factory.get instead
• openlane.common.internal decorator replaced with openlane.common.protected
• Step objects no longer hold a reference to parent flow
  • Step.start now takes self.step_dir as a required argument when running non-interactive flows
  • A faster migration method inside a Flow is step.start() -> self.start_step(step)

2.0.0a45

• Made Magic DRC report parser more robust, handling multiple rules, etc
• Updated documentation for various related variables
• Fixed bug causing PNR-excluded cells being used during resizer-based OpenROAD steps

2.0.0a44

• Added support for multiple corners during CTS using the CTS_CORNERS variable
• Added support for multiple corners during resizer steps using the RSZ_CORNERS variable
• Internally reworked OpenROAD resizer and CTS steps to share a common base class

2.0.0a43

• Added io_placer and manual_macro_placemnt_test to CI
• Fixed MAGTYPE for Magic.WriteLEF
• Fixed bug with reading EXTRA_LEFS in Magic steps

2.0.0a42

• Added support for instances to RSZ_DONT_TOUCH_RX
• Added support for RSZ_DONT_TOUCH_LIST to resizer steps
• inverter design used to configure the above two
• Added ignore for // key in JSON config files
• Added two new variables for Yosys.Synthesis; SYNTH_DIRECT_WIRE_BUFFERING and SYNTH_SPLITNETS
• Fixed bug with Yosys report parsing
• Fixed issue in usb_cdc_core masked by aforementioned bug

2.0.0a41

• Updated Magic to 9b131fa
• Updated Magic LEF writing script
• Ensured consistency of Tcl script logging prefixes

2.0.0a40

• Fixed a bug with extracting variables from Tcl config files when the variable is already set in the environment
• Fixed a bug with saving lib and SDF files
• Fixed check_antennas.tcl being mis-named

2.0.0a39

• Added mechanism for subprocesses to write metrics via stdout, %OL_METRIC{,_I,_F}, used for OpenSTA
• Added violation summary table to post-PNR STA
• Reworked multi-corner STA: now run across N processes with the step being responsible for aggregation
• Made handling Infinity metrics more robust
• Fixed names of various metrics to abide with conventions:
  • magic__drc_errors -> magic__drc_error__count
  • magic__illegal__overlaps -> magic__illegal_overlap__count
• Removed splash messages from OpenROAD, OpenSTA

2.0.0a38

• Added full test-suite added to CI
  • Like OpenLane 1, a "fastest test set" runs with every PR and an "extended test set" runs daily
• Added Nix building, intra-CI caching and installation as composite actions
  • Nix derivation now cached intra-CI even if running without access to secrets
  • Fixed issue where channel was mis-named
  • Smoke test on all platforms using nix-shell
• Docker image re-implemented: One layer with proper settings for PATH and PYTHONPATH
  • Docker image smoke-tested independently of Nix
• Fixed bug with Tcl configurations
• Fixed issue with Yosys.Synthesis producing false-positive checks
• Updated various design configs

2.0.0a37

• Added MAX_TRANSITION_CONSTRAINT to base.sdc (if set)
• Added MAX_TRANSITION_CONSTRAINT -> SYNTH_MAX_TRAN translation behavior in base.sdc
• Removed attempt(s) to calculate a default value for MAX_TRANSITION_CONSTRAINT in all.tcl, openroad/cts.tcl and yosys/synth.tcl

2.0.0a36

• Added a commandline option -j/--jobs to add a maximum cap on subprocesses.
• Added a global ThreadPoolExecutor object for all subprocesses to common.
  • Accessible for external scripts and plugins via openlane.get_tpe and openlane.set_tpe
• Folded --list-plugins into --version
• Renamed ROUTING_CORES to DRT_THREADS
• Removed RCX_CORES, step now uses global ThreadPoolExecutor

2.0.0a35

• Revert magic to a33d7b7, last known-good version before a LEF writing bug

2.0.0a34

• Added ability to disable reproducibles on a per-class level
• Updated SDF to support N-corners
• Fixed bug with writing LIB/SDF views

2.0.0a33

• Bump supported PDK to af34855
• Rename 3 PDK variables to match OpenLane 1
  • FP_PDN_RAILS_LAYER -> FP_PDN_RAIL_LAYER
  • FP_PDN_UPPER_LAYER -> FP_PDN_HORIZONTAL_LAYER
  • FP_PDN_LOWER_LAYER -> FP_PDN_VERTICAL_LAYER

2.0.0a32

• Better adherence to class structure and mutability principles
  • Create GenericDict, GenericImmutableDict to better handle immutable objects, i.e. State, Config
  • State, Config made immutable post-construction
    • Various rewrites to accommodate that
  • Step:
    • .run:
      • No longer has any default implementation
      • Is expected to return a tuple of views updates and metrics updates which are then applied to copies by .start to meet mutability requirements
    • .start:
      • Handles input checking
      • Handles creating new State object based on deltas
  • Flow
    • Stateful variables for .start, .run, and other internal methods made private
    • .start now only returns the final state object
    • Intermediate steps stored in self.step_dir
    • self.step_dir and other "mutations" to Flow object have no effect on future .start() invocations, which are (more or less) idempotent
  • Remove ConfigBuilder and fold methods into Config
• Added make host-docs to Makefile

2.0.0a31

• Replace OpenSTA binary name check with an environment variable, OPENSTA

2.0.0a30

• Added ability to use --dockerized without further arguments to drop into a shell
• Reimplemented --dockerized - needs to be the first argument provided
• Reimplemented --smoke-test to not use a subprocess
  • --smoke-test doesn't attempt to handle --dockerized on its own anymore
• Fixed permissions bug when running a smoke test from a read-only filesystem
• Fixed race condition for temporary directories on macOS (and presumably Windows)

2.0.0a29

• Added run-time type checkers for SequentialFlow Substitute dictionary
• Folded init_with_config into constructor and deprecate it
• Fixed SequentialFlow step substitution bug by moving variable compilation to instance instead of class

2.0.0a28

• Added missing macro orientations
• Added missing PDN_CFG configuration variable
• Fixed crash when defining SYNTH_READ_BLACKBOX_LIB
• Streamlined all read messages in OpenROAD scripts and macro-related read messages in Yosys scripts.
• Cleaned up YosysStep hierarchy
• Cleaned up synthesize.tcl

Thanks @smunaut for the bug reports!

2.0.0a27

• Added cloup library for better argument grouping/prettier --help with click
• Added ability to substitute steps with a certain id in a SequentialFlow with other Step classes
• Added --only, --skip to commandline interface for SequentialFlows
• Changed processing of how --from and --to are done in SequentialFlows
• Better delineation of class vs. instance variables in documentation
• Type checker now also checks functions without typed headers
• Fixed minor bugs with Decimal serialization and deserialization
• Class/step registry now case-insensitive
• Moved documentation dependencies to separate requirements file
• Removed jupyter from requirements_dev.txt- too many dependencies and can just be installed with pip install jupyter
• Various documentation improvements and fixes

2.0.0a26

• Yosys steps now read macro netlists as a black-box if applicable
• Renamed STA steps to avoid ambiguity

2.0.0a25

• Made optional/default handling more straightforward to fix issue where the default value of an Optional is not None.
• Fixed config var inheritance issue for OpenROAD.ParasiticsSTA

2.0.0a24

• Add support for gf180mcuC to PDK monkey-patch procedure
• Update some PDK variables to be optional: GPIO_PADS_LEF, IGNORE_DISCONNECTED_MODULES
• Remove unused PDK variable: CELL_CLK_PORT

2.0.0a23

• Added warning on multiple clocks in base.sdc
• Added usage of translation hook for SDC scripts
  • Folded sdc_reader.tcl into io.tcl
• Fixed calculation issue with I/O delays in base.sdc
• Fixed SPEF read invocation to include instance path
• Renamed multiple functions in io.tcl for clarity and to avoid aliasing Tcl built-in functions
• Tcl reproducibles now add entire environment delta vs. just "extracted" variables
  • Better handling of objects inside the design directory

2.0.0a22

• Fixed a bug with initializing configurations using dictionaries.
• Added exception message for InvalidConfig.

2.0.0a21

• Created a (very) rudimentary plugin system
  • Add ability to list detected plugins with flag --list-plugins
• Fixed a problem with reading SPEF files for macros
• Various documentation updates

2.0.0a20

• Created a Macro definition object to replace a litany of variables.
  • libs, spefs and sdf files now use wildcards as keys, which will be matched against timing corners for loading, i.e., a SPEF with key nom_* will match timing corner nom_tt_025C_1v80.
    • This has been applied to PDK lib files, RCX rulesets and technology LEF files as well.
    • Toolbox object now has methods for matching the proper LIB/SPEF files.
• PDKs now list a DEFAULT_CORNER for picking LIB files as well as a list of STA_TIMING corners.
• Expanded the range of valid types for Variable: these new classes are supported, all with theoretically infinite nesting:
  • Dict
  • Union
  • Literal
• State rewritten to support nested dictionaries and type annotations.
  • (Subclass of Mapping- Python 3.8 does not support subscripting UserDict. Yep.)
• Created a config.json for the caravel_upw example for testing purposes.
• Updated Magic, add new patch for Clang
• self.state_in is now always a future for consistency, but run() now takes a state_in which is guaranteed to be resolved.
• EXTRA_LEFS, EXTRA_LIBS, etc kept as a fallback for consistency.
• Remove STA_PRE_CTS- STA now always propagates clocks

2.0.0a19

• Created new metric synthesis__check_error__count with a corresponding Checker, with said Checker being the new executor of the QUIT_ON_SYNTH_CHECKS variable
  • Check report parser imported from OpenLane 1
• Created SYNTH_CHECKS_ALLOW_TRISTATE to exclude unmapped tribufs from previous metric.
• Created new metric design__xor_difference__count with a corresponding Checker to flag a deferred error on XOR differences.
• Fixed a few typos.

2.0.0a18

• Updated the smoke test to support PDK downloads to a different directory.
• Updated config builder to resolve the PDK root much earlier to avoid an issue where a crash would affect the issue reproducible.
• Updated SYNTH_READ_BLACKBOX_LIB to read the full LIB variable instead of LIB_SYNTH, which also fixes a crash when reading JSON headers.
• Updated post-GRT resizer timing script to re-run GRT before the repair: see The-OpenROAD-Project/OpenROAD#3155
• Added a "yosys proc" to the JSON header generator (thanks @smnaut)
• Fixed a bug where random equidistant mode did not work for OpenROAD IO placer.

2.0.0a17

• Fixed a crash when the SCL is specified via command-line.
• Fixed a changelog merge nightmare.

2.0.0a16

• Reimplement DRC database using lxml
• Makefile venv creation updated
• Misc. aesthetic bugfixes for sequential flows

2.0.0a14

• Add steps to extract, preserve and check power connections:
  • Checker.DisconnectedPins: Checker for ReportDisconnectedPins.
  • Odb.ReportDisconnectedPins: Report disconnected instance pins in a design.
  • Yosys.JsonHeader: RTL to a JSON Header.
  • Odb.SetPowerConnections: Uses JSON generated in Yosys/JsonHeader and module information in Odb to add global connections for macros in a design.
• Add IGNORE_DISCONNECTED_MODULES as a PDK variable, as some cells need to be ignored.
• Rename SYNTH_USE_PG_PINS_DEFINES to SYNTH_POWER_DEFINE.
• Rename CHECK_UNMAPPED_CELLS to QUIT_ON_UNMAPPED_CELLS.
• Rename various metrics.
• Change various configuration variables for included caravel_upw design.
• Fix DIODE_INSERTION_STRATEGY translations
• Allow overriding from CLI when using Tcl configuration files.

2.0.0a13

Documentation

• Built-in flows now have full generated documentation akin to steps.
• Built-in steps now document their inputs, outputs and each built-in step has a human-readable text description.
• Rewrite the RTL-to-GDS guides.
• Add an architectural overview of OpenLane 2+.
• Document pin config file format.
• Add guides on writing custom flows AND custom steps.
• Add a migration guide from OpenLane 1.
• Port contributor's guide from OpenLane 1.
• Removed default values from Jupyter Notebook.

Functional

• Config is now immutable, .copy() can now take kwargs to override one or more values.
• TapDecapInsertion -> TapEndcapInsertion (more accurate)
• Dropped requirement for description to match between two variables to be "equal:" It is sometimes favorable to have a slightly different description in another step.
• OpenInKLayout/OpenInOpenROAD turned into sequential flows with one step instead of hacks.
• Fixed a bug where OpenInKLayout would exit instantly.
• Updated and fixed Optimizing demo flow, as well as delisting it.
• Port The-OpenROAD-Project/OpenLane#1723 to OpenLane 2.
• Remove Odb.ApplyDEFTemplate from default flow.

2.0.0a12

• Fixes a bug where if OpenLane is invoked from the same directory as the design, KLayout stream-outs would break.

2.0.0a11

• Update OpenROAD, Add ABC patch to use system zlib
• Adds SDC files as an input to OpenROADStep, NetlistSTA and LayoutSTA steps
• Add sdc_reader.tcl: a hook script for reading in SDC files while handling deprecated variables
• Replace deprecated variables in base.sdc
  • Properly use TIME_DERATING_CONSTRAINT in base.sdc
  • Properly use SYNTH_DRIVING_CELL in base.sdc
  • Properly use SYNTH_CLK_DRIVING_CELL in base.sdc

2.0.0a10

• Add wrapper.tcl to capture errors in Magic scripts.
• Fix instances of a deprecated variable was used in Magic scripts.

2.0.0a9

• Add port diode insertion script.
• Fix formula for calculating FP_TARGET_DENSITY_PCT.

2.0.0a8

• Update volare dependency.
• Update magic version + make magic nix derivation more resilient.

2.0.0a7

• Add the custom diode insertion script as a Step (disabled by default).
• Flow objects are now passed explicitly to child Step objects, removing earlier stack inspection code.
• flow_config_vars now only affect steps running inside a Flow.

2.0.0a6

• Add validation on step exit.

2.0.0a5

• Fix a small path resolution issue.

2.0.0a4

• Add basic CI that builds for Linux, macOS and Docker
• Various improvements to Dockerization so that openlane --dockerized can run on Windows

2.0.0a3

• Fixed an issue where KLayout scripts exited silently.

2.0.0a2

• Handle PDK_ROOT, PDK and STD_CELL_LIBRARY environment variables.
• Unify environment inspection by using os.environ- eliminated getenv
• KLayout scripts no longer accept environment variables.
• Updated Docker images for consistency.
• Added ReadTheDocs configuration.

2.0.0a1

• Update smoke test
• Fix bug with default variables

2.0.0dev15

• log -> info
• Add mitigation for KLayout None variables.
• logging isolated from common into its own module
• CLI now accepts either a value or a string for log levels.
• CLI now prints help if no arguments are provided.
• Fix issue where rich eats the cursor if it exits by interrupt.

2.0.0dev14

• Multiple logging levels specified via CLI. Can also be set via set_log_level in the API.
• Updated all run_subprocess invocations to create a log, named after the Step's id by default.
• Fixed issue with ROUTING_CORES not using the computer's total core count by default.
• Fixed an issue with Tcl config files where DESIGN_DIR was resolved relatively, which greatly confused KLayout.

2.0.0dev13

• Add ApplyDEFTemplate step.
• Update most odbpy CLIs to accept multiple LEF files.

2.0.0dev12

• Cleaned up build system.
• Add support for OpenROAD with or-tools on macOS.

2.0.0dev11

• Added QUIT_ON_SYNTH_CHECKS
• Added QUIT_ON_UNMAPPED_CELLS
• Added metric design__instance_unmapped__count
• Allowed MetricChecker to raise StepError

2.0.0dev10

• Updated OpenROAD to 6de104d and KLayout to 0.28.5.
• OpenROAD builds now use system boost to cut on build times.
• Added new dedicated interactive mode to replace "Step-by-step" API: activated by calling ConfigBuilder.interactive, which replaced per_step.
  • State, Config and Toolbox for Steps all become implicit and rely on global variables.
  • On the other hand, config= must now be passed explicitly to non-interactive flows.
• Added Markdown-based IPython previews for Step and Config objects.
  • Added an API to render DEF or GDS files to PNG files to help with that.
• Changed API for KLayout Python scripts to be a bit more consistent.
• Renamed a number of variables for consistency.
• Tweaked documentation slightly for consistency.

2.0.0dev9

• Moved State to its own submodule.
• Fixed bug with loading default SCL.

2.0.0dev8

• Added a step-by-step API for OpenLane.
  • Involves new ConfigBuilder method, per_step, which creates configuration files that can be incremented per-step.
  • This mode is far more imperative and calls may have side effects.
• Added an example IPython notebook to use the aforementioned API.
  • Add a number of APIs to display State as a part of a notebook.
• Added various default values for Step so it can be used without too many parameters. (config is still required, but state_in will become an empty state if not provided.)
• Moved various documentation functions to the Variable object so they can also be used by IPython.
• Updated documentation for Variable object.
• Various documentation updates and fixes.

2.0.0dev7

• More build fixes.

2.0.0dev6

• Added magic builds to macOS
• Fixed KLayout builds on macOS
• Tweaks to Nix build scripts
• Removed hack to make KLayout work on macOS
• Removed NoMagic flow

2.0.0dev5

• Fixed commandline --flow override.
• Removed call-stack based inference of state_in argument for steps: a step initialized without a state_in will have an empty in-state.
• Changed signature of Flow.run, Flow.start to return (State, List[Step]), returning only the last state as the per-step states can be accessed via step[i].state_out.
• Removed distinction between the Step.id and it factory-registered string: the ID is now used for the factory, in the format Category.Step for the built-in steps.
• Fixed --from and --to, also add validation and case-insensitivity.
• Various bugfixes to Tcl script packager.

2.0.0dev4

• Fix Optimizing flow.

2.0.0dev3

• Remove Mako as requirement, migrate relevant code.

2.0.0dev2

• Updated installation instructions.
• Separated variables step-by-step.
• Various fixes to environment variables, especially when using OpenROAD Odb Python scripts.
• Add specialized steps to check and/or quit on specific metrics and/or variables.

2.0.0dev1

• Rewrite OpenLane in Python using a new, Flow-based architecture.
• Add packaging using the Nix Package Manager to replace the Docker architecture.
• Added transparent Dockerization using --dockerized commandline argument, with images also built using Nix.