IC DESIGN HARDWARE/SOFTWARE PROTOCOLS AND FORMATS

A VARIETY OF HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE VENDORS SUPPLY PARTIAL SOLUTIONS TO THE NAVY'S NEEDS FOR CAE/CAD WORKSTATIONS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUIT DESIGN. SERIOUS PROBLEMS ARISE WHEN PORTIONS OF A DESIGN NEED TO BE TRANSFERRED BETWEEN WORKSTATIONS OF DIFFERENT VENDORS. VALUABLE ENGINEERING TIME IS LOST AND ERRORS CAN BE INTRODUCED IN TRANSFERRING A DESIGN FILE OR REENTERING A DESIGN ON A DIFFERENT MACHINE. WE PROPOSE TO REDUCE ERRORS AND ENGINEERING TIME BY DEVELOPING A SYSTEM OF HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE TO GREATLY FACILITATE DESIGN TRANSFER. HARDWARE. DURING PHASE I, WE WILL IDENTIFY THE FILE TRANSFER PHYSICAL FORMATS AND PROTOCOLS FOR THE COMMON NAVY WORKSTATIONS AND SPECIFY IN DETAIL THE INTERMEDIATE HARDWARE REQUIRED TO TRANSFER DESIGN FILES BETWEEN WORKSTATIONS. SUCH HARDWARE WILL BE INEXPENSIVE AND AVAILABLE OFF-THE-SHELF. SOFTWARE. THE PROBLEM OF INCOMPATIBLE FILE FORMATS MAY BE SOLVED BY TRANSLATION SOFTWARE. WE WILL IDENTIFY THE FILE FORMATS MOST COMMONLY USED BY THE NAVY DURING THE INTEGRATED CIRCUIT DESIGN PROCESS AND SPECIFY THE FUNCTION OF A SET OF SOFTWARE TRANSLATORS TO CONVERT BETWEEN THE FORMATS. DURING PHASE I, WE WILL ALSO WRITE ONE OF THESE TRANSLATORS AND DELIVER TO THE NAVY SOFTWARE THAT CONVERTS BETWEEN TWO MASK LAYOUT FORMATS: CIF AND CALMA GDS II.