Anyone know anything about L-Edit?

[Cubsfan]

I am in a CMOS design class right now and this program is frustrating the heck out of me. I have 3 questions:

1. How does this program determine which side of your FET is the drain and which is the source? It seems arbitrary. I know they are pretty much interchangable, but it is a real pain when you extract large circuits and have to figure out where the nodes go.

2. How does this program assign nodes, and transistor names? This too seems arbitrary. I have to go back into every drawing and figure out which FET is which from the extraction (spice extraction incase that wasnt clear)

3. How in the heck does it calculate the Area of Drain/Source and Periphery Drain/Source? These are always WAY off of the actual values. I always have to go back in and hand change every extraction for nodes and areas.

In case it matters I am using the morbin20.ext extraction to do all this stuff. This is all student version as well.

Is this program used heavily in industry? Its as bad as using MSPaint.

[RGillen]

I’ve never used L-Edit, but I’ll take a stab at your questions. I’m assuming it’s a layout editor that will extract a spice file for you.

*Originally posted by Stinkpalm *
1) How does this program determine which side of your FET is the drain and which is the source? It seems arbitrary. I know they are pretty much interchangable, but it is a real pain when you extract large circuits and have to figure out where the nodes go.

Everything I’ve ever used has been arbitrary. Can you assign a name to your nodes to make them easier to track in the spice file?

2) How does this program assign nodes, and transistor names? This too seems arbitrary. I have to go back into every drawing and figure out which FET is which from the extraction (spice extraction incase that wasnt clear)

Also arbitrary. The only advice I have is to name some nodes instead of letting the program assign numbers.

**3) How in the heck does it calculate the Area of Drain/Source and Periphery Drain/Source? These are always WAY off of the actual values. I always have to go back in and hand change every extraction for nodes and areas. **

Don’t know. Sorry.

**Is this program used heavily in industry? Its as bad as using MSPaint. **

I’ve never seen it in my (admittedly short) industry experience. The #1 schematic/layout program is certainly Cadence. #2 is Mentor Graphics. After that are several smaller tool suites. To be honest, I’ve never heard of L-Edit til now.

#1 and #2 cost roughly $100,000 - $200,000 per seat plus $20,000 - $30,000 a year for maintenance depending on how many features you want. I have heard of companies using the free Magic tools, but nobody “serious” does.

[Cubsfan]

*Originally posted by RGillen *
**

#1 and #2 cost roughly $100,000 - $200,000 per seat plus $20,000 - $30,000 a year for maintenance depending on how many features you want. I have heard of companies using the free Magic tools, but nobody “serious” does. **

OMG. $200K for one license? Then you need to buy a new SUV every year to keep it going? This has got to be the most expensive software on the market. I had no idea they cost so much. If those other ones are anything like L-Edit then they seem like glorified MSPaint V1.0.

[gazpacho]

*Originally posted by Stinkpalm *
**OMG. $200K for one license? Then you need to buy a new SUV every year to keep it going? This has got to be the most expensive software on the market. I had no idea they cost so much. If those other ones are anything like L-Edit then they seem like glorified MSPaint V1.0. **

Please you are only touching the surface of expensive CAD tools. You need synthesis tools as well. Then there are the layout tools. And the new physical synthesis tools. We are talking lots of bucks.