IIC-OSIC-TOOLS

This environment is based on the efabless.com FOSS-ASIC-TOOLS https://github.com/efabless/foss-asic-tools

IIC-OSIC-TOOLS is an all-in-one Docker container for SKY130-based integrated circuit designs for analog and digital circuit flows. The CPU architectures x86_64 and aarch64 are natively supported based on RockyLinux 9. This collection of tools is curated by the Institute for Integrated Circuits (IIC), Johannes Kepler University (JKU). It supports two modes of operation:

1. Using a complete desktop environment (XFCE) in Xvnc (a VNC server), either directly accessing it with a VNC client of your choice or the integrated noVNC server that runs now in your browser.
2. Using a local X11 server and directly showing the application windows on your desktop.

Watch this 5min video to kickstart your analog project (draft - more detailed information is coming).

Installed Tools

Below is a list of the current tools already installed and ready to use (note there are some adaptions in our container vs. efabless.com):

• amaranth a Python-based HDL toolchain
• cocotb simulation library for writing VHDL and Verilog testbenches in Python
• covered Verilog code coverage
• cvc circuit validity checker (ERC)
• fault design-for-test (DFT) solution
• gaw3-xschem waveform plot tool for xschem
• gdsfactory Python library for GDS generation
• gdspy Python module for creation and manipulation of GDS files
• ghdl VHDL simulator
• gtkwave waveform plot tool for digital simulation
• iic-osic collection of useful scripts and documentation
• irsim switch-level digital simulator
• iverilog Verilog simulator
• klayout layout tool
• magic layout tool with DRC and PEX
• netlistsvg draws SVG netlist from yosys JSON netlist
• netgen netlist comparison (LVS)
• ngspice SPICE analog simulator
• nvc VHDL simulator and compiler
• open_pdks PDK setup scripts
• openlane digital RTL2GDS flow
• openroad collection of tools for openlane
• opensta static timing analyzer for digital flow
• padring padring generation tool
• pyrtl collection of classes for pythonic RTL design
• pyspice interface ngspice and xyce from Python
• pyverilog Python toolkit for Verilog
• rggen code generation tool for configuration and status registers
• spyci analyze/plot ngspice/xyce output data with Python
• vlog2verilog Verilog file conversion
• risc-v toolchain GNU compiler toolchain for RISC-V RV32I cores
• siliconcompiler modular build system for hardware
• sky130 SkyWater Technologies 130nm CMOS PDK
• verilator fast Verilog simulator
• xschem schematic editor
• xyce fast parallel SPICE simulator (incl. xdm netlist conversion tool)
• yosys Verilog synthesis tool (with GHDL plugin for VHDL synthesis)

The tool versions used for OpenLane are documented in tool_metadata.yml and the other tools in tool_metadata_add.yml.

Quick Launch for Designers

Download and install Docker for your operating system:

• All platforms (Linux)
• Windows
• Mac with Intel Chip
• Mac with Apple Chip

Note for Linux: Do not run docker commands or the start scripts as root (sudo)! Follow the instructions in Post-installation steps for Linux

The following start scripts are intended as helper scripts for local or small-scale (single instance) deployment. If you need to run a bulk of instances, consider starting the containers with a custom start script.

Customizing Environment

All user data is persistently placed in the directory pointed to by the environment variable DESIGNS (the default is $HOME/eda/designs for Linux/macOS and %USERPROFILE%\eda\designs for Windows, respectively).

If a file .designinit is put in this directory, it is sourced last when starting the Docker environment. In this way, users can adapt settings to their needs.

Using VNC and noVNC

This mode is recommended for remote operation on a separate server or if you prefer the convenience of a full desktop environment. To start it up, you can use (in a Bash/Unix shell):

./start_vnc.sh

On Windows, you can use the equivalent batch script (if the defaults are acceptable, it can also be started by double clicking in the Explorer):

.\start_vnc.bat

You can now access the Desktop Environment through your browser (http://localhost). The default password is abc123.

Variables for VNC

Both scripts will use default settings, which you can tweak by settings shell variables (VARIABLE=default is shown):

• DRY_RUN (unset by default); if set to any value (also 0, false, etc.), makes the start scripts print all executed commands instead of running. Useful for debugging/testing or just creating "template commands" for unique setups.
• DESIGNS=$HOME/eda/designs (DESIGNS=%USERPROFILE%\eda\designs for .bat) sets the directory that holds your design files. This directory is mounted into the container on /foss/designs.
• WEBSERVER_PORT=80 sets the port on which the Docker daemon will map the webserver port of the container to be reachable from localhost and the outside world. 0 disables the mapping.
• VNC_PORT=5901 sets the port on which the Docker daemon will map the VNC server port of the container to be reachable from localhost and the outside world. This is only required if you want to access the UI with a different VNC client. 0 disabled the mapping.
• DOCKER_USER="hpretl" username for the Docker Hub repository from which the images are pulled. Usually, no change is required.
• DOCKER_IMAGE="iic-osic-tools" Docker Hub image name to pull. Normally no change is required.
• DOCKER_TAG="latest" Docker Hub image tag. By default, it pulls the latest version; this might be handy to change if you want to match a specific version set.
• CONTAINER_USER=$(id -u) (the current user's ID, CONTAINER_USER=1000 for .bat) The user ID (and also group ID) is especially important on Linux and macOS because those are the IDs used to write files in the DESIGNS directory. For debugging/testing, the user and group ID can be set to 0 to gain root access inside the container.
• CONTAINER_GROUP=$(id -g) (the current user's group ID, CONTAINER_GROUP=1000 for .bat)
• CONTAINER_NAME="iic-osic-tools_xvnc_uid_"$(id -u) (attaches the executing users id to the name on Unix, or only CONTAINER_NAME="iic-osic-tools_xvnc for .bat) is the name that is assigned to the container for easy identification. It is used to identify if a container exists and is running.

To overwrite the default settings, see Overwriting Shell Variables

Using a Local X-Server

This mode is recommended if the container is run on the local machine. It is significantly faster than VNC (as it renders the graphics locally), is more lightweight (no complete desktop environment is running), and integrates with the desktop (copy-paste, etc.). To start the container run

./start_x.sh

or

.\start_x.bat

Attention Windows and macOS users: The X-server connection is automatically killed if there is a too long idle period in the terminal (when this happens, it looks like a crash of the system). A workaround is to start a second terminal from the initial terminal that pops up when executing the start scripts ./start_x.sh or .\start_x.bat, and then start htop in the initial terminal. In this way, there is an ongoing display activity in the initial terminal, and as a positive side-effect, the usage of the machine can be monitored. We are looking for a better long-term solution.

Variables for X11

The following environment variables are used for configuration:

• DRY_RUN (unset by default), if set to any value (also 0, false, etc.), makes the start scripts print all executed commands instead of running. Useful for debugging/testing or just creating "template commands" for unique setups.
• DESIGNS=$HOME/eda/designs (DESIGNS=%USERPROFILE%\eda\designs for .bat) sets the directory that holds your design files. This directory is mounted into the container on /foss/designs.
• DOCKER_USER="hpretl" username for the Docker Hub repository from which the images are pulled. Usually, no change is required.
• DOCKER_IMAGE="iic-osic-tools" Docker Hub image name to pull. Normally no change is required.
• DOCKER_TAG="latest" Docker Hub image tag. By default, it pulls the latest version; this might be handy to change if you want to match a specific Version set.
• CONTAINER_USER=$(id -u) (the current user's ID, CONTAINER_USER=1000 for .bat) The user ID (and also group ID) is especially important on Linux and macOS because those are the IDs used to write files in the DESIGNS directory.
• CONTAINER_GROUP=$(id -g) (the current user's group ID, CONTAINER_GROUP=1000 for .bat)
• CONTAINER_NAME="iic-osic-tools_xserver_uid_"$(id -u) (attaches the executing users id to the name on Unix, or only CONTAINER_NAME="iic-osic-tools_xserver for .bat) is the name that is assigned to the container for easy identification. It is used to identify if a container exists and is running.

macOS and Windows-specific Variables

For Mac and Windows, the X11 server is accessed through TCP (:0, aka port 6000). To control the server's address, you can set the following variable:

• DISP=host.docker.internal:0 is the environment variable that is copied into the DISPLAY variable of the container. host.docker.internal resolves to the host's IP address inside the docker containers, :0 corresponds to display 0 which corresponds to TCP port 6000.

If the executable xauth is in PATH, the startup script automatically disables access control for localhost, so the X11 server is open for connections from the container. If not, a warning will be shown, and you have to disable access control by yourself.

Linux-specific Variables

For Linux, the local X11 server is accessed through a Unix socket. There are multiple variables to control:

• XSOCK=/tmp/.X11-unix is typically the default location for the Unix sockets. The script will probe if it exists and, if yes, mount it into the container.
• DISP has the same function as macOS and Windows. It is copied to the container's DISPLAY variable. If it is not set, the value of DISPLAY from the host is copied.
• XAUTH defines the file that holds the cookies for authentication through the socket. If it is unset, the host's XAUTHORITY contents are used. If those are unset too, it will use $HOME/.Xauthority.

The defaults for these variables are tested on native X11 servers, X2Go sessions, and Wayland. The script copies and modifies the cookie from the.Xauthority file into a separate, temporary file. This file is then mounted into the container.

Installing X11-Server

Everything should be ready to go on Linux with a desktop environment / UI (this setup has been tested on X11 and XWayland). For Windows and macOS, the installation of an X11 server is typically required. Due to the common protocol, every X11-server should work, although the following are tested:

• For Windows: VcXsrc
• For macOS: XQuartz Important: Please enable "Allow connections from network clients" in the XQuartz preferences [CMD+","], tab "Security"

For both X-Servers, it is strongly recommended to enable OpenGL:

• The start_x.sh script will take care of that on macOS and set it according to configuration values. Only a manual restart of XQuartz is required after the script is run once (observe the output!).

• On Windows with VcXsrv, we recommend using the utility "XLaunch" (installed with VcXsrv):

  • Multiple windows mode
  • Set the Display Number to 0
  • Start no client
  • Tick all Extra settings: Clipboard, Primary selection, Native opengl and Disable access control

Overwriting Shell Variables

For the Linux/macOS Bash Scripts

There are multiple ways to configure the start scripts using Bash. Two of them are shown here. First, the variables can be set directly for each run of the script; they are not saved in the active session:

DESIGNS=/my/design/directory DOCKER_USERNAME=another_user ./start_x.sh

The second variant is to set the variables in the current shell session (not persistent between shell restarts or shared between sessions):

export DESIGNS=/my/design/directory
export DOCKER_USERNAME=another_user
./start_x.sh

As those variables are stored in your current shell session, you only have to set them once. After setting, you can directly run the scripts.

For the Windows Batch Scripts

In CMD you can't set the variables directly when running the script. So for the .bat scripts, it is like the second variant for Bash scripts:

SET DESIGNS=\my\design\directory
SET DOCKER_USERNAME=another_user
.\start_x.bat

Details for Developers and Contributors

Prerequisites

• Docker

Building the container

The installation slightly differs from the original foss-asic-tools installation by efabless.com. For this image, the build is replaced with a single Dockerfile for convenience when doing a multi-architecture build. For a basic single (native)-architecture build, just run

docker build .

You can add build parameters accordingly. We strongly recommend using docker buildx because of buildkit (parallel building) and multi-architecture support. The script build_all.sh includes building with buildx, on two different machines (for fast amd64 and arm64 builds) and pushes both images to the Docker Hub under the same tag. The script includes multiple environment variables with defaults. If you intend to build this image, we encourage you to use this script as a template. The predefined settings are for the IIC build-machines, and the image gets pushed with the tags latest and year.month.

Detailed container settings

For specific use cases, the containers can be started without the help of the start scripts. Here are a few things to note down:

Environment Variables

The container makes use of several environment variables to control the behavior. WARNING: those values maybe impact the functionality of the container. Do not change them unless you know what you are doing.

The internal VNC and webserver ports are defined by environment variables (not to be confused with the variables in the start script, those manage the external ports, to which the Docker daemon maps the ports! It works best if those are matched.). Those are used in the Dockerfile for the exposed ports and the configuration of the services.

• VNC_PORT=5901 The default internal VNC port.
• NO_VNC_PORT=80 The default internal webserver port.

Furthermore, the following variables can be set:

• HOME=/headless sets the home directory in the container.
• TERM=xterm is the default graphical terminal emulator.
• STARTUPDIR=/dockerstartup is the directory in which all container-related scripts are put.
• NO_VNC_HOME=/dockerstartup/noVNC is the directory for the noVNC installation.
• VNC_COL_DEPTH=24 VNC color resolution.
• VNC_RESOLUTION=1680x1050 VNC display resolution. NOTE: This can also be changed while running in the Desktop environment by going to Settings->Display.
• VNC_PW=abc123 Default VNC password.
• VNC_VIEW_ONLY=false can set the VNC server to view only.
• DESIGNS=/foss/designs Default directory, where the designs are placed.
• TOOLS=/foss/tools Default tools directory.
• PDK_ROOT=/foss/pdks Default PDKs directory.

Entrypoint script

The entry point for this container is the ui_startup.sh script. It controls which kind of UI (Xvnc or connecting to local X11 server) is used. The control logic for the automatic mode is simple. If the environment variable DISPLAY is set, an already existing X11 server is assumed, and the startup script runs an XFCE4 terminal. If the DISPLAY is not set, it starts Xvnc and the noVNC web interface. This behavior can be overwritten with command line arguments.

The following command line arguments are supported:

• -X, --x11 Force to use local X11 forwarding requires a working combination of $DISPLAY, and either port forwards or mounted XAUTHORITY and .X11_unix socket.
• -V, --vnc Force use of VNC server, with noVNC and websockify.
• -w, --wait Runs the selected UI and waits for them to exit. The script will only return then. This flag is set in the container per default (via CMD in the Dockerfile).
• -s, --skip Skip the UI startup and execute the assigned command. WARNING: This must be the first parameter to the script, or it must be ignored! example: docker run hpretl/iic-osic-tools --skip bash
• -d, --debug Enables more detailed startup output e.g. docker run hpretl/iic-osic-tools --debug

As some examples already show, these parameters can be passed to the container via Docker:

docker run -it hpretl/iic-osic-tools:latest --wait --vnc

Notes

• Each tool has a separate directory in the images directory with the build script and additional required files.
• The tool versions (typically the commit hash) have defaulted in the Dockerfile. It can be overwritten via environment variables.
• Only the final image is tagged; the sub-tools are not. It is still possible to build only to a certain stage (stages are defined in the Dockerfile by FROM base_image as stage_name).
• The final image is called iic-osic-tool by default.
• Docker on Windows suffers from bad memory management due WSL2, especially for systems with less then 16GB RAM. As a workaround, a memory limit to WSL can be set. See Advanced settings configuration in WSL (look for the key "memory" in the wsl2 tag).

Todo

n/a