1. OpenAccess Coalition: Goals and Status
Sumit DasGupta
VP of Technology
Silicon Integration Initiative (Si2)
Austin, TX
1/13/2019

2. OpenAccess Coalition (OAC) Structure and Process
Outline
OpenAccess Goals
OpenAccess Coalition (OAC) Structure and Process
OAC Participation
OpenAccess Technology
OpenAccess Status
1/13/2019

3. OpenAccess Goals Provide an IC design tool infrastructure that yields
Integrated systems rather than sequential flows
Choice of design tools and provider
Technology transfer of innovative research
Collaborative design capability for ICs
Promote an open standard for IC design data access
Gain adoption of the standard within the EDA industry and university research programs
1/13/2019

4. EDA Interoperability Genealogy
Design to
Manufacturing
Data Sharing
Process level integration
Multi-vendor integrated systems
2002
Open Data API
Single vendor integrated systems
Proprietary Data APIs
Loosely coupled systems
Open File Formats
Tool-Data
Binding
Proprietary File Formats
1/13/2019

5. Openness Defined... Accessible by all parties:
Anyone can use, change, embed, or redistribute according to clearly established terms
Reasonable cost:
Established prices (if any) are based on service value and do not present an undue barrier to any company, regardless of size
Managed migration by stakeholders:
Controlled evolution of the technology by an elected Change Team
1/13/2019

6. Founded on a Technology Transfer from Cadence Design Systems
What is OpenAccess?
Commercial
EDA Tools
Internal
Proprietary
Tools
University
Research
Cores/Cells
Gates
Transistors
Layout
Standard API
HDL
Mask .
Reference
Database
Founded on a Technology Transfer from Cadence Design Systems
1/13/2019

7. OpenAccess Structure/Membership
Cadence HP
IBM
Intel
LSI Logic
Mitsubishi
Motorola
Nassda
Numerical Tech
Philips
Sagantec
ST Microelectronics
Sun
Synplicity
Tektronix
Verisity
Artisan*
OpenAccess Community
Governing Coalition
12 Member Change Team
Two Architects
1/13/2019

8. OpenAccess Coalition
Coalition members have specific rights and responsibilities
Share in funding
Operate to open, unbiased decision-making policy
Abide by OpenAccess Participation agreement terms, and joint funding for development and facilitation
Guide future of API and Reference Code
Elect Change Team to manage revisions
Coalition member benefits
Early access to planned/future releases of reference database code
Participate in Change Team
Set direction and vote on development priorities
All things equal, higher priority for member requests
Discounted training, support and access to Si2
1/13/2019

9. OpenAccess Change Team
Responsibilities
Approving body for API & Reference DB changes
Specifies changes to code integrator
Caretakers for OA Technical Roadmap
Makeup
12 annually-elected Coalition company representatives
1 representative per company, 1 vote per company
Max of 5 EDA companies (4 plus Cadence)
Chaired by 2 architects who must be CT members (Cadence and 1 elected non- EDA company)
Approval of change requires 9 “Yes” votes
1/13/2019

10. OpenAccess Community
Any person/enterprise can download OpenAccess package
Click-through Internal Use License
Free access to API
Free access to reference database binaries for Internal Use
Signed Distribution License
Free access to reference database source code for Internal Use
Royalty-free distribution rights for OA reference database binaries with derivative works
Rights to fix bugs (cannot alter API syntax, semantics or behavior) and distribute corrected binaries to customers
1/13/2019

11. Si2 Role Manages licensing of OpenAccess packages
Facilitates and supports the OpenAccess Coalition
Facilitate, assist and participate in DWGs and activities
Oversee the Change Team
Puts in place a program to resolve:
Level-1 support for critical bug reports against standard package
Resolve interoperability issues
Assure compliance of delivered code to the specifications
Coordinates with other standards organizations
1/13/2019

12. OpenAccess Process Community . . Change Team Coalition OpenAccess
Packages
Contributions
Issues
Code Repository
Issue Tracking System
Cadence or
Contractor
Change Team
Coalition
1/13/2019

13. OpenAccess Technology
OA features:
Standard information model for IC design data
Standard C++ interface (API) to access and manipulate data
Reference commercial-grade database compliant with API
Development support aids
OA provides:
Greater design productivity
Standard Model & API provide for choice & tighter design flows
Reduced development and support cost
Reference DB provides solution for IC designers and EDA developers right out of the box
Better interoperability
Reference Database provides “golden behavior” for development & test, & for interoperability issue resolution
1/13/2019

14. Open Access Deliverables
The Standard
The Reference Implementation
Information Model
(Graphical)
Runtime Memory
Data Model
(C++ Headers)
API Implementation
( Solaris / HP-UX, C++ Binding )
API
Specification
(C++ Binding)
The OpenAccess Standard
The standard is the API, which is defined by several documents
Information model: describes objects, attributes for each, and relationships for the design data model
API Language Reference Manual: defines the function, syntax and semantics of each function (Method) within the API
Header files: machine sensible description of the APIs and standard structures and enums
Test cases: covering nearly 100% of the API functionality explicitly define the API’s behavior
Freely available to anyone
Ultimate goal is to gain IEEE accreditation as an industry standard
The OpenAccess Reference Database
Fully supports the API
Production quality
Freely available to all
Available in binary and source form
Royality-free redistribution rights for binaries
Persistent
Store
Application(s)
1/13/2019

15. OpenAccess Code Availability Status/Schedule
OpenAccess Version 1(C)
OpenAccess API Specification and Code (C++) (OAC and Community)
OpenAccess Reference Database (C++) (OAC and Community)
Added function: OpenAccess API Specification/Code and OpenAccess Reference Database (OAC and Community)
Now
06/30/2003
1/13/2019

16. OpenAccess Information Sources
OpenAccess training classes
1/13/2019