Features/FedoraElectronicLab8

= Fedora Electronic Laboratory =

Website and Downloads
Fedora Electronic Lab's website is now hosted on http://chitlesh.fedorapeople.org/FEL/. It entails more details.

Summary
"Fedora Electronic Lab" is a Feature for Fedora 8. It was approved  on FESCo Meeting (2007-08-16).

For Fedora 8's release, "Fedora Electronic Lab" targets mainly the Micro-Nano Electronic Engineering field.

It introduces
 * tools for Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) Design Flow process to the Fedora Collection for ASIC Design Flow.
 * extra open source standard cell libraries supporting a feature size of 0.13µm
 * extracted spice decks which are simulated with gnucap/ngspice

It is intended for electronic, VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) students and hobbyists for educational purposes.

Owner

 * Name: ChitleshGoorah

Benefit to Fedora
Fedora is the first Linux distribution which considers to ship and provide adequate opensource tools to VLSI users and to more than 250 universities around the world.

Ultimately, tagging "Micro Nano Electronic CADs at the Fedora Project".

Interoperability between opensource Layout Editors and between Hardware Language Descriptions sustains the living Fedora culture to meet Interoperability as much as possible.

Even if the targeted public might be a niche target user, if a university lab decides to switch to fedora to use the lab, there might more than 20 computers running fedora afterwards :) Let's take over the niche :-D

User Experience

 * A complete VLSI Simulation Kit Electronic Engineering ensuring Interoperability.
 * Interoperability between Hardware Description Languages
 * Interoperability between opensource Layout Editors which Fedora is shipping :
 * alliance
 * magic
 * toped
 * Field of expertise provided are mentioned in [wiki:Features/FedoraElectronicLab#details Detail Descriptions] :
 * extra open source standard cell libraries at disposal (Feature Size: 0.13µm) for Alliance and magic

FAQ

 * How can I install all the gEDA/gaf applications at once ?
 * # yum install geda\*
 * What are the backends supported by gnetlist (from geda-gnetlist?
 * $ gnetlist -g helpwill list all the available backends of gnetlist.
 * The VHDL backend of gnetlist can't be trusted when I extract the VHDL netlists from the schematics drawn by gschem.
 * Real logic designs are captured as Verilog or VHDL in text format, and compiled directly to programming files which are loaded into FPGAs, CPLDs, and the like. At the schematic level one just draws lots of boxes with lots of pins corresponding to the FPGA or CPLD. Therefore, using gschem to draw a logic circuit and then netlist to VHDL isn't a commonly used design flow nowadays. Instead, people just create a textual design using a text editor.
 * Where can I get more standard cell libraries ?
 * Fedora provides standard cell libraries (sclib, wsclib, vxlib, vgalib and rgalib) from vlsitechnology.org (LGPL thanks to Graham Petley)
 * yum install pharosc\*
 * mosis.org
 * From your educational institutions
 * From other vendors depending on your use
 * What can't Fedora ship more Open source standard cell libraries ?
 * We have been in contact with Graham Petley (author of vsclib, wsclib, vxlib, vgalib and rgalib shipped with pharosc). We are working with him to make pharosc more distribution independent and to provide testing grounds. Right now, fedora users can yum install pharosc with "yum install pharosc\*"
 * I want to donate my standard cell libraries to the Fedora Project, what should I do ?
 * Contact ChitleshGoorah: [[MailTo(chitlesh I DONT WANT SPAM @fedoraproject DOT org)] . He will package and include it for Fedora.

Glossary

 * ASIC : Application-Specific Integrated Circuit
 * gaf : gschem and friends
 * VLSI : Very Large Scale Integration, about 10⁶ to 10⁷ transistors

Release Notes
With this release, the Fedora Collection entails a complete electronic laboratory setup with reliable open source design tools in order to meet one's requirements to keep one in pace with current technological race. This Electronic Laboratory can either be deployed by:
 * yum or
 * a custom Fedora spin

With packages like Alliance VLSI CAD, Magic, irsim, ngspice, ... Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) Design Flows targeting the Micro-Nano Electronic Engineering world can be achieved and interoperability between packages are ensured.

The Fedora's Electronic Laboratory includes design tools for
 * Analog/Digital Simulation
 * Circuit Simulations
 * Hardware Development (VHDL,Verilog)- Modeling, Designing, Simulation, Synthesis, Verification and Documentation
 * VLSI (layout, synthesis, Finite State Machines...)
 * Micro Controller (µC) Programming
 * Embedded Systems Development

This laboratory is intended for electronic, VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration, about 10⁶ to 10⁷ transistors) students and hobbyists for educational purposes.