Quick Notes on Creating Standard Cell Designs Using Mentor Graphics ADK

Creating a Schematic using Design Architect

  1. Simply follow guidelines in Chapter 7 of the ADK User's Manual
  2. Be sure to invoke Design Architect using adk_da
  3. All components may be found in the ADK Library.  To access it, select "Libraries > ADK Libraries" from the main menu
  4. Note that input and output ports are located under "SDL Parts" in the ADK libraries

Automatic Placement and Routing with ICStation

The documentation in Chapter 9 of the ADK User's Manual is largely correct, except that it is not clear on a few points regarding where the design files should be located.  For a better chance at success follow these steps.
 
  1. Change directories to the directory where the component that you want to place and route is located.  In this example, we'll assume that the component name is "test"
  2. Set the Mentor working directory to the current directory (setenv MGC_WD .)
  3. Create a design viewpoint using the command adk_dve test
  4. Invoke adk_ic
  5. Create a cell using "cell > create" from the palette
  6. Fill in the pop-up form as follows