BrownieHaHa
Newbie level 6
Hello everyone,
I'm currently working with StarRC for parasitic extraction and ICC2 for APR flows, and both of these tools utilize nxtgrd files. However, e.g., when extracting parasitics using nxtgrd, I encountered the following log message:
Then I checked the nxtgrd file provided by the foundry, they were generated using StarRC @ J-2014.06-SP2-1, and the QA report also corresponds to that version. Currently, I’m using the 2022-2023 versions of StarRC (I may use either, so I won’t list specifics), and I don't have access to the 2014 package any more. Additionally, updating other EDA tools to match the old version is quite cumbersome.
I tried regenerating the nxtgrd file using a newer version of StarRC (using the original ITF file provided by the foundry), but the new nxtgrd file is only around 40MB, which is about half the size of the original file provided by the foundry.
Furthermore, I came across some examples online indicating that older versions of nxtgrd files have some trouble when performing SMC extraction by StarRC(though mine haven't encounted this issue yet), there aren’t similar articles explaining how the StarRC version affects the generation of nxtgrd files or the subsequent parasitic extraction and APR. I wonder if it will affect the design's accuracy.
Currently, I haven't compared the impact of using the two versions of nxtgrd on parasitic extraction or APR. I’d like to ask if using the newer version of StarRC to regenerate nxtgrd is advisable or necessary?
Also, this situation isn't exclusive to Synopsys tools; Cadence's QRC files also date back to around 2015.
Thank you in advance!
I'm currently working with StarRC for parasitic extraction and ICC2 for APR flows, and both of these tools utilize nxtgrd files. However, e.g., when extracting parasitics using nxtgrd, I encountered the following log message:
Code:
INFORMATION: TCAD_GRD_FILE (nxtgrd file) generated by >4 years older version than the StarRC
version is used for this extraction. (SX-3595)Then I checked the nxtgrd file provided by the foundry, they were generated using StarRC @ J-2014.06-SP2-1, and the QA report also corresponds to that version. Currently, I’m using the 2022-2023 versions of StarRC (I may use either, so I won’t list specifics), and I don't have access to the 2014 package any more. Additionally, updating other EDA tools to match the old version is quite cumbersome.
I tried regenerating the nxtgrd file using a newer version of StarRC (using the original ITF file provided by the foundry), but the new nxtgrd file is only around 40MB, which is about half the size of the original file provided by the foundry.
Furthermore, I came across some examples online indicating that older versions of nxtgrd files have some trouble when performing SMC extraction by StarRC(though mine haven't encounted this issue yet), there aren’t similar articles explaining how the StarRC version affects the generation of nxtgrd files or the subsequent parasitic extraction and APR. I wonder if it will affect the design's accuracy.
Currently, I haven't compared the impact of using the two versions of nxtgrd on parasitic extraction or APR. I’d like to ask if using the newer version of StarRC to regenerate nxtgrd is advisable or necessary?
Also, this situation isn't exclusive to Synopsys tools; Cadence's QRC files also date back to around 2015.
Thank you in advance!
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