Virtuoso Layout Editor VS. Virtuosu XL Layout Editor

cadence virtuoso xl layout

Dear all,

I would like to get your suggestion on which tool is sufficient to do the layout job for an experienced layout engineer, say, more than 5 years hands on experience.

Virtuoso Layout Editor has PCELL feature, while Virtuoso XL Layout Editor has extended features such as connectivity driven and design rule driven. From this point of view, Virtuoso XL layout editor is definitely better than Virtuoso Layout Editor.

But for a seasoned layout engineer, would Virtuoso Layout Editor is sufficient for normal layout task? How much more productivity would Virtuoso XL Layout Editor bring comparing with Virtuoso Layout editor in terms of time, 50% or more? Would you still suggest your boss to buy Virtuoso XL although you are a seasoned layout engineer?

This question is raised because our boss want to save money to buy Virtuoso Layout Editor instead of Virtuoso XL.

Thanks in advance,
Raymond

buy virtuoso layout editor

Depends on what is your requirement. If you have to do a lot of layouts in short time like delivering standard cell database or something which has a lot of digital circuits in the design, then Virtuoso XL is a better option. For all the other things, Virtuoso is OK. Moreover a seasoned layout engineer should not have a problem dealing with Virtuoso. You can create a lot of SKILL scripts for customization.

virtuoso layout xl license

Typical pointy hair question.

Answer depends on what kind of layout tou are supposed to do. For small designs up to few thousands transistors Virtuoso is ok.
For larger designs the XL helps a lot.
But at the same time XL saves a lot of time just because it shows you where to route and you do not have be worried that you connect to different node. In that terms XL saves a lot of time.
In case you are supposed to do a lot of digital routing, buses and stuff get some third party tool for place and route - like Pulsic. It does not require XL option in cadence and does autoplace and decent autoroute.

XL on larger designs saves at least 40% of time and assures that layout will be correct first time.
Tell you boss that the more money you put to SW the less screwups you will get....

virtuoso autoroute

My experience is, normally Virtuoso XL will being used by most of the exp layout engineers to extract the pcells and then they can switch to normal virtuoso editor and do the placements & routing.

So as per my view, one license of XL & other licenses of Virtuoso Layout Editor should be sufficient enough .

virtuoso xl layout editor

virtuoso xl is so hard to start.and the layout hierachy must match the circuit .It drive my layout size is so huge.