NAME

       cougar - Hierarchical netlist extractor

SYNOPSIS

       cougar [ -v ] [ -c ] [ -f ] [ -t ] [ -ar ] [ -ac ] input_name [ output_name ]

DESCRIPTION

       Lynx changed its name to Cougar during May 2002 in order to avoid name conflict with the famous text-mode
       Web  browser.  Cougar is a hierarchical layout extractor.  It builds a netlist of interconnections from a
       symbolic layout view.  The input argument is the name of the symbolic layout cell to be extracted,  using
       as  input  format  the  one selected by the MBK_IN_PH(1) environment variable.  If output is present, the
       resulting netlist will be given this name.  If no output is given, then input will also be the  generated
       netlist name.  The output format is specified by the MBK_OUT_LO(1) environment variable.
       As  most  of  the  Alliance  cad  tools,  cougar  uses  mbk(1)  environment  variables.  MBK_CATA_LIB(1),
       MBK_WORK_LIB(1), MBK_IN_PH(1), MBK_OUT_LO(1), RDS_TECHNO_NAME(1).

       Cougar computes capacitances attached to the signals if the -ac option is set. At the moment,  the  value
       of  these capacitances is computed for a typical one micron technology, and cannot be changed by the user
       through a technology file.  The extracted netlist can be simulated for performance evaluation.
       The typical capacitances are given below in 10e-18 farad / lamda^2 :

       POLY                100

       ALU1                50

       ALU2                25

OPTIONS

       Cougar checks the two basic ALLIANCE rules regarding connector names:
              If two physical connectors are connected to the same net, they must have the same name.
              If two physical connectors have the same name, they must be internally connected to the same net.
       As a result only one logical connector will appear in the netlist.  A fatal error occurs if one of  those
       two rules is violated ( even for power and ground connectors )

       When no options are specified, the current hierarchical level is extracted.  The resulting netlist is the
       list  of  interconnections  of the current layout hierarchy level.  Three options are available to change
       cougar behaviour :

       -t     Notifies a transistor level extraction, the symbolic layout cell is flattened to transistor layout
              before extraction.

       -f     The symbolic layout cell is flattened to the catalog level before extraction.  Use "man catal" for
              detail on  the  catalog file.  If the catalog is empty,  or  doesn't  exist,  the  netlist  is  an
              interconection  of  transistors, if  it isn't, the netlist is an interconection of gates or blocks
              whose names are defined in the catalog.

       -v     Verbose mode on.  Each step of the extraction is displayed on the standard   output,  along   with
              some statistics.

       -c     Generates  a  core  file  representing  the  conflictuel  net,  when  cougar  detects two external
              connectors with different names on the same signal, or  when  it  finds  two  external  connectors
              having  the  same  name  but not internally connected to the same net, or when it cannot correctly
              extract an L shaped transistor.

       -ac    Extract capacitance to ground on losig.

       -ar    Extract interconnect resistance and capacitance to ground. Value of resistance foreach  layer  can
              be changed in the RDS file.

EXAMPLES

        prompt> cougar -v amd2901
              Gives a logical netlist of the chip amd2901, for one hierarchical level, using verbose mode.  This
              would  be  typically used to verify the work of the ring(1) router, in conjunction with lvx on the
              specificated netlist and the extracted one.

       prompt> cat $MBK_WORK_LIB/$MBK_CATAL_NAME
       a2_y
       a2p_y
        .
        .
       prompt> cougar -f amd2901
              Gives a logical netlist of the chip amd2901, after a  flatten  operation  stopping  on  the  cells
              specified in the catalog ( the standard cell library in our case ).

       prompt> cougar -t amd2901
              Gives  a  logical  netlist  of  the  amd2901  chip  at  the transistor level.  This is useful with
              yagle(1), to retrieve logical equations from a layout.

SEE ALSO

       al(5), MBK_CATA_LIB(1), MBK_WORK_LIB(1), MBK_CATAL_NAME(1), MBK_IN_PH(1), catal(5), RDS_TECHNO_NAME(1).

ASIM/LIP6                                        October 1, 1997                                       COUGAR(1)