QFLOW(1)

💖 QFLOW(1) — the manual page bestie 💖

okay so. welcome to qflow, aka the Open-Source Digital Synthesis Flow. yes it's a manual page, no it does not have to be boring, and yes I'm gonna walk you through every single crumb of it. grab a snack. 🍓

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✨ NAME ✨

qflow — Open-Source Digital Synthesis Flow. that's it. that's the girl. 👑

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

qflow [processes] [options] <module_name>

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

okay so listen. qflow is the main executable for a complete tool chain that synthesizes digital circuits. like, full journey: you start with verilog source and you end with physical layout for a specific target fabrication process. start to finish. main character energy fr fr.

now here's the tea about the commercial world ☕ — in commercial electronics, digital synthesis targeting a chip design is usually bundled up into big ol' EDA software systems. and because commercial designers have to keep that cutting-edge performance, those toolchains just keep getting more and more expensive 💀 and they've largely priced themselves right out of everyone except the established integrated circuit manufacturers. which leaves a genuinely unfortunate gap where startup companies and small businesses literally cannot afford to do any sort of integrated circuit design.

and that's the gap qflow is trying to fill. 🫶 not me getting emotional about open-source EDA.

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👑 PROCESSES 👑

here's the whole lineup, bestie — pick your fighter:

• synthesize — synthesize verilog source
• place — run initial placement
• sta — static timing analysis
• route — run placement and route
• decongest — run congestion analysis, final place and route
• clean — remove temporary working files
• display — display routed result
• build — run scripts synthesize to route
• all — run scripts synthesize to display

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

• -T, --tech <name> — use technology <name> (default: osu035)
• -p, --project <name> — project root directory is <name>

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🎀 USAGE 🎀

the simplest way to use qflow? be in a directory with one Verilog file called input.v and then execute:

qflow build input.v

that runs all the necessary steps in order to produce a layout of the specified Verilog file. slay. ✨

but say you only want certain steps. no problem. first run:

qflow input.v

and then open qflow_exec.sh, uncomment the desired steps, and at last run:

./qflow_exec.sh

and yesss you can also change other "project-specific" details in the files qflow_vars.sh and project_vars.sh — which have also been created in the current directory. they're just sitting there. waiting for you. 🙈

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🔥 TECHNOLOGY 🔥

so qflow looks for technology files under /usr/share/qflow/tech. a shell script has to be placed in a sub directory there declaring where each of the technology files are located:

/usr/share/qflow/tech/[TECHNAME]/[TECHNAME].sh

usually, the files needed are placed in these locations:

/usr/share/qflow/tech/[TECHNAME]/SCN4M_SUBM.20.tech
/usr/share/qflow/tech/[TECHNAME]/[TECHNAME].magicrc
/usr/share/qflow/tech/[TECHNAME]/[TECHNAME].prm
/usr/share/qflow/tech/[TECHNAME]/[TECHNAME]_stdcells.v
/usr/share/qflow/tech/[TECHNAME]/[TECHNAME]_stdcells.lef
/usr/share/qflow/tech/[TECHNAME]/[TECHNAME].par
/usr/share/qflow/tech/[TECHNAME]/[TECHNAME]_stdcells.sp
/usr/share/qflow/tech/[TECHNAME]/[TECHNAME]_stdcells.lib

if no technology name is specified on the command line with the -T/--tech option, it will attempt to use the default technology, which is "osu035". that's the fallback bae. 💜

and if the technology files are located somewhere else? totally fine — you can specify that in qflow_vars.sh, which is created when running qflow. the variables "techdir" and "techname" must be changed accordingly. don't forget them, bestie, or she'll be looking in the wrong place. 😭

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💖 AUTHOR 💖

this manual page was written by Ruben Undheim <ruben.undheim@gmail.com> for the Debian project (and may be used by others). iconic of them honestly. 🫶

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that's the whole page, no cap. every flag, every path, every process, all accounted for. vibe check passed. ✅

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okay bye bestie!! this was QFLOW(1), dated 11 October 2015 — go build something gorgeous with it. 💅✨🌈