Chapter 8: Creating New Technologies
plug
8-3: Hierarchies of Technology Libraries
plug


Although a technology is normally described with a single library, it is also possible to string together a sequence of libraries to describe a technology. The sequence forms an inheritance hierarchy, where later libraries in the sequence can override elements found in earlier libraries. For example, one library could be a base description for a family of technologies, and another library could be a tailoring description that describes a specific family member. The tailoring library might be very small, consisting of a single node description. That information would then override or augment the base library.

To connect a sequence of libraries, a list is placed in the bottommost library pointing to the earlier, or dependent libraries. In the example below, the current library is "smallPads" and it is tailored with two other libraries: "pads" and "cmos" (the base library). Note that the list implicitly begins with the current library, and continues in reverse order. In this example, the first library examined is "padsSmall", followed by "pads" and finally the base library "cmos".

When a piece of technology information is found in more than one library, the latest one is used (i.e. the current library's version is used before a dependent library's version, and a dependent library's version is used before that of another dependent library higher up the list). Note that the version which is used is expected to be the most recently created version, and a warning message will be issued if this is not the case.

Control of the library list is done with the Edit Library Dependencies... command (in menu Edit / Technology Editing).

A dialog is presented with two lists of libraries. The list on the left shows the dependent libraries and the list on the right shows all current libraries.
Figure 8.2

By selecting a library name from the list on the right and clicking on the "<< Add" button, it is added to the list on the left. To add a library not shown, type its name into the box on the right and click the "<< Add" button. To remove a library from the list on the left, select it and click the "Remove" button.


Prev Previous     Contents Table of Contents     Next Next