TROUBLESHOOTING

Troubleshooting
---------------

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Symptom:

    'icfb2' or other command gives this error in the UNIX shell:

    X Error of failed request:  BadName (named color or font does not exist)

  Solution:

    This usually means the XWindow manager on your local computer is either 
    not running or is missing fonts.  If you are using Xming, be sure it is
    running and also that the xming-fonts are installed 
    (http://sourceforge.net/projects/xming).   

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  To resolve errors in netlists in LVS, we have set this UNIX environment 
  variable in the default 'cadence.cshrc' on the Instructional systems:

 setenv CDS_Netlisting_Mode Analog

  The CDS_Netlisting_Mode variable controls how component description format 
  (CDF) properties are interpreted during netlisting.  More information can 
  be found at 
  https://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~inst/pub/nis/?file=Cadence/compverref/appA.html

  [thanks to Eric Chin for this solution, Sep 19 2007]
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  If a previous instance of a Cadence tool is still running, kill it using
  (for example):

    pkill -f icfb

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  You can create a log of the Cadence tools activity in the local /tmp 
  directory by starting Cacence with the UNIX command:

 /share/b/bin/icfb2 -log  /tmp/${USER}.log  &

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  If you run synergy with the -TEXT option, you'll see error messages that
  might otherwise be lost in windowing mode.

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Symptom:

    User's Cadence session appears to launch correctly (LSW show appropriate 
    layers, etc.), but when he draws shapes they don't appear in the window.  
    Using Ctrl+a for "select all" however shows that they are there, and are
    drawn on the correct layer.  These shapes can also be selected by drawing 
    a selection box around them, but they *cannot* be selected in the there, 
    and drawn on the correct layer.  These shapes can also be selected by
    drawing a selection box around them, but they *cannot* be selected in the
    normal way by clicking on them.  Also, markers from DRC checks, etc. do 
    not show up.  
   
  Solution:

    Be sure that the Window manager is set for "PseudoColor" (on PCs) or 
    PSEUDOCOLOR_VISUAL (on UNIX) as described above.

    If you have a previous, older version of the .cdsinit file in your UNIX 
    home directory or in your working directory, it may conflict with newer 
    settings (such as hot keys) that are set in
    /usr/eesww/cadence/setup/config/cadence.cshrc.  You can just delete your
    old .cdsinit files if you have not customized them.

    If you have a Cadence process already running on the UNIX computer you
    are logged into, kill it using:
   
 pkill -9 -f  cadence

    Start it again after updating your .cdsinit file(s).
  
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Symptom:

    'wrong authentication' error message.

   Cause:

     An X Windows program can't open a window on your workstation screen.

   Solution:

     See http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/connecting.html#xwindows
     for instructions about using X Windows on the Instructional computers.
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  Symptoms:

    'wrong authentication' error message.
    Saved files are size 0.

  Causes:

    You are over your disk quota, which prevents X Windows and Cadence from
    writing files.

  Solution:

    Use our temporary expansion disk and create a symbolic link to it from your
    UNIX home directory so that Cadence can find it.   
  
    Example:   Say your login is "jdoe" and you have a Cadence project called 
    "Project1".  Here is how to put that project on the temporary disk space 
    so Cadence it will find it:

    1) Log into your Instructional UNIX account (jdoe@cory.eecs, etc).

    2) Create a directory for yourself on our temporary disk space:

         /home/tmp/mkhometmpdir

       See http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/share/b/pub/disk.quotas fo details.

    3) Create a symbolic link to it in your home directory:

         mkdir home/tmp/jdoe ~jdoe/tmp

       (If you already have a ~jdoe/tmp directory or file, you'll need to
       pick a different name.)

    4) Move the Project1 directory to the tmp space and make a sym link to 
       it for Cadence:
   mv ~jdoe/Project1 ~jdoe/tmp/Project1
   ln -s ~jdoe/tmp/Project1 ~jdoe/Project1
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Symptom:
   
     Error checking out licenses, such as
       *WARNING* feature ###: not available - NOT checked out

  Solution:

      'hostname' of your computer must match exactly (case-sensitive) the
      name as it's listed in /usr/eesww/share/cadence/admin/license/clients.

      Change one so it agrees with the other and restart the Cadence tools.
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Symptom:

    "Hot Keys" are not enabled.  

  Cause:

    The user is failing to load the expected "leBindKeys.il" file.

  Solution:

    See below for details about the "leBindKeys.il" file.   The directory in
    which you start cadence may have a .cdsinit or cds.lib file tbat is old
    or incorrect.  Make sure your cds.lib does not have
    
 INCLUDE /usr/eesww/cadence/local/cdssetup/cds.lib

    which is an obsolete reference.  There are current (Nov 2005) cds.lib 
    files in

 /usr/eesww/cadence/setup/config
 /usr/eesww/cadence/NCSU_CDK/cdssetup

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  Symptom:

    "Hot Keys" are not enabled.  Unable to use R, or Ctrl-R, or i ,etc as 
    hotkeys for Rectangle, screen refresh, or Insert Instance.   Cadence 
    does not show the hotkeys in the menu, which should show

 | Reload R
 | Aim    A
 | Fire   F
 | Brush  B
 | Teeth  Ctrl-T

    The user needs to have the "leBindKeys.il" file loaded, which can be done
    by entering it into one of the .cdsinit startup files.  Cadence first 
    looks in $CDS_INST_DIR/tools/dfII/local/ then in ~/ and then in ./ .
    The .cdinit files contain many startup items including an instruction to 
    load the hotkeys files (e.g. leBindKeys.il).  
    
    But the current system local/.cdsinit file doesn't set the ACEHOME 
    environment variable and some NSCU variable, and it ends without looking 
    for other .cdinit files.  So the user can't load "leBindKeys.il".

  Solution:

    Users on Instructional systems should create their own .cdsinit files 
    that load "leBindKeys.il" and start Cadence from the directory that has 
    that file.   Also look for old ~/.cdsinit and ./.cdsinit files that are 
    incorrect.  You can create a new .cdsinit file on the Instructional
    systems by running '/share/b/bin/cadence-setup.csh'.

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Symptom:

    X connection to cory.EECS.Berkeley.EDU:10.0 broken \
    (explicit kill or server shutdown)

  Solution:

    This means you have logged into cory.EECS.Berkeley.EDU (for example) 
    and started an XWindows command (such as 'icfb') but you do not have 
    an XWindows server running on your desktop computer.  See
    http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/pub.cgi?file=XWindows.help for
    more information.

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  Symptom:
    
    Segmentation errors.

  Solution:

    This means there is a bug in the cadence software or the Operating System.
    Please email inst@imail.EECS.Berkeley.EDU the following information:

    the output of 
uname -a ; ssh -V ; java -fullversion ; date '+DATE:%a %d %b %Y TIME:%H:%M:%S'  ; dirs -v ; echo $PATH

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Symptom:
    
    You get errors like
    *WARNING* file /home/aa/users/jdoe/CDS.log.1 Malformed Lock-Stake file.
    *WARNING* file /home/aa/users/jdoe/CDS.log.2 Malformed Lock-Stake file.

  Solution:

    Delete obsolete lock files from a previous session.  The lock file names
    are determined by adding ".cdslck" to the name of the file in the error
    message.

    So for the file  /home/aa/users/jdoe/CDS.log.1 
    the lock file is /home/aa/users/jdoe/CDS.log.1.cdslck

    You can delete it with the UNIX command 

 rm /home/aa/users/jdoe/CDS.log.1.cdslck

    You can locate all of the Cadence lock files in your UNIX home directory
    with the command:

 find ~ -name \*cdslck

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Symptom:
    
    The "Help" button does not do anything.

  Solution:

    The Cadence "Help" buttons look specifically for a progam called "netscape",
    and it must be in the search path that Cadence is using.  An easy way to 
    ensure that is to create a sym link called "netscape" in a Cadence "bin"  
    directory that points to an actual WEB browser on your system.

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Symptom:
    
    Spectre fails with an error such as 

    ld.so.1: spectre: fatal: relocation error: ...
     symbol __SUNW_init_wiostreams: referenced symbol not found
     Killed

  Solution:

    See the "Cadence Spectre" section above.
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

ERROR RUNNING LVS IN CADENCE

ERROR WHILE RUNNING LVS:

Loaded gpdk180/libInit.il successfully!
*WARNING* envSetVal: could not find tool[.partition] 'layoutXL'
*Error* schematic cell: gpdk180 nmos symbol
The schematic was never extracted or is not current in the schematics editor.
Use the `Check and Save' operation in the schematics editor to correct this.
The lastSchematicExtraction property is missing.
*Error* schematic cell: gpdk180 pmos symbol
The schematic was never extracted or is not current in the schematics editor.
Use the `Check and Save' operation in the schematics editor to correct this.
The lastSchematicExtraction property is missing.
3 error(s) encountered, vldb not generated
Error - dfIIToVldb failed to execute

*WARNING* /cad_area/Cadence/assura/tools/assura/bin/nvn exit with bad status
*WARNING* Status 256
*WARNING* Assura execution terminated

Finished /cad_area/Cadence/assura/tools/assura/bin/nvn

*WARNING* An error occurred during Nvn PreExtraction.
LVS preprocessing requires a successful run of Nvn.
Assura will now terminate.

*WARNING* Bad exit from child process .. 0x100


***** aveng terminated abnormally *****


*WARNING* /cad_area/Cadence/assura/tools/assura/bin/aveng exit with bad status
*WARNING* Status 256
*WARNING* Assura execution terminated


***** aveng fork terminated abnormally *****


SOLUTION:CHECK AND SAVE EACH COMPONENT IN SCHEMATIC

CADENCE LOCK FILE ISSUE

What is a Lock File?

When one opens up a cadence cell for editing (schematic, layout, symbol, etc),
Cadence automatically creates a temporary file called a lock file.  The lock
file prevents another user from opening up the same file for edit.  

As an example, when one creates a "inv" cell for an inverter, and creates a "layout" view
a file called: cadence\Digital\inv\layout\layout.cdb is created to store all of the layout.

When one is working on the inverter, cadence creates a "lock" file called:
cadence\Digital\inv\layout\layout.cdb.cdslck  <--notice the "lock" extension

This makes it so only the person who has the file open can edit/change the inverter's layout.

When one saves and closes the layout file, the "lock" file is deleted, so that in the
future it can be opened for edit again.




What is the problem?

If one is editing the inverter's layout in cadence, and for some reason cadence crashes
or exits for some unexpected reason, the "layout.cdb.cdslck" file may not be deleted, due
to the crash.

When this happens, once cadence is restarted, the lock file is still in place.  This
will make it so you cannot open the inverter's layout.  We must remove this lock file
manually, as cadence is not intelligent enough on its own to understand what is happening.




What are the symptoms of a left behind lock file?

Two situations may occur:
1) When you start cadence, it takes a very long time to startup, and when it does, it gives the warning:
*WARNING* file /home/ugrad/(yourusernamehere)/CDS.log Connection refused

2) Once cadence is open you attempt to open up a view in cadence, say your inverter's layout as an example,
it may take a very, very long time to open.  It may never open.  In this case, you probably have a left behind
lock file.


How do I remove the lock files?

It is very simple.  Follow these steps:
1) login to a unix workstation (or ssh to hobbes from home)
2) EXIT cadence (if you have it open)
3) from the terminal type in the following commands:

   cd ~
   rm -rf *.cdslck

   cd ~/cadence
   find . -name '*.cdslck' -exec rm {} \;
   find . -name '*.oacache' -exec rm {} \;

It should not prompt you to delete, but if it prompts you to "delete" a file, say yes!


4) Now start cadence, and it should be cleared up   

Device Under Test Hspice Code

***** comment

.INCLUDE "/home/cad/kits/IBM_CMRF8SF-LM013/IBM_PDK/cmrf8sf/V1.2.0.0LM/HSPICE/models/model013.lib_inc"

.INCLUDE  DEVICE UNDER TEST.sp
*.global gnd vdd
.option post runlvl=5

x1 vdd gnd c cn f in q1 q2 rst ud updown_temp


v1 gnd 0 0
v2 vdd 0 1.2
v3 c 0 pulse 0 1.2 0 30p 30p 488p 976p
v4 cn 0 pulse 1.2 0 0 30p 30p 488p 976p
v5 in 0 1.2
v6 ud 0 0
v7 rst 0 pulse 0 1.2 200p 30p 30p 10s 20s


.tr 10p 20n


.end

Rules in 130nm VLSI Design

RULE FOR 130um Technology:

Length of poly is 0.12um; Distance between two RXs is 0.6um (Vertical); Distance between two ploys is 0.2um; Distance between two contacts is 0.24um; Distance between two M1 is 0.16um; Distance between RX and contact is 0.06 um; Distance between two V1 is 0.28um Width of M1 is 0.16um; Width of M2 is 0.2um; Distance between RX and contact (Horizontal) is 0.1 um; Length of V1 square is 0.2 um; Length of contact square is 0.16 um;

Distance between 2 M2 --.2um

CADENCE/HSPICE/NETLIST ERROR CATALOG

Cadence error:-

1.Not able to generate netlist?

don’t worry check and save all the component starting from the basic circuit and you will be able to generate it.

2. **error**  inductor/voltage source loop found containing     0:v2 defined in subckt 0

**you have done something terrible with circuit connection check your circuit and look for the voltage source.

**if you give same input names to two different pins.

3.If you are not able to login cadence ,i mean icfb& not running?

chances are high you are not in cad/cadence folder(don’t worry these stupid mistake everybody did)

4.Should i write netlist manually or my circuit will generate it automatically?

everything i mean whatever input you have given to your circuit it will be considered by your hspice while generating netlist.

5. if you are not getting  .tro file to check your waveform ?

you might have not included .TRAN function for graph to analyze,chuck it off i did that stupid mistake.

6.Point to remember your .TRAN i mean transient period should be more than your period or else you won’t be able to analyze the circuit variations.

7. MIND it. for your job may be aborted after successful sweep then you would have given .END more than one time.

8. If you are getting generate net list error the try closing your schematic save everything and restart,you might be able to.


9.if suppose you get an error stating file missing in your hspice library,don't get frustrated
10.When I run DRC with ASSURA, an error happened as following:

reload everything the whole setup.

10.*Error* parseString: argument #1 should be either a string or a symbol (type template = "SS") - nil

It seems that I am missing a parameter, but I don't know where to define this parameter

-->I knew the reason, beacuse my .drc.Last.state file is empty.When I remove this file, ASSURA DRC works well.


11.When you are combining various part ,for example combining 8  1bit adder to make 8 bit adder,try making a common N well so that you don't get potential mismatch error.

12.nw_StampErrorConnect

Make BP layer across PMOS