OpenAccess is a proprietary API controlled by the OpenAccess Coalition that aims to facilitate

Interoperability Interoperability is a characteristic of a product or system to work with other products or systems. While the term was initially defined for information technology or systems engineering services to allow for information exchange, a broader def ...

electronic design automation Electronic design automation (EDA), also referred to as electronic computer-aided design (ECAD), is a category of software tools for designing electronic systems such as integrated circuits and printed circuit boards. The tools work together ...

software among the members of that coalition.

OpenAccess Coalition

OpenAccess Coalition is a coalition amongst integrated circuit manufacturers to provide a standard for designing integrated circuit chips. The OpenAccess Coalition is an organization of semiconductor industry companies claiming to be competition-neutral that are leading this effort operating under Silicon Integration Initiative bylaws.Assessment of the OpenAccess Standard: insights on the new EDA industry standard from Hewlett-Packard, a Beta partner and contributing developer
''Fourth International Symposium on Quality Electronic Design'', 2003, pp. 203-207 The OpenAccess Coalition consists both of EDA user companies (IC designers and manufacturers) and EDA provider companies, including

Advanced Micro Devices Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Santa Clara, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for business and consumer markets. While it initially manufa ...

, Agile Analog, AnaGlobe Technology,

Analog Rails Analog or analogue may refer to: Computing and electronics * Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable ** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals *** Analog electronics, circuits which use analog ...

, ANSYS, AWR/National Instruments Corporation,

Blue Cheetah Analog Design Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when o ...

Cadence Design Systems Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (stylized as cādence), headquartered in San Jose, California, is an American multinational computational software company, founded in 1988 by the merger of SDA Systems and ECAD, Inc. The company produces software, ...

, Chengdu Higon IC Design, CST - Computer Simulation Technology, DXCorr Design, Empyrean Software, Entasys Design, Fractal Technologies,

GLOBALFOUNDRIES GlobalFoundries Inc. (GF or GloFo) is a multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company incorporated in the Cayman Islands and headquartered in Malta, New York. Created by the divestiture of the manufacturing arm of AMD ...

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

Hewlett Packard Enterprise The Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (HPE) is an American multinational information technology company based in Spring, Texas, United States. HPE was founded on November 1, 2015, in Palo Alto, California, as part of the splitting of the ...

, IBM,

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the devel ...

, INTENTO DESIGN, Invecas, Jedat, Keysight Technologies,

Lattice Semiconductor Lattice Semiconductor Corporation is an American semiconductor company specializing in the design and manufacturing of low power, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Headquartered in the Silicon Forest area of Hillsboro, Oregon, the company ...

, Life Technologies, Luceda,

MediaTek MediaTek Inc. () is a Taiwanese fabless semiconductor company that provides chips for wireless communications, high-definition television, handheld mobile devices like smartphones and tablet computers, navigation systems, consumer multimedia p ...

Mentor Graphics Siemens EDA is a US-based electronic design automation (EDA) multinational corporation for electrical engineering and electronics, headquartered in Wilsonville, Oregon. Founded in 1981 as Mentor Graphics, the company was acquired by Siemens ...

, Mythic, NVMEngines,

PDF Solutions PDF Solutions () is an American multinational software and engineering services company based in Santa Clara, California. The company is listed in the Nasdaq stock exchange and in 2020 generated revenues of US$88.5 million. History PDF Solut ...

, Pulsic, Qualcomm,

Samsung Electronics Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (, sometimes shortened to SEC and stylized as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean multinational electronics corporation headquartered in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, South Korea. It is the pinnacle of the Samsung chaebol, a ...

, Savarti, Silvaco,

Synopsys Synopsys is an American electronic design automation (EDA) company that focuses on silicon design and verification, silicon intellectual property and software security and quality. Products include tools for logic synthesis and physical desig ...

, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited,

Zuken is a Japanese multinational corporation, specializing in software and consulting services for end-to-end electrical and electronic engineering. Zuken came into existence as a pioneer in the development of CAD systems in Japan to contribute to ele ...

OpenAccess software

OpenAccess consists of a data API of which the source code is available only to coalition members. The OpenAccess API is a C++ program interface to IC design data stored in an electronic design database, with an architecture designed to ensure easy integration of contributions from various companies which may implement database enhancements or add proprietary extensions. It also includes the reference database supporting that API for IC design in multiple

programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language. The description of a programming l ...

s: C++, C#,

Perl Perl is a family of two High-level programming language, high-level, General-purpose programming language, general-purpose, Interpreter (computing), interpreted, dynamic programming languages. "Perl" refers to Perl 5, but from 2000 to 2019 it ...

, Python,

Ruby A ruby is a pinkish red to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum (aluminium oxide). Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sapp ...

and Tcl. In the past, electronic design flows were a combinations of proprietary applications and copyrighted

EDA database An EDA database is a database specialized for the purpose of electronic design automation. These application specific databases are required because general purpose databases have historically not provided enough performance for EDA applicatio ...

s, with many different file formats and syntaxes. As a result, significant efforts were required from IC CAD engineers to integrate them for particular projects. The resulting flows were often fragile, inefficient and therefore result in longer design cycles. OpenAccess effort is therefore attempting to create a standardized design flow among its participants.What is OpenAccess?
/ref>

Development history

The OpenAccess coalition was formed in Q4 1999. The members issued a request-for-technology for existing technology, looking for a solution that was proven and would be commercially adopted, and that supported a broad set of EDA tools. As a result, the

Cadence In Western musical theory, a cadence (Latin ''cadentia'', "a falling") is the end of a phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards. Don Michael Randel ( ...

Genesis database and API was selected and now forms the technology base for OpenAccess. As of 2005, OpenAccess was the only modern

integrated circuit design Integrated circuit design, or IC design, is a sub-field of electronics engineering, encompassing the particular logic and circuit design techniques required to design integrated circuits, or ICs. ICs consist of miniaturized electronic componen ...

which was publicly available.''EDA for IC Implementation, Circuit Design, and Process Technology'', 2005, , sectio
"Modern Database Examples"
/ref> In 2005 the Cadence Berkeley Labs and the Silicon Integration Initiative launched the OpenAccesGear, a project to develop

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

utilities on top of the OpenAccess database. Participants included

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant uni ...

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...

and UCSC. The OAGear project was subsequently suspended. Si2 has offered OAGearOA Gear
/ref> as an unsupported project.

References

{{reflist

OpenAccess Coalition

OpenAccess software

Development history

References

External links