( ESNUG 500 Item 6 ) -------------------------------------------- [03/08/12]
Subject: Shiv compares IC Manage, CVS, and Subversion for digital design
> There are several ways that IC Manage is painful, and here are some
> examples that kept biting us:
>
> - a label is specific to a specific configuration in IC Manage. So
> when you've placed your tapeout tag on a workspace with everything-
> and-the-kitchen-sink-included (because that's where you had all the
> data), you MUST check out a kitchen-sink configuration to get back
> to the label in GDP. Even if you just want the RTL source database!
From: Shiv Sikand <shiv=user domain=icmanage not calm>
Hi John,
I am sorry Oscar is having problems with his workspace configuration. He
can use one or both of these IC Manage Global Design Platform (GDP)
features to narrow his data set:
1) Select the specific data types (e.g. RTL) you want using
the "Trim" radio button in the configuration manager.
2) Define one or more custom library path qualifiers, aka CLPQ
in the documentation.
This will allow you to control the granularity of selection using file names
or file name extensions. A CLPQ of "...README.*;...v" will deliver only
files called README (with all extensions) and all files ending in .v.
> Creating & using branches is a bitch when you have a lot of libraries
> to work with.
The cloning function we added in 2011 makes it easier to manage the
branching of very large numbers of libraries by using a configuration as
the branching template. The template allows you to define the library set
as well as the release or development branch point for each library. You
can use "Clone Variant by Configuration" to create and manage branches for
large library lists via the GUI or by using the command line.
> When we've frozen our RTL, we still would like to continue developing
> our testbenches, testcases and our flow. We did this with a two-stage
> checkout with CVS. We've never figured out how to get this to work
> in IC Manage.
Oscar can use GDP's "Developer" feature when creating his workspace by
activating the "Use developer branch for releases" radio button in the GUI
or via the -B option to "pm workspace" on the command line. Developer
workspaces allow synchronization to the release state of your RTL (or any
other set of multiple data types), while continuing to modify your other
data sets. The Developer function also allows you to "unlock" the release
in case you find problems in the frozen data and want to make edits without
having to change your configuration. This un/lock function is available in
the visual client GUI by right clicking the library and selecting
lock/unlock or on the icmp4 command line client by using the -U flag when
synchronizing. This avoids the two-stage CVS checkout requirement
entirely.
Below is a comparison of the out-of-the-box features for digital design
data management for IC Manage, CVS, and SVN. The chart is based on the
most recent data we have available, but keep in mind that software is a
rapidly moving target.
While CVS and Subversion (SVN) offer good revision control, we have seen
design teams shift to IC Manage's GDP for advanced design management,
increased performance and capacity. GDP also reduces costs through
built-in workflows for bug tracing and access controls that require complex
scripting and maintenance with open source solutions in this space.
I hope this helps Oscar.
- Shiv Sikand
IC Manage Los Gatos, CA
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