The SKILL © framework from Cadence © is a powerful tool for design automation within Cadence's ecosystem. However, the default Virtuoso © shell leaves something to be desired. Enter IPython/Jupyter...
I have been using IPython for some time. When the IPython team introduced the Notebook interface, I found it useful,
since, I had been using Mathematica © for a while and loved the idea of easily creating documents with formatted text
interspersed with code. I have also used SKILL for a while, but, as useful as it is, using it interactively is frustrating.
Then, Jupyter was forked from IPython, and the team made available a clean API for the Kernel, and I found the
Bash Kernel, which uses pexpect.
The gears started turning and I now have a Kernel for SKILL (or more accurately, for Virtuoso).
For SKILL specific syntax support in the Notebook, use SKILL mode for Code Mirror.
- Tab-complete built-in function and variable names.
- Shift+Tab for function help tool-tips.
->and~>+ Tab automatically lists properties.plotfunctions create figures inline (for Notebooks).- Multi-instruction cells generate multiple outputs, numbered by the order of execution
(no number for single instruction cells).
Note that SKILL provides
{...}to return only the last instruction's output. - Single line cell magics -
%help,%history,%image,%flush,%connect_info, for now. Currently, the rest of the cell's contents are ignored.
I have tested this only on Python-2.7.8+ and IPython-3.0.0+.
Once you have the prerequisites (see below), clone the repository and
python setup.py install
You should now have a new entry, Virtuoso, in the notebook interface's New pull-down menu.
If you want to use the console, launch with
ipython console --kernel=virtuoso
-
[pexpect] (https://pexpect.readthedocs.org/en/latest/install.html) :
pip install pexpect. This is required to talk to the Virtuoso shell from Python. -
[colorama] (https://github.com/tartley/colorama) :
pip install colorama. This is required for colored outputs. For now, it is not an optional requirement.
Copyright 2015 Ben Varkey Benjamin
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.