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 This file  describes the new features of ALLIANCE release 2.0 (14/02/94)
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1/ SYMBOLIC LAYOUT EDITOR

  The symbolic layout editor ALC has been replaced by GRAAL.
  GRAAL provides the same functionnalities than ALC, but is much
  more reliable. GRAAL support both CMOS and GaAs symbolic layout.

> man graal

2/ DESIGN RULE CHECKER

  The Design Rule Checker VERSATIL has been replaced by DRUC.
  DRUC provides the same functionnalities than VERSATIL.
  A hierarchical version will be distributed in the next ALLIANCE release.

> man druc

3/ LOGIC SYNTHESIS

  The logic synthesis tool LOGIC has been strongly improved.
  The new tool NETOPTIM is a gate-level net-list optimiser
  that allows to minimize delays in a synthesized gate net-list.
  The Finite-state-machine synthesizer SYF allows to describe and
  synthesize high complexity FSM (more than 100 states)
  It is possible to describe hierachical FSM using stack  (subroutines).

> man logic
> man syf
> man netoptim

4/ DATA-PATH COMPILER

  FPGEN is a data-path compiler using a dedicated macro-cells library.
  DPR is the place and route tool that creates optimized data-path blocks
  from the gate net-list generated by FPGEN.

> man fpgen
> man dpr

5/ PARAMETERIZED MACRO-CELLS

  Six parametrized generators are part of this release:

> man rsa                /* fast adder generator */
> man bsg                /* barrel shifter generator */
> man amg                /* multiplier generator */
> man rfg                /* register file generator */
> man grog               /* high speed ROM generator */
> man rage               /* static RAM generator */

6/ PROCEDURAL LAYOUT DEBUGGER

  The graphic debugger GENVIEW allows to debug custom blocks
  described with the procedural language GENLIB.
  It makes possible to design new parameterized generators, using the
  GENLIB language.

> man genview

7/ POSTSCIPT DRIVER

  The postscript driver MBK2PS has been replaced by L2P, in order to
  obtain a printable postscript file from a cell layout.
  This tool accept not only symbolic layout (.ap files) but also
  physical layout (.cif or .gds files).

> man l2p

8/ FLOOR-PLAN ROUTER

  There is no floor-plan router in this release.
  If you need to interconnect two blocks, you can use the BBR tool
  that is actually a simple gridless channel router.

> man bbr

9/ FILE FORMATS

  Both file formats .ap (symbolic layout) and .al (net-list)
  have been modified, with upward compatibility: all files
  created with ALLIANCE release 1.2 are readable and usable with
  ALLIANCE release 2.0.

> man ap
> man al

10/ PROCESS MAPPING

  The S2R tool that performs the physical mapping to a target process
  has been documented: the procedure to parameterize the technology
  file is described in the doc/s2r/MAPPING.ps file.
  The technology file format has been modified.

> man s2r
> man prol

