Cadence

Running Cadence applications

There are a few ways to remotely access Cadence

You can use our SGD service and run the "Cadence Desktop (Rocky 8)" to get remote access to a linux desktop

You can use MobaXterm to connect via SSH to one of our SGD servers:

liverpool.ee.ucl.ac.uk
manchester.ee.ucl.ac.uk
newcastle.ee.ucl.ac.uk

Info: If you are connecting from outside of UCL you will need to connect to the UCL VPN before you can use mobaxterm. If you cannot use the VPN you should access this via the "Cadence Desktop (Rocky 8)" application on SGD

If you need to use an older version of Cadence (Legacy/321, 2019 or 2021), then you will need to start the "CentOS 7 KDE Desktop" on SGD, or you can use MobaXterm to connect via SSH to one of our SGD servers:

bangor.ee.ucl.ac.uk
bath.ee.ucl.ac.uk
bradford.ee.ucl.ac.uk
bristol.ee.ucl.ac.uk
canterbury.ee.ucl.ac.uk

Info: If you are connecting from outside of UCL you will need to connect to the UCL VPN before you can use mobaxterm. If you cannot use the VPN you should access this via the "CentOS 7 KDE Desktop" application on SGD

Once you have access to one of the departmental servers you can run cadence. How you do this will depend on what version you need to use.

First you will need to create a project directory and run Cadence from that directory (If you are connecting via SGD you will need to right click on the desktop and choose to "open terminal")

Create a project directory (the example directory is "CAD_PROJECT", but you can use a different name)

mkdir CAD_PROJECT

Change to this directory

cd CAD_PROJECT

Using the latest version of Cadence

to run the latest version of cadence, you should connect to the appropriate server using SGD or MobaXterm.

To configure your environment to use the latest release of Cadence, type the following command:

cadence

Using Legacy Cadence

The 321 application is a legacy application that points at an older release of Cadence. This version is still available for projects started in this way. New projects should probably use a more up to date version of Cadence. To start the 321 application

If you want to run legacy cadence with TSMC kits, you need to use the following command instead:

cadence-tsmc

Using old versions of Cadence

You can set up your environment to use the 2019-2020 release of Cadence by typing the following command:

cadence-2019

If you want to use the 2021-2022 release, type the following instead:

cadence-2021

These command will setup your environment to use the specified release. If you setup your environment to use a particular version of cadence you cannot switch to a different version in the same shell. You will need to logout of that server, log back in again and then use the different release.

This will set your environment up to run the specified version of Cadence. You can then start the tools from the command line.

i.e To start the Virtuoso tool, type the command:

virtuoso

We have a number of PDKs/kits installed in /apps/cadence/kits. For the majority of these kits the installation is handled if you use the 321 application. If you are using the latest version of cadence you will need to install the kits manually. This will vary depending on what kit you wish to use.

Using Calibre

If you wish to use Calibre, you need to make sure that the relevant skill file is loaded when you start virtuoso. To do this, you need to go into your Cadence project directoy and run the following command:

calibre-setup

Start virtuoso and you should be able to access the Calibre tools