Magic VLSI — The Complete Guide: A Free Chip Layout Editor With Real-Time DRC

Magic VLSI is an integrated-circuit layout editor originally developed at UC Berkeley and still actively maintained. It is widely used together with open process design kits (PDKs) for chip fabrication, and serves in teaching VLSI design and in open analog and digital chip projects.

Magic VLSI

Tim Edwards (Open Circuit Design)

A veteran chip layout editor with real-time design-rule checking, parasitic extraction and GDS and LEF/DEF support.

Electrical & ElectronicsCompletely FreeOpen SourceLinuxmacOSElectronics Design (EDA)

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What you get

• Real-time DRC — design-rule violations are flagged while you draw.
• Extraction — netlist and parasitics for simulation.
• Basic routing — simple automatic connections between components.
• Formats — reads and writes GDS, CIF and LEF/DEF.
• Command-driven work — full control from the keyboard and scripts.

What to know

The interface is command- and keyboard-driven and quite different from commercial tools, so expect a learning period. It runs on Linux and macOS; on Windows only through Cygwin. The HPND licence is open and allows commercial work too.

Related tools

For fast viewing, XOR comparison and scripted checks — KLayout. For drawing the schematic and generating a netlist — Xschem. For simulating the extracted netlist — ngspice.

KLayout

Matthias Köfferlein

Viewer and editor for chip mask layouts (GDS2, OASIS) — fast even on huge files, with DRC, LVS and scripting.

Electrical & ElectronicsCompletely FreeOpen SourceLinuxmacOSWindowsElectronics Design (EDA)

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Xschem

Stefan Schippers

Hierarchical schematic capture for analog and mixed-signal circuits, with SPICE, Verilog and VHDL netlist output.

Electrical & ElectronicsCompletely FreeOpen SourceLinuxWindowsElectronics Design (EDA)

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Ngspice

Ngspice Project

Open-source SPICE simulator — DC, AC, transient and noise. The engine behind KiCad simulation.

Electrical & ElectronicsCompletely FreeOpen SourceLinuxmacOSWindowsSimulation & FEAElectronics Design (EDA)

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Electric VLSI

Static Free Software

An IC and schematic design system covering layout, schematics and simulation links.

Electrical & ElectronicsCompletely FreeOpen SourceLinuxmacOSWindowsElectronics Design (EDA)

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The bottom line

Magic is a proven, long-standing open-source tool for chip layout. Not the friendliest, but continuous design-rule checking saves a lot of rework.

Further reading

• KLayout — The Complete Guide: Free Viewing and Editing of GDS and OASIS Chip Layouts
• Xschem — The Complete Guide: Free Hierarchical Schematics for Analog and Mixed-Signal Circuits
• Electric VLSI — The Complete Guide: Open-Source Chip Layout and Schematic Design