The OpenROAD Project, Precision Innovations Inc. and UCSC Extension have partnered to bring the leading open source Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools from OpenROAD to UCSC’s popular extension programs. This program enjoys great outreach with both industry and student enthusiasts seeking to grow and enhance their skill sets in high-demand areas of semiconductor and other critical technologies.
These offerings will significantly lower the costs of education to a large community of students, hardware designers and increasingly younger VLSI learners. Open source technologies are rapidly becoming mainstream and now an important part of the semiconductor design industry and ecosystem. These initiatives will go a long way in bridging the talent gap that is a major challenge to the chip industry.
UCSCext hosted a successful career fair at UCSC campus on September 29, 2022. See details here: https://www.ucsc-extension.edu/events/level-up-career-internship-fair-2022/
Students learned first-hand about the advantages and capabilities of OpenROAD.
UCSC extension has incorporated OpenROAD based VLSI design courses in the following key domains of IC design:
- The physical design of digital and analog/mixed signal ICs
- Static timing analysis for flow and signoff validation
- The use of OpenRAM and other SRAMs for designs with embedded memories
Guest lectures are planned from September 26 to November 9 on these tracks. Industry experts from Precision Innovations offer these courses to bring both their industry experience and also the latest advances in VLSI technologies using Open EDA solutions.
Refer to this link for details on the flow capabilities and usage: https://openroad.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tutorials/FlowTutorial.html
