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Introduction

This document is intended to guide users of NanoXplore NXmap graphical software interface through all the the options and possibilities available to perform floorplanning exploration. This document is an addition to the NXmap Design flow which focus exclusively on project creation and flow execution through NXmap graphical interface.

NXmap graphical exploration

Main window

Launching NXmap opens the main window of the tool within the graphical interface (following figure).

This new interface at start is organized around:

Menu

The horizontal menu presents:

File

File rolling menu disposes classic actions for management of the current project:

Tools

Tools rolling menu

Tools rolling menu allows to edit certain constraints for the implementation of the project:

→ Configure ring can only be edited before launching Place 1/5 step (Prepare); after Prepare step is done, the IO & bank mapping cannot be modified

Report

This rolling menu provides select reporting generation options.

View

This section of the menu provides access to various options also available in the horizontal toolbar given user preferences.

The View rolling menu is organized into several categories:

Net name on pin can be used to identify the hierarchy level of a net connected to a specific instance.

Activating Instance color is useful to have a visual organization on how the logic mapped on fabric resources is split between user-defined regions and what is automatically placed by NXmap outside of regions. It is also practical to get a quick view on the amount of logic mapped into the fabric corresponding to specific region constraints.

Help

This section of the menu provides access to various options also available in the horizontal toolbar given user preferences.

About section provides release information regarding current NXmap release with associating features enabled by the license with the validity date.

Docks widgets and selection commands

User can mask/show Interpreter widget, which allows to write and execute python methods using command lines.

The Dashboard widget shows a reduction of the global floorplan view to easily zoom in and out of the design.

Selection widget opens a pop up tab in which is reported all elements bound by Select nets, Select instances, Select Edges & Select paths commands with associated filter options:

Select instances allows to dynamically move and place instance through Locking button.

Select an instance to be moved in the floorplan, click on Locking to access the following possibilities:

Until Place 1/5 step flow, called Prepared, regions constraints can be manually edited though the floorplan view using Edit regions command.

To do so, select a defined regions among the listed ones and it will be highlighted in blank into the floorplan, allowing to expand or decrease left, right corners dimensions of the region at top and bottom.

Once the region dimensions have been edited, don’t forget to validate the changes by clicking on Tools → Apply constraints.

NXmap now provides a dedicated Regions dock widget giving the possibility to perform through graphical view the following actions:

It can also be useful to combine Edit regions command with Regions widget to edit regions.

You can parse a list of Regions/Obstructions using this pop up menu.

The Regions widget offers various actions through several right click dynamic menus:

→ Select GeneralEdit Fabric to open the labelled editor and edit the dimensions of the fabric '~' as well as the relative focus point in order to modify the size of the matrix used by default to map resources

→ Select GeneralCreate obstruction to open the labelled editor and create a user-defined obstruction with desired coordinates

→ If coordinates are missing or out of bounds, NXmap will issue a red warning message and won’t be able to validate the obstruction creation until the coordinates are corrected

→ Select GeneralCreate Region to open the labelled editor and create a user-defined region with desired Name, color Tone, choose if the region is exclusive or not, set Aperture coordinates to define the location and size of the region, set Anchor coordinates for the focus point (placed in the middle of the fabric by default when inherit focus is picked)

→ for the associated module, select which region will used to constrain the associated logic instances

→ click on accept when the destination region is selected and you will observe in the floorplan that the logic instances colour identification will be modified to match the destination region color

→ don’t forget to click on Refresh button for the modifications to be taken into account into the graphical floorplan view

Copy constraints can only import modifications of existing regions into contrainModule() commands.

If regions have been created through nxpython old methods (createRegion(), addModule(), confineModule()), NXmap won’t be able to make a Copy constraints and will generate an error.

Once you created or modified a region or an obstruction constraint, don’t forget to click on Apply constraints to save the changes into the nym database file.