Magic (software)
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'''Magic''' is a [[Very-large-scale integration]] layout tool originally written by [[John Ousterhout]] and his graduate students at [[UC Berkeley]] during the 1980s. Magic continues to be popular because it is [[Free Software|free]] (Berkeley [[open-source license]]), easy to use, and easy to expand for specialized tasks. The current version is 7.5, but 6.x is still widely used.
Magic features real-time [[design rule checking]], something that some costly commercial VLSI design software packages don't feature. Magic implements this by counting distance using [[Manhattan distance]] rather than [[Euclidean distance]], which is much faster to compute.
Magic currently runs under [[Linux]], although versions exist for [[DOS]], [[OS/2]], and other [[operating systems]]. Magic is frequently used in conjunction with [[irsim]] and other simulation programs.
== References ==
* John K. Ousterhout, "Corner Stitching: A Data-Structuring Technique for VLSI Layout Tools," IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design, Vol. CAD-3, No. 1, January 1984, pp. 87-100
* John K. Ousterhout, Gordon T. Hamachi, Robert N. Mayo, Walter S. Scott, and George S. Taylor, "Magic: A VLSI Layout System," 21st Design Automation Conference, 1984, pp. 152-159
* George S. Taylor and John K. Ousterhout, "Magic's Incremental Design-Rule Checker," 21st Design Automation Conference, 1984, pp. 160-165
* W.S. Scott and John K. Ousterhout, "Plowing: Interactive Stretching and Compaction in Magic," 21st Design Automation Conference, 1984
* Gordon T. Hamachi and John K. Ousterhout, "A Switchbox Router with Obstacle Avoidance," 21st Design Automation Conference, 1984, pp. 173-179
* Walter S. Scott and John K. Ousterhout, "Magic's Circuit Extractor," 22nd Design Automation Conference, 1985, pp. 286-292
== External links ==
{{portal|Free software|Free Software Portal Logo.svg}}
* http://embedded.eecs.berkeley.edu/pubs/downloads/magic/index.htm
* http://opencircuitdesign.com/magic
[[Category:Integrated circuits]]
[[Category:Free computer-aided design software]]