TinyTapeouts Hackware 2026/10 presentation

TLDR: I taped out my Advent of FPGA solution and a ring oscillator with xschem.

Advent of FPGA Submission
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1NpWGY3AxLYl-RwEu0x4G52JkbFERUa99b7fZzpX8l1k/edit?slide=id.p#slide=id.p

Tapeout Hackware Oct Presentation
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1q47hgGql9yV65cSjM8kwuDtjU8DYk9GEuHhXGwoSI3w/edit

I linked some other technical notes here for reference

How to do Simulations

How to do SPICE Simulations in xschem

1. Draw the Circuit AND add in the code block for the spice commands

• most important is write command to a raw file with the related nets

2. make sure the circuit is not a subcircuit
3. Generate Netlist, then Simulate
4. Open Graph > External > File > Select the raw file

or clank it out ngl, it can be clanked with big pickle

Mixed Signal

So mixed signal experimentations

1. Digital Verilog -> Yosys -> Openlane
2. Xschem -> Magic -> gds/lef -> Openlane
3. Combined into 1 final generated GDS, but apparently its possible to hand configure positions of the blocks in openlane config

Notes
4. Opencode Big Pickle SUCKS - Cursor Grok is better, Codex burst 5h without doing anything
- Grok does quite well for direct mag file manipulation (modify layout)
- not so well at magic commands
- clanked out the positioning
- used about 20% cursor pro grok/composer credits
5. OpenLane Black Boxes NEED to have VPWR and VGND exposed on TopMetal1
- was a huge pain in the ass ngl