Hdl21 Schematics

SVG based integrated circuit schematics that seamlessly import and run as Hdl21's Python circuit generators.

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Schematics are graphical representations of electronic circuits. In integrated circuit (IC, silicon, chip) design they the lingua franca for analog circuits, and also commonly used for transistor-level digital circuits.

In short: a schematic is two things -

1. A Circuit
2. A Picture

Hdl21 Schematics are SVG Images

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is the W3C's open web-standard for two dimensional vector graphics. SVG is an XML-based markup language which all modern browsers natively render, and includes the capacity for semi-custom content structure and metadata.

Hdl21 schematics are not like SVGs.
They are not exportable to or convertable to SVGs.
They are SVGs.
So:

• Each schematic is a single file. No dependencies, no linked "database".
• Anyone can read them.
• GitHub can read them.
• GitLab can read them.
• Grandma's copy of Internet Explorer can read them.

This inverter is a valid schematic:

And the same inverter with OpenMoji's mind-blown emoji is also a valid schematic:

This is the first, probably biggest, difference between Hdl21 schematics and any other you've likely encountered. Instead of defining a custom schematic format and needing custom software to read it, Hdl21 schematics are general-purpose images. Any remotely modern web browser or OS can read them.

Embedding in SVG also allows for rich, arbitrary annotations and metadata, such as:

• Any other custom vector-graphics, e.g. block diagrams
• Layout intent, e.g. how to position and/or route elements
• Links to external content, e.g. testbenches, related schematics, etc.

SVG is an XML-based schema and allows for semi-custom strucutre and metadata. This structure and metadata, detailed later in this document, is what makes an SVG a schematic.

While reading schematics just requires any old computer, writing them is best done with custom software. The primary Hdl21 schematics graphical editor runs in three primary contexts:

• As a standalone desktop application
• As a VsCode Extension
• Coming soon: on the web

SVG schematics by convention have a sub-file-extension of .sch.svg. The editor application and VsCode Extension use this convention to identify schematics and automatically launch in schematic-edit mode.

The Element Library

Schematics consist of:

• Instances of circuit elements,
• Ports, and
• Wire connections there-between

The element-library holds similar content to that of SPICE: transistors, resistors, capacitors, voltage sources, and the like. It is designed in concert with Hdl21's primitive element library.

The complete element library:

Symbols are technology agnostic. They do not correspond to a particular device from a particular PDK. Nor to a particular device-name in an eventual netlist. Symbols solely dictate:

• How the element looks in the "schematic picture"
• Its port list

Each instance includes two string-valued fields: name and of.

The name string sets the instance name. This is a per-instance unique identifier, directly analogous to those in Verilog, SPICE, Virtuoso, and most other hardware description formats. It must be of nonzero length, and for successful Python import it must be a valid Python-language identifier.

The of string determines the type of device. In Python, the of field is executed as code. It will often contain parameter values and expressions thereof.

Examples of valid of-strings for the NMOS symbol:

# In the code prelude:
from hdl21.prefix import µ, n
from hdl21.primitives import Nmos
# Of-string:
Nmos(w=1*µ, l=20*n)

# In the code prelude:
from asap7 import nmos as my_asap7_nmos
# Of-string:
my_asap7_nmos(l=7e-9, w=1e-6)

This is probably the second biggest difference between Hdl21 schematics and most other schematic systems. There is no backing "database", no "links" to out-of-source libraries. The types of all devices are dictated by code-strings, interpreted by programs ingesting the schematic.

For a schematic to produce a valid Hdl21 generator, the result of evaluating each instance's of field must be:

• An Hdl21 Instantiable, and
• Include the same ports as the symbol

Schematics as Circuits: Hdl21 Generators

Hdl21 is a high-productivity analog hardware description library (HDL) embedded in Python. Hdl21's Generators are Python functions which produce circuit Modules. Hdl21 schematics are designed to seamlessly import into Hdl21-based Python programs, as a kind of "graphical Python module".

The inverter pictured above (with or without the emoji) roughly translates to the following Python code:

# A code-prelude, covered shortly, executes here.

@h.generator
def inverter(params: Params) -> h.Module:
  inverter = h.Module()
  inverter.n0 = Nmos(params)(...)
  inverter.p0 = Pmos(params)(...)
  return inverter

# Both "..."s are where connections, not covered yet, will go.

Each schematic includes a code prelude: a text section which precedes the schematic content. Typically this code-block imports anything the schematic is to use. The prelude is stored in text form as a (non-rendered) SVG element.

An example prelude:

# An example code-prelude
from hdl21.primitives import Nmos, Pmos

This minimal prelude imports the Nmos and Pmos devices from the Hdl21 primitive-element library.

Schematic code-preludes are executed as Python code. All of the language's semantics are available, and any module-imports available in the executing environment are available.

The call signature for an Hdl21 generator function is def <name>(params: Params) -> h.Module:. To link their code-sections and picture-sections together, Hdl21 schematics require special treatment for each of this signature's identifiers: name, params, Params, and h.

• The argument type is named Params with a capital P.
  • If the identifier Params is not defined in the code prelude, the generator will default to having no parameters.
  • Params must be an Hdl21 paramclass, or will generate an import-time TypeError.
• The argument value is named params with a lower-case p.
• If a string-valued name attribute is defined in the code-prelude, the generator function's name is set to this string.
  • If not, the generator function's name is set to that of the schematic SVG file.
  • Defining a name which is not a string or is not a valid Python identifier will generate an import-time Exception.
• The identifier h must refer to the Hdl21 pacakge.
  • Think of a "pre-prelude" as running import hdl21 as h before the schematic's own code-prelude.
  • Overwriting the h identifier will produce an import-time Python error.
  • Re-importing hdl21 as h is fine, as is importing hdl21 by any additional names.

An example code-prelude with a custom Params type:

# An example code-prelude, using devices from PDK-package `mypdk`
import hdl21 as h
from mypdk import Nmos, Pmos

@h.paramclass
class Params:
  w = h.Param(dtype=int, desc="Width")
  l = h.Param(dtype=int, desc="Length")

Importing into Python

Hdl21 schematics are designed to seamlessly integrate into Python programs using Hdl21. They are essentially "graphical Python modules". The hdl21schematicimporter Python package makes this as simple as:

import hdl21schematicimporter

# Given a schematic file `schematic.sch.svg`, this "just works":
from . import schematic # <= This is the schematic

Schematics with .sch.svg extensions can be imported like any other Python module. The hdl21schematicimporter package uses Python's importlib override machinery to load their content.

An example use-case, given a schematic named inverter.sch.svg:

# Example of using a schematic
import hdl21 as h
from .inverter import inverter # <= This is the schematic

@h.module
class Ring:
  a, b, c, VDD, VSS = h.Signals(5)
  ia = inverter()(inp=a, out=b, VDD=VDD, VSS=VSS)
  ib = inverter()(inp=b, out=c, VDD=VDD, VSS=VSS)
  ic = inverter()(inp=c, out=a, VDD=VDD, VSS=VSS)

For schematic files with extensions other than .sch.svg, or those outside the Python source tree, or if (for whatever reason) the import-override method seems too spooky, hdl21schematicimporter.import_schematic() performs the same activity, with a filesystem Path to the schematic as its sole argument:

def import_schematic(path: Path) -> SimpleNamespace

Both import_schematic and the import keyword override return a standard-library SimpleNamespace representing the "schematic module". A central attribute of this module is the generator function, which often has the same name as the schematic file. The Params type and all other identifiers defined or imported by the schematic's code-prelude are also available as attributes in this namespace.

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On Hierarchy

The experienced schematic-author may by now be wondering: how does one make hierarchical Hdl21 schematics, with custom subcircuit cells and symbols?

The answer is simple: you don't.
Write HDL code instead.

There are no custom symbols. On purpose. And there never will be.

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Installation

Reading SVG schematics requires no special software or installation: if your web browser can display SVG (and it can), you can read schematics. Double-click on them or open them with the OS-native method of your choice. Or borrow grandma's copy of Internet Explorer and open it with that. Voila.

Editing schematics can, in principle, be done with general-purpose SVG editing software. InkScape and Boxy SVG are popular examples. Or even with a general-purpose text editor. This requires diligently sticking to the schematic schema described below. Many an SVG editor will make this very hard to do, particularly with respect to element hierarchy and grouping. The dedicated schematic editor is highly recommended instead.

Installing the Python Importer Package

The Python schematic-importer package is named hdl21schematicimporter. It is distributed via PyPi at pypi.org/project/hdl21schematicimporter. To install the Python importer:

pip install hdl21schematicimporter

To install the Python importer from source, see the development quickstart.

Building & Installing the Schematic Editor GUI

(from source, don't worry, we promise it's not hard)

The schematic editor uses a popular web-technologies stack. It is written in TypeScript and its peripheral components use the React UI framework. The desktop app uses the cross-platform Electron framework. All of this is very popular, very well-supported, and very easy to get started with.

The schematic editor has a sole dependency: the JavaScript package manager Yarn.

• On MacOS Homebrew makes this particularly easy to install
• On Debian, Ubuntu, and similar Linux:
  • Install npm and node through apt: sudo apt install nodejs npm
  • Update node through npm: sudo npm install -g n && sudo n stable

Building the Desktop App from Source

• cd Hdl21Schematics/Hdl21SchematicEditor/packages/EditorApp
• yarn to install dependencies
• yarn make to build

This will produce a platform-specific app in the out directory.

Building the VsCode Extension from Source

• cd Hdl21SchematicEditor/packages/VsCodePlugin/
• yarn to install dependencies
• yarn package to build
• code --install-extension hdl21-schematics-vscode-0.0.1.vsix to install

For development-mode installations see the development quickstart.

Coming Soon: Installing the GUI from Pre-Packaged Bundles

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The SVG Schematic Schema

SVG schematics are commonly interpreted by two categories of programs:

• (1) General-purpose image viewer/ editors such as Google Chrome, Firefox, and InkScape, which comprehend schematics as pictures.
• (2) Special-purpose programs which comprehend schematics as circuits. This category notably includes the primary Python importer.

This section serves as the specification for (2). The schema which dictates the content of schematic circuits is dictated through SVG structure and element attributes. While some of this schema also dictates how schematics appear as pictures, overlap between the two use-cases is incomplete. Valid schematic importers must adhere to the schema defined herein and no more.

Note the graphical schematic editor is a special case which combines both use-cases. It simultaneously renders schematics as pictures while being drawn and dictates their content as circuits. The graphical editor holds a number of additional pieces of non-schema information about schematics and how they are intended to be rendered as pictures, including their style attributes, design of the element symbols, and locations of text annotations. This information is not part of the schematic schema. Any valid SVG value for these attributes is to be treated as valid by schematic importers.

Schematic

SVG Root Element

Each Schematic is represented by an SVG element beginning with <svg> and ending with </svg>, commonly stored in a file with the .sch.svg extension.

Many popular SVG renderers expect ?xml prelude definitions and xmlns (XML namespace) attributes to properly render SVG. SVG schematics therefore begin and end with:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<svg width="1600" height="800" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
  <!-- Content -->
</svg>

These XML preludes are not part of the schematic schema, but are included by the graphical editor.

Size

Schematics are always rectangular. Each schematic's size is dictated by its svg element's width and height attributes. If either the width or height are not provided or invalid, the schematic shall be interpreted as having the default size of 1600x800.

Schematic and Non-Schematic SVG Elements

SVG schematics allow for inclusion of arbitrary non-schematic SVG elements. These might include annotations describing design intent, links to related documents, logos and other graphical documentation, or any other vector graphics content.

These elements are not part of the schematic content. Circuit importers must (a) categorize each element as being either schematic or not, and (b) ignore all elements which are non-schematic content.

Header Content

SVG schematics include a number of header elements which aid in their rendering as pictures. These elements are not part of the schematic schema, and are to be ignored by schematic importers. They include:

• An SVG definitions (<defs>) element with the id hdl21-schematic-defs
  • These definitions include the code-prelude, extracted circuit, and other metadata elements.
• An SVG style (<style>) with the id hdl21-schematic-style
• An SVG rectangle (<rect>), of the same size as the root SVG element, with the id hdl21-schematic-background. This element supplies the background grid and color.

Coordinates

SVG schematics use the SVG and web standards for their coordinate system. The origin is at the top-left corner of the schematic, with the x-axis increasing to the right and the y-axis increasing downward.

All schematic coordinates are stored in SVG pixel values. Schematics elements are placed on a coarse grid of 10x10 pixels. All locations of each element within a schematic must be placed on this grid. Any element placed off-grid shall be interpreted as a SchematicError.

Orientation

All schematic elements operate on a "Manhattan style" orthogonal grid. Orient-able elements such as Instances and Ports are similarly allowed rotation solely in 90 degree increments. Such elements may thus be oriented in a total of eight distinct orientations: four 90 degree rotations, with an optional vertical reflection. Reflection and rotation of these elements are both applied about their origin locations. Note rotation and reflection are not commutative. If both a reflection and a nonzero rotation are applied to an element, the reflection is applied first.

These orientations are translated to and from SVG transform attributes. SVG schematics use the matrix transform to capture the combination of orientation and location. SVG matrix transforms are specified in six values defining a 3x3 matrix. Transforming by matrix(a,b,c,d,e,f) is equivalent to multiplying a vector (x, y, 1) by the matrix:

a c e
b d f
0 0 1

Note that this is also equivalent to a multiplication and addition of the vector two-dimensional vector (x,y):

| a c | | x | + | e |
| b d | | y |   | f |

In the schematic Manhattan coordinate system, the vector-location (e,f) may be any grid-valid point. The 2x2 matrix (a,b,c,d), however, is highly constrained, to eight possible values which correspond to the eight possible orientations. These eight values are:

a	b	c	d	Rotation	Reflection
1	0	0	1	0°	No
0	1	-1	0	90°	No
-1	0	0	-1	180°	No
0	-1	1	0	270°	No
1	0	0	-1	0°	Yes
0	1	1	0	90°	Yes
-1	0	0	1	180°	Yes
0	-1	-1	0	270°	Yes

Any schematic element with an SVG matrix with (a,b,c,d) values from outside this set shall generate a SchematicError.

Schematic Content

Each Schematic is comprised of collections of four types of elements:

• Instances of circuit elements
• Wires connecting them
• Port annotations
• Dots indicating located connections

These collections are not ordered or keyed. No element refers to any other by any means, e.g. name, ID, or other "pointer".

Instance

Each Instance includes:

• A string instance name
• A string of, which dictates the type of element to be instantiated
• A kind value from the enumerated Elements list, which serves as pointer to the Element dictating its pictorial symbol and port list.
• A location dictating the position of its origin in schematic coordinates.
• An orientation dictating its reflection and rotation.

In SVG, each instance is represented by a group (<g>) element. Instance groups are identified by their use of the hdl21-instance SVG class. The location and orientation of each instance is stored in its instance-group's transform attribute.

Each instance-group holds three ordered child elements:

• Another group (<g>) holding the instance's pictorial symbol.
  • The SVG class of this symbol-group serves as indication of the kind of the instance.
  • The content of the symbol-group is not part of the schematic schema. Any valid SVG content is allowed. The schema dictates only that the class attribute indicate the kind of the instance.
• A <text> element with class hdl21-instance-name holding the instance's name.
• A <text> element with class hdl21-instance-of holding the instance's of string.

An example Instance:

<g class="hdl21-instance" transform="matrix(1 0 0 1 X Y)">
    <g class="hdl21-elements-nmos">
        <!-- Content of the symbol-picture -->
    </g>
    <text x="10" y="0" class="hdl21-instance-name">inst_name</text>
    <text x="10" y="80" class="hdl21-instance-of">inst_of</text>
</g>

The three child elements are required to be stored in the order (symbol, name, of). The lack of valid values for any of the three child elements shall generate a SchematicError. The presence of any additional children shall also generate a SchematicError.

Circuit Elements

SVG schematics instantiate circuit elements from a library of pre-defined symbols. A schematic importer must be aware of this libray's contents, as it dictates much of the schematic's connectivity.

The kind field of each Instance serves as a reference to a Element type. Each Element consists of:

• The symbol "picture", and
• A list of named, located ports

An example Element, defined in JavaScript syntax:

Element({
  kind: ElementKind.Nmos, // The enumerated `kind`
  ports: [
    // Its ordered, located port list
    new Port({ name: "d", loc: point(0, 0) }),
    new Port({ name: "g", loc: point(70, 40) }),
    new Port({ name: "s", loc: point(0, 80) }),
    new Port({ name: "b", loc: point(-20, 40) }),
  ],
});

Notably each element does not dictate what device appears in an ultimate circuit or netlist. The of string of each Instance dictates these choices. The element solely dictates its two fields: the pictorial symbol and the port list.

The complete list of elements is defined in the circuit element library documentation. The content of the element library - particularly the kinds of elements and their port lists - is part of the schematic schema, and must be adhered to by any schematic importer.

Wire

Schematic wires consist of orthogonal Manhattan paths. They are represented by SVG group (<g>) elements, principally including an internal <path> element. Wire groups are indicated by their use of the hdl21-wire SVG class. Each wire group has two child elements:

• The path element dictating the wire's shape.
• A text element dictating its wire/ net name.

An example Wire:

<g class="hdl21-wire">
    <path class="hdl21-wire" d="M 100 150 L 100 350 L 200 350" />
    <text class="hdl21-wire-name">net1</text>
</g>

Wire vertices are dictated by the SVG path's d attributes. Each wire vertex must be located on the schematic's 10x10 pixel grid. Each wire segment must meet "Manhattan" orthogonal routing style, i.e. each point must have either an x or y coordinate equal to that of the previous point. Wire paths are open in the SVG sense; there is no implicit segment from the final point back to the first.

Wire-names serve as the mechanism for schematic "connections by name". Any two wires with the same name shall be considered connected. There is one special wire-name value: the empty string, which implies that (a) the wire's is not explicitly set, and (b) importers shall assign it a net-name consistent with any other connected element, e.g. a Port or another Wire.

Port

Schematic Ports appear similar to Instances in both pictorial representation and in SVG content. Unlike instances they do not add hardware to the circuit represented by the schematic, but annotate particular Wires as being exposed externally.

Each Port has the following fields:

• A string name
• A kind value from the enumerated PortKind list
• A location dictating the position of its origin in schematic coordinates.
• An orientation dictating its reflection and rotation.

Note these fields are identical to those of Instance, but for the removal of the of string-field. The semantic content of a schematic Port is dicated fully by its Kind field, which also dictates its pictorial representation.

In SVG, each Port is represented by a group (<g>) element. Port groups are identified by their use of the hdl21-port SVG class. The location and orientation of each instance is stored in its port-group's transform attribute.

Each port-group holds two ordered child elements:

• Another group (<g>) holding the port's pictorial symbol.
  • The SVG class of this symbol-group serves as indication of the kind of the port.
  • The content of the symbol-group is not part of the schematic schema. Any valid SVG content is allowed. The schema dictates only that the class attribute indicate the kind of the port.
• A <text> element with class hdl21-port-name holding the port's name.

An example Port:

<g class="hdl21-port" transform="matrix(1 0 0 1 X Y)">
    <g class="hdl21-ports-input">
        <!-- Content of the symbol -->
    </g>
    <text x="10" y="-15" class="hdl21-port-name">portname</text>
</g>

Valid port names must be non-zero length. All wires connected to a port shall be assigned a net-name equal to the port's name. Any such connected wire with a conflicting net-name shall generate a SchematicError. Any wire or connected combination of wires which are connected to more than on port shall generate a SchematicError.

Connection Dot

Schematic dots indicate connectivity between wires and ports where connections might otherwise be ambiguous. The inclusion of a Dot at any location in a schematic implies that all Wires passing through that point are connected. The lack of a Dot at an intersection between wires conversely implies that the two are not connected, and instead "fly" over one another.

Dots are represented in SVG by <circle> elements centered at the dot location. Dot locations must land on the 10x10 pixel schematic grid. Dot-circles are identified by their use of the hdl21-dot SVG class.

An example Dot:

<circle cx="-20" cy="40" class="hdl21-dot" />

The center location dictating cx and cy attributes are the sole schema-relevant attributes of a dot-circle. All other attributes such as the radius r are not part of the schema, and may be any valid SVG value.

While powerful visual aids and a notional part of the schematic-schema, Dots do not have semantic meaning in schematics. They are entirely a visual aid. Schematic importers shall not imbue them with meaning. I.e. any valid schematic with any combination of Dots yields an identical circuit with any other combination of Dots.

The primary editor application infers Dots at load time, and uses those stored in SVG as a check. This process includes:

• Running "dot inference" from the schematic's wires, instances, and ports
• Comparing the inferred dot locations with those stored in the SVG
• If the two differ, reporting a warning to the user

Differences between the inferred and stored dot locations are logged and reported. They shall not generate a SchematicError.

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Note: SVG includes a definitions (<defs>) section, which in principle can serve as a place to hold the element symbol definitions. Doing so would save space in the hypertext content. But we have very quickly found that popular platforms we'd like to have render schematics (ahem, GitHub) do not support the <defs> and corresponsing <use> elements.

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Development

The Hdl21 schematic system largely breaks into two interdependent pieces of software:

• The core schematic-schema and editor, located in Hdl21SchematicEditor, and
• The Python importer, located in Hdl21SchematicImporter.

One notable difference between the two: their programming language. The editor uses a TypeScript-based web-stack, and the importer is pure Python. The two require different toolchains (yarn and pip), both of which are highly accessible and easy to install.

Dev Quickstart

To debug the desktop application:

• cd Hdl21Schematics/Hdl21SchematicEditor/packages/EditorApp
• yarn to install dependencies
• yarn start to start the application

To debug the VsCode Extension:

• cd Hdl21Schematics/Hdl21SchematicEditor/packages/VsCodePlugin/
• yarn to install dependencies
• yarn watch to build the extension and watch for changes
• F5 to start the VsCode Extension in debug mode

To dev-install the Python importer:

• cd Hdl21SchematicImporter
• pip install -e ".[dev]" to install in dev mode
• pytest to run the test suite

Editor Dev

Hdl21SchematicEditor is broken in several components, organized as JavaScript packages:

• EditorCore provides the core editor functionality. This is where the overwhelming majority of the action happens.
• EditorApp exposes the editor as a standalone desktop application, using the Electron framework.
• VsCodePlugin exposes the editor as a VS Code plug-in.
• PlatformInterface defines the interface between EditorCore and its underlying "platforms", i.e. the other packages.
• A web-based "platform" is also possible, and is TBC.
• A command-line utility for schematic checking, exporting, schema migration, and the like is also possible, and is TBC.