OpenROAD Project

For the programming language, see OpenROAD.

The OpenROAD Project (Open Realization of Autonomous Design) is a major open-source project that aims to provide a fully automated, end-to-end digital integrated circuit design flow (RTL-to-GDSII), thereby eliminating the need for human intervention. The project, led by UC San Diego, aims to democratize hardware design and promote rapid innovation in integrated circuit (IC) design by reducing barriers related to cost, time, and experience.

OpenROAD was started in 2018 to address the high cost, needed experience, and unpredictability of conventional EDA tools as part of DARPA's IDEA initiative. Its goal is to establish a 24-hour, no-human-in-loop (NHIL) flow that matches the usual quality of design, and produces layouts directly suitable for manufacturing. OpenROAD is released under a permissive BSD license to keep it freely available, despite the inclusion of commercial tools.

Among OpenROAD's main features are scripting interfaces (Tcl/Python) and a common database (OpenDB), which help designers automate or personalize every phase of the digital design process. Projects using the flow range from Hammer at the University of California, Berkeley, to the FASoC analog/mixed-signal flow to the Zero-ASIC Silicon Compiler. Readymade open ASIC flows include OpenLane and OpenROAD scripts.

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