MADMACS: A New VLSI Layout Macro Editor

MADMACS is an interactive graphics editor for hierarchical VLSI layouts. Like most editors, it includes all editing facilities needed for complex circuit design. However, Madmacs provides a powerful user interface to facilitate and speedup regular and structured layout editing. This technique, similar to the macro editing concept used in the EMACS text editor is called ALP: Automated Layout Procedure. It permits the easy update of a design when only some slight modifications are required. In this paper, we describe the general features of Madmacs and our first experiences with a preliminary implementation.