sramforge

A memory compiler for a 7 nanometre process, built with open-source tools only.

sramforge generates SRAM (Static Random-Access Memory) blocks from 1 to 8 kilobytes: the full transistor-level layout, plus the abstract, timing library and behavioural model. It comes with its own verification stack, which checks each block from every shape in place to data stored in time.

→ Read the full walkthrough

Every chip needs memory, and memory is not written in a hardware description language like the rest of a design. It is drawn. A memory compiler takes the size you want and assembles the transistor-level layout. Those compilers are normally supplied by the foundry or bought, and closed. This one is written in Python for ASAP7 (Arizona State Predictive Process Design Kit, 7 nanometre), an open kit for a 7 nanometre process. It starts from the leaf cells in the kit's SRAM (Static Random-Access Memory) release, builds everything around them, and checks the result using only open tools: KLayout, OpenROAD, ngspice and OpenVAF.

How the generator builds a block, to scale, with measured values in amber: one cell tiled into strips and arrays, mirrored around the shared read and write column, and stacked into the full block; then each of the three parameters changed in turn.

The project in brief

1. A generator that replays measured rules. The tiling rules were measured from the kit's own 2 kilobyte block. At that size the generated layout is identical to the kit's on all 31 layers, and the same rules build any size from 4 to 64 bits per group, 4 or 8 cell strips and 8 to 96 rows.
2. A rebuilt control block. The kit's control logic only fits sizes near the reference. For the others it is extracted from the layout, edited (a ninth address bit, a longer delay line, eight-strip column selects), and placed and routed again with OpenROAD.
3. Four outputs from one list of pins. The layout, the abstract a place-and-route tool needs, a timing library in the Liberty format, and a behavioural model in Verilog, all derived from the same pin list so they agree by construction.
4. A verification stack written from scratch. Seven questions, from whether every shape is in place to whether the block stores data in time, answered from the layout itself (see Verification below).

Results

The generated 2 kilobyte block, shown on its side: 16,384 memory cells in two mirrored halves, with the decoder and control logic between them. It is 9.6 by 77.8 micrometres.

Measured on that block: the area from its outline, the rest by simulating the transistors extracted from it, at the typical corner.

Property	Value	Meaning
Size	747.9 square micrometres	63.9 per cent of it is memory cells
Speed	1.94 gigahertz	A 516 picosecond period: the 430 picoseconds confirmed in simulation, plus a fifth as margin
Read latency	243 picoseconds	From the clock edge to data on the output pins
Read energy	0.615 picojoules	Charge drawn from the supply for one access
Idle power	773 nanowatts	Leakage while the block is idle
Cell stability	154 millivolts	The noise a stored bit tolerates while being read, out of a 700 millivolt supply

The largest block taken through the same measurements holds 65,536 memory cells.

Verification

The block has never been made in silicon, so every answer comes from the generated layout itself. Each question relies on the ones before it.

Question	Answer for the 2 kilobyte block	Checked by
Is every shape where it should be?	Identical to the kit's own block on all 31 layers	test_golden.py, test_invariants.py
Is it wired the way it should be?	Every bit line, word line and supply is one unbroken wire, and no two touch	test_connectivity.py
Can it be manufactured?	Passes all 97 rules from the kit's rule manual	test_drc.py
Are the transistors the ones we meant?	All 114,454 extracted and accounted for; each cell matches the six-transistor schematic	test_lvs.py
Does it store and return data?	Every address opens exactly the right cells, and bits written are read back	test_functional.py, writeread_sweep.py
Does it work in time?	The sense amplifier fires after its farthest cell is ready	test_sense_timing.py, characterize.py
Do the files a chip designer uses tell the truth?	The abstract matches the layout exactly, and every timing value traces to a measurement	test_lef.py, test_liberty.py

Five of the checks are fed deliberately damaged layouts every time they run and must reject them, and the rule and transistor checks agree with independently written tools. The walkthrough states which other sizes each answer covers.

How it works

1. Tiling (tech.py, generator.py): memory cells form strips, strips form arrays, two mirrored arrays share a read and write column, and these column groups stack into two halves around a central band.
2. Directly drawn wiring (overlays.json): the shapes the kit draws by hand at each level, kept as an explicit, labelled table.
3. Control band (band.py, pnr/): the kit's control logic, or the rebuilt one placed and routed by OpenROAD.
4. Sense timing (sense.py, sae_codes.json): each size gets the delay setting that fires the sense amplifier after its farthest cell is ready.
5. Outputs (pins.py, lef.py, liberty.py, verilog.py): the abstract, timing library and behavioural model, from one pin list.
6. Checks (drc.py, nets.py, lvs.py, switchsim.py): 97 design rules, wiring rebuilt from the raw shapes, transistors extracted and matched, and simulation of the extracted circuit.
7. Measurement (characterize.py, cell_margin.py): transistor-level simulation of the extracted layout, written to the records in out/.

Repository map

Path	What
sramforge/	the compiler and its checks
tests/	the checks behind the seven questions; tests/run_all.py runs them all
scripts/	measurements, cell extraction, control-logic edits, and the project page
pnr/, sta/	placing and routing the rebuilt control, and timing the finished block, with OpenROAD
spice/	transistor models and circuit testbenches
cells/	the leaf cells, extracted from the kit's release
out/	the committed measurement records
examples/	a pre-built 2 kilobyte block
docs/	the project page, its images, and the design documents

Reproduce

Needs Python 3.10 or later and the KLayout Python module:

pip install klayout
python3 -m sramforge --out out/                         # the reference 2 kilobyte block
python3 -m sramforge --bits 16 --depth 64 --out out/ --lef

Each build writes the layout, the behavioural model and a manifest; --lef adds the abstract. The checks compare against the kit's release, cloned beside this repository:

git clone https://github.com/The-OpenROAD-Project/asap7_sram_0p0.git ../asap7_sram_0p0
python3 tests/run_all.py

The checks that need only Python and KLayout run on every code change. The measurements need ngspice with the kit's transistor models compiled by OpenVAF (SRAMFORGE_NGSPICE and SRAMFORGE_OSDI point at them), and the timing run needs Docker with the openroad/orfs image, so those run locally and their records are committed.

Limitations

• The process kit is predictive, so nothing here has been built in silicon.
• The simulations leave out the resistance and capacitance of the wiring.
• Block area does not yet shrink with the configuration.
• Sizes other than the reference are held to recorded rule baselines rather than passing every rule, and only the reference has a timing library at all three corners.
• The behavioural model is not compared with the layout, and has no timing checks.

Future work

1. Replica sense timing: a dummy far row that fires the sense amplifier itself.
2. Timing libraries for more sizes, and at the fast corner.
3. Clean rule checks for every size, plus antenna and density rules.
4. Bank-level wiring generated from rules rather than measured from the kit.
5. One command that runs every check on a newly generated block.

Third-party material

The leaf cells in cells/ come from the kit's SRAM (Static Random-Access Memory) release, copyright 2023 The OpenROAD Project, and the transistor models in spice/models/ are converted from the ASAP7 (Arizona State Predictive Process Design Kit, 7 nanometre) kit, copyright 2020 Lawrence T. Clark, Vinay Vashishtha, or Arizona State University. Both are used under their owners' BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) 3-Clause licences, as credited in NOTICE.