GDSII/GDS2 is a binary file format that represents the layers needed to produce an ASIC.

In the OpenLane flow, Magic is used to ‘stream’ the final GDS2 files.

We can use other programs or even software libraries to generate valid GDS2 files. Here I’ve used gdspy to convert the Hackaday logo into GDS2.

You can check the very simple program out here

The Skywater PDK defines all the layers that we can use in the GDS2 files.

Course feedback

The Zero to ASIC course was great! Through this course I became more proficient with Verilog and started to not just appreciate, but actually enjoy the design verification! It offers the glimpse at the superpower too - seeing the traces of the original design in what used to be just squiggly lines of the masks before. Plus, I am getting my own piece of a silicon 🙂

Renaldas Zioma