The weekend was nice… and now it’s back to work. My day didn’t start off so well, and it sort of set the mood for the day. Even so, I learned a bit more about ESD, I went through the latest design manual with a fine-tooth comb, and I re-reviewed the three free layout tools at my disposal to see if any of them would be even minimally serviceable. I don’t want to work in Linux all the time and I don’t want to bring two laptops with me on vacation. If I can use one of the free tools, then I can start layout soon, allowing me to slowly build up my Linux environment with the help of friends who are much, much better at that sort of stuff than me.
Good thing I checked the new design manual today. It turns out that the foundry changed the way they did things. They are now using something called “datatypes,” for their layers. Not all layout tools do datatypes, including two of the three programs in my possession. In a way, it made my decision easy – I’m going with the one tool that does datatypes. It’s a “clunky” tool, but it’s simple to use, just not very powerful. It’s very basic.
The girls were out for a while this evening, so I spent some quality time with my son. It was very enjoyable, so my day did end well.
Day 162 mood: It would be good, except I feel a migraine coming on. Those things usually last a few days.