FreePDK45 integration request: legal situation seems to be changed now

[Alexandre Rusev]

Previous  time issue in Bugzilla
https://java.net/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=3167

was closed as wontfix because of legal issues

http://www.eda.ncsu.edu/wiki/FreePDK

Now days FreePDK is lisenced under terms and conditions which look like to be not so constraintive for use it foe intrgration. See quotation below:
"The FreePDK^TM process design kit is an open-source, Open-Access-based PDK for the 45nm technology node and the Predictive Technology Model. It is distributed under the Apache Open Source License, Version 2.0. "



Design rules table for FreePDK45:
http://www.eda.ncsu.edu/wiki/FreePDK45:RuleDevel

source repo is also available for now:
svn co https://svn.unity.ncsu.edu/osi/freepdk45/trunk freepdk45/trunk

Could Electric officially  support FreePDK now? At least integrating design rules?

What kind of help is needed due to achieving of this?

(Can I help somehow?)

As reference, her is Apache lisence table of "whai is permitted"
https://tldrlegal.com/license/apache-license-2.0-%28apache-2.0%29

Can

• Commercial Use 
• Modify 
• Distribute 
• Sublicense 
• Private Use 
• Use Patent Claims 
• Place Warranty

Cannot

• Hold Liable 
• Use Trademark 

Must

• Must
• Include Copyright 
• Include License 
• State Changes 
• Include Notice 

[Steven Rubin]

This looks good. Apache 2.0 is compatible with the Electric license (GPL 3) so I believe the two can be combined.

Do you have an XML file for this 45nm PDK?

   -Steven Rubin

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[Travis Ayres]

Did we ever get XML for the 45nm PDK?

Having an open PDK would really be useful for Electric.

-Travis

[Guilherme Shimabuko]

I'm guessing there have been no advances towards this? I am very interested in the support of other pdks. Also, if there is no official support, is there a way to import the pdk anyway?

[Gavin Abo]

I could be wrong, but as far as I know,  Electric has no PDK import. 
Since you should be able to get the Electric source code [
http://www.staticfreesoft.com/jmanual/mchap01-04-01.html ], almost
anything should be possible with it.  You could try writing yourself
additional code for Electric to import PDK.  However, this source code
you write and PDK you use might not be sharable with others due to NDA. 
The PDK having NDA is an issue as others have discussed in the Electric
group before.  On the other hand, the 'fictitious' PDK, while available
to the public, might not be of interest as that implies there is no
foundry or untested processes for fabrication.  In other words, the
circuits designed in Electric cannot be manufactured or they might be
broken when you manufacture them (until you can refine the manufacturing
process).  The commercial companies tend to spend lots of money on
manpower, equipment, and supplies to refine their manufacturing
processes.  So, it should not be surprising that they protect their
processes with NDA and why people use them (when they don't have the
resources to refine the processes themselves in their own laboratories).