PDC naming conventions

Note: The names of ports, instances, and nets in an imported netlist are sometimes referred to as their original names.

Rules for displaying original names

Port names appear exactly as they are defined in a netlist. For example, a port named A/B appears as A/B in ChipPlanner, PinEditor, and I/O Attribute Editor in MultiView Navigator.

Instances and nets display the original names plus an escape character (\) before each backslash (/) and each slash (\) that is not a hierarchy separator. For example, the instance named A/\B is displayed as A\/\\B.

Which name do I use in PDC commands?

The names of ports, instances, and nets in a netlist displayed in MultiView Navigator (MVN) for ProASIC3/E and Axcelerator devices are names taken directly from the imported netlist.

Using PDC Commands

When writing PDC commands, follow these rules:

Always use the macro name as it appears in the netlist. (See "Merged elements" in this topic for exceptions.)
Names from a netlist: For port names, use the names exactly as they appear in the netlist. For instance and net names, add an escape character (\) before each backslash (\) and each slash (/) that is not a hierarchy separator.
Names from MVN and compile report: Use names as they appear in MultiView Navigator or the compile report.
For wildcard names, always add an extra backslash (\) before each backslash.
Always apply the PDC syntax conventions to any name in a PDC command.

The following table provides examples of names as they appear in an imported netlist and the names as they should appear in a PDC file:

Type of name and its location	Name in the imported netlist	Name to use in PDC file
Port name in netlist	A/:B1	A/:B1
Port name in MVN	A/:B1	A/:B1
Instance name in a netlist	A/:B1 A$(1)	A\\/:B1 A$(1)
Instance name in the netlist but using a wildcard character in a PDC file	A/:B1	A\\\\/:B*
Instance name in MVN or a compile report	A\/:B1	A\\/:B1
Net name in a netlist	Net1/:net1	Net1\\/:net1
Net name in MVN or a compile report	Net1\/:net1	Net1\\/:net1

When exporting PDC commands, the software always exports names using the PDC rules described in this topic.

Case sensitivity when importing PDC files

The following table shows the case sensitivity in the PDC file based on the source netlist.

File type	Case sensitivity
Verilog	Names in the netlist are case sensitive.
Edif	Names in the netlist are always case sensitive because we use the Rename clause, which is case sensitive.
Vhdl	Names in the netlist are not case sensitive unless those names appear between slashes (\).

For example, in VHDL, capital "A" and lowercase "a" are the same name, but \A\ and \a\ are two different names. However, in a Verilog netlist, an instance named "A10" will fail if spelled as "a10" in the set_location command:

set_location A10 (This command will succeed.)

set_location a10 (This command will fail.)

Which name to use in the case of merged elements (ProASIC3/E only)

The following table indicates which name to use in a PDC command when performing the specified operation: