Viewing Multi GB GDSII/OASIS files on a PC with QIS UNIX

This page describes the basic procedure for viewing very large GDSII/OASIS files on a Windows based computer our QIS Client on the PC and our QIS (Qckvu Image Server) running on a strong 64 bit Solaris or Linux box.
That allows designers to view multi GBs files on a thin PC with minimum RAM, while all the work is being done on a 64 bit UNIX server that is located on the network.

STEP 1

The first step is to start qis64 on your UNIX box. From the qis/bin directory, you can start qis64 by typing the command as shown in the picture.. You need to specify the port number you want to use. You also need to know the IP address of the UNIX system. These two things will be entered later to the QIS Client on the PC side.

STEP 2

On the PC side, we can now start the QIS Client application. After the GUI comes up, go to File > Specify QIS Open to open the QIS Configuration menu.
In this menu you need to specify the IP address and the port where qis64 started from. You also want to check On the Remote Browser which allow you to Browse for the file to view on the UNIX box.
The Specify File option will allow you to choose the type of file you want to view. The two options are GDSII and OASIS.
Once all these parameters are set, click on the Browse..

STEP 3

From the Browse screen, navigate through the UNIX directory until you find your file. Select it and hit OK.
You will be back to the Connect QIS screen and now you can hit Open to start loading the file.
The program will go through the Scanning and then Loading phases. Once done, you will see the chip on the screen.

STEP 4

At this point you can zoom, measure, select the layers/colors/cells to view, and utlilize all the other functions vailable with the QIS Client.
You can even open multiple screens at the same time.. Each screen may have different cells, different zoom area, different layers etc...