QisMBoolFiles Extension Library
With the availability of multi-threaded QisMLib we can now offer an extension library, QisMBoolFiles, that makes Boolean operations between two files easier to implement and considerably more efficient. In particular, we have optimized this extension library to enable comparisons (XOR) between two GDSII/OASIS files for a large number of windows.
Overview of Operation
Open/Load Files
The client module uses QisMLib to load two files and get the appropriate QisMFile handles
Define Cells/Layers
Next the client defines the cell and layers for EACH file to use as operands. The two input files can have a different view cell and layer set if that is what is wanted.
Define Windows List
The client defines a set of windows to operate. This could consist of hundreds or thousands of small clips.
Define Boolean Operation
A number of different Boolean operations are available: UNION, DIFFERENCE, XOR and CLIP.
Pass Windows to Queue
The window set is fed to queue manager and N window threads are created to process those windows. If run on hardware with many cores, then many threads can be run in parallel.
Each window thread fetches the next available window from the queue and executes TWO QisMExploder threads to collect data from both files for that window (in parallel)
The collected data is fed to an instance of the QisMBool object for performing Boolean operations (UNION, OR, INTERSECTION, DIFF, XOR or just CLIP) on the collected data using P Boolean threads per window.
Collect Results
The input and output polygons are delivered back to the client via a callback function for each window until all windows have been processed
Number of Licenses
This entire operation requires N licenses of QisMBoolFiles (11071) where N is the number of window threads i.e number of windows to process in parallel