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.TH "ABC" "1" "@VERSION@" "ABC" "User Commands"
.SH "NAME"
abc \- sequential logic synthesis and formal verification
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.B abc
[\fIOPTIONS\fP] \fIFILE\fP
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.PP
ABC is a growing software system for synthesis and verification of binary
sequential logic circuits appearing in synchronous hardware designs.  ABC
combines scalable logic optimization based on And-Inverter Graphs (AIGs),
optimal-delay DAG-based technology mapping for look-up tables and standard
cells, and innovative algorithms for sequential synthesis and verification.
.PP
ABC provides an experimental implementation of these algorithms and a
programming environment for building similar applications.  Future development
will focus on improving the algorithms and making most of the packages
stand-alone.  This will allow the user to customize ABC for their needs as if
it were a toolbox rather than a complete tool.
.SH "OPTIONS"
.TP
\fB\-c\fP \fICMD\fP
Execute commands \fICMD\fP.
.TP
\fB\-q\fP \fICMD\fP
Execute commands \fICMD\fP quietly.
.TP
\fB\-C\fP \fICMD\fP
Execute commands \fICMD\fP, then continue in interactive mode.
.TP
\fB\-F\fP \fISCRIPT\fP
Execute commands from script file \fISCRIPT\fP and echo commands.
.TP
\fB\-f\fP \fISCRIPT\fP
Execute commands from script file \fISCRIPT\fP.
.TP
\fB\-h\fP
Print command usage.
.TP
\fB\-o\fP \fIFILE\fP
Store the result in \fIFILE\fP.
.TP
\fB\-s\fP
Do not read any initialization file.
.TP
\fB\-t\fP \fITYPE\fP
Specify the input type, one of \fIblif_mv\fP, \fIblif_mvs\fP, \fIblif\fP, or
\fInone\fP.  The default is \fIblif_mv\fP.
.TP
\fB\-T\fP \fITYPE\fP
Specify the output type, one of \fIblif_mv\fP, \fIblif_mvs\fP, \fIblif\fP, or
\fInone\fP.  The default is \fIblif_mv\fP.
.TP
\fB\-x\fP
Equivalent to \fI-t none -T none\fP.
.TP
\fB\-b\fP
Run in bridge mode.
.SH "INTRODUCTION"
.PP
Data structures and algorithms at the heart of a software system determine its
capabilities in processing data and its efficiency as a programming
environment for building new applications.  Extensive experience of developing
and using SIS, VIS, and MVSIS, makes it clear that these systems do not
provide a flexible programming environment to implement recent innovations,
such as integration of technology mapping and retiming.  Specifically, the SIS
environment is outdated and rather inefficient when handling large circuits.
VIS, designed as a formal verification tool for multi-valued specifications,
does not provide enough flexibility for binary synthesis.  MVSIS was developed
and extensively used by us in the recent years for implementing new synthesis
algorithms for both multi-valued and binary networks.  Finally, we became
convinced that (a) the basic data structures and algorithms of MVSIS can be
made considerably simpler and easier to use by assuming binary networks, and
(b) a central place in the new system should be given to a new data structure,
AIGs (multi-level logic networks composed of two-input ANDs and inverters),
which promises improvements in quality and runtime of synthesis and
verification.
.PP
This understanding motivates us to redevelop the core packages of MVSIS
resulting in a new programming environment named ABC.  As the name suggests,
the primary goal is to keep data structures simple and flexible for a wide
range of applications.  The “philosophy of ABC” has several basic premises.
One of them is allowing for a variety of functional representations, such as
BDDs and SOPs, to solve specialized tasks, while defaulting to AIGs for the
mainstream network manipulation.  Representing logic using AIGs leads to a
remarkable uniformity in computation and efficient interfacing with CNF-based
SAT solvers for handing Boolean reasoning problems.  Another fundamental
premise of ABC is the synergy between synthesis and verification using
efficient SAT-based Boolean reasoning on the AIG for combinational and
sequential equivalence checking.
.PP
The goal of the ABC project is to provide a public-domain implementation of
the state-of-the-art combinational and sequential synthesis algorithms and, at
the same time, create an open-source environment, in which such applications
can be developed and compared.  The current version of ABC can
optimize/map/retime industrial gate-level designs with 100K gates and 10K
sequential elements for optimal delay and heuristically minimized area in
about one minute of CPU time on a modern computer.  The runtime of the
combinational synthesis, mapping, and verification is typically faster.