Lots of DRT-1000: Attempting to patch guides to cover (at least part of) the pin.

[Syndace]

Building seemingly any project has recently resulted in a large number of DRT-1000's to appear in the log:

[INFO DRT-1000] Pin _24659_/S not in any guide. Attempting to patch guides to cover (at least part of) the pin

I haven't seen these messages before, and even though their log-level is just INFO, I'd be happy to get confirmation that they are indeed harmless.

I've tried specifically the aes example with sky130 and ihp.

[maliberty]

@osamahammad21 please comment

[osamahammad21]

A slight increase in the number of this message is expected after merging The-OpenROAD-Project/OpenROAD#5933. This is because we now consider guide coverage of access points instead of whole pin shapes. However, a large increase is an indication that GRT might not be doing good job. Do you run pin_access before global routing?

[Syndace]

Do you run pin_access before global routing?

Yes, I currently use the flow as-is without modifications. Here is an excerpt of the log around pin_access and the DRT-1000s, do the numbers look sane? 442 DRT-1000s sounds like a lot to me but maybe it's expected for that number of total pins.

[INFO DRT-0165] Start pin access.
[INFO DRT-0078]   Complete 1034 pins.
[INFO DRT-0081]   Complete 74 unique inst patterns.
[INFO DRT-0084]   Complete 2876 groups.
#scanned instances     = 5492
#unique  instances     = 112
#stdCellGenAp          = 2828
#stdCellValidPlanarAp  = 32
#stdCellValidViaAp     = 1945
#stdCellPinNoAp        = 0
#stdCellPinCnt         = 18509
#instTermValidViaApCnt = 0
#macroGenAp            = 673
#macroValidPlanarAp    = 54
#macroValidViaAp       = 21
#macroNoAp             = 0
[INFO DRT-0166] Complete pin access.
[INFO DRT-0267] cpu time = 00:00:50, elapsed time = 00:00:02, memory = 215.65 (MB), peak = 215.65 (MB)

[INFO DRT-0157] Number of guides:     41267

[INFO DRT-0169] Post process guides.
[INFO DRT-0176] GCELLGRID X 0 DO 126 STEP 7200 ;
[INFO DRT-0177] GCELLGRID Y 0 DO 122 STEP 7200 ;
[INFO DRT-0028]   Complete GatPoly.
[INFO DRT-0028]   Complete Cont.
[INFO DRT-0028]   Complete Metal1.
[INFO DRT-0028]   Complete Via1.
[INFO DRT-0028]   Complete Metal2.
[INFO DRT-0028]   Complete Via2.
[INFO DRT-0028]   Complete Metal3.
[INFO DRT-0028]   Complete Via3.
[INFO DRT-0028]   Complete Metal4.
[INFO DRT-0028]   Complete Via4.
[INFO DRT-0028]   Complete Metal5.
[INFO DRT-0028]   Complete TopVia1.
[INFO DRT-0028]   Complete TopMetal1.
[INFO DRT-0028]   Complete TopVia2.
[INFO DRT-0028]   Complete TopMetal2.
[INFO DRT-1000] Pin u_design.bytecount\[2\]$_DFF_PP0_/D not in any guide. Attempting to patch guides to cover (at least part of) the pin.

*441 similar lines omitted*

[INFO DRT-0178] Init guide query.
[INFO DRT-0035]   Complete GatPoly (guide).
[INFO DRT-0035]   Complete Cont (guide).
[INFO DRT-0035]   Complete Metal1 (guide).
[INFO DRT-0035]   Complete Via1 (guide).
[INFO DRT-0035]   Complete Metal2 (guide).
[INFO DRT-0035]   Complete Via2 (guide).
[INFO DRT-0035]   Complete Metal3 (guide).
[INFO DRT-0035]   Complete Via3 (guide).
[INFO DRT-0035]   Complete Metal4 (guide).
[INFO DRT-0035]   Complete Via4 (guide).
[INFO DRT-0035]   Complete Metal5 (guide).
[INFO DRT-0035]   Complete TopVia1 (guide).
[INFO DRT-0035]   Complete TopMetal1 (guide).
[INFO DRT-0035]   Complete TopVia2 (guide).
[INFO DRT-0035]   Complete TopMetal2 (guide).
[INFO DRT-0036] GatPoly guide region query size = 0.
[INFO DRT-0036] Cont guide region query size = 0.
[INFO DRT-0036] Metal1 guide region query size = 14709.
[INFO DRT-0036] Via1 guide region query size = 0.
[INFO DRT-0036] Metal2 guide region query size = 10477.
[INFO DRT-0036] Via2 guide region query size = 0.
[INFO DRT-0036] Metal3 guide region query size = 4410.
[INFO DRT-0036] Via3 guide region query size = 0.
[INFO DRT-0036] Metal4 guide region query size = 95.
[INFO DRT-0036] Via4 guide region query size = 0.
[INFO DRT-0036] Metal5 guide region query size = 16.
[INFO DRT-0036] TopVia1 guide region query size = 0.
[INFO DRT-0036] TopMetal1 guide region query size = 0.
[INFO DRT-0036] TopVia2 guide region query size = 0.
[INFO DRT-0036] TopMetal2 guide region query size = 0.
[INFO DRT-0179] Init gr pin query.
[INFO DRT-0185] Post process initialize RPin region query.
[INFO DRT-0181] Start track assignment.
[INFO DRT-0184] Done with 19135 vertical wires in 3 frboxes and 10572 horizontal wires in 3 frboxes.
[INFO DRT-0186] Done with 4004 vertical wires in 3 frboxes and 4066 horizontal wires in 3 frboxes.
[INFO DRT-0182] Complete track assignment.

[osamahammad21]

That means pin access runs before detailed routing not global routing. we are currently looking into running pin access before global routing so that the global router would route to the access points.

[Syndace]

Right, I misread your question. Thank you for the clarifications :)