2022.1.1
FlowTracer is a complete system to create, manage, and execute design flows.
View new features for FlowTracer 2022.1.1.
An advanced mission critical dependency management platform for developing and executing flows.
Discover FlowTracer functionality with interactive tutorials.
When using FlowTracer in large deployments, three main roles emerge: Administrator, Developer and User. In smaller organizations, a given person may have multiple roles, but the duties of each role still exist.
FlowTracer is derived from the system "VOV" originally developed at UC-Berkeley. The word "VOV" is not an acronym, but can be thought of as a contraction of the word "evolve".
The act of requesting FlowTracer to bring a particular target up-to-date is sometimes called a Retrace Request or more simply a Retrace.
The graphical user interface, called the "console", is invoked with the command vovconsole.
The Set Browser allows you to list and edit the sets defined in the graph.
When you select a set by double clicking on it in the Set Browser panel, you display that set in the Set Viewer panel.
The system log, located at the bottom of the GUI, shows relevant events, one per line.
All icons provide descriptions that you can find by hovering over the icon.
The GUI console provides a Set Browser navigation panel on the left side, and a Set Viewer panel on the right side.
FlowTracer uses a weight-driven placement (WDP) algorithm to place nodes close to their dependencies and minimize overlapping edges. A higher weight is assigned to nodes with low fanout, which allows nodes with single dependency relationships to stack perfectly. A lower weight is assigned to high fanout dependencies.
Navigating the flow graph means moving from one node to another following the input/output dependencies.
To monitor the activity of the taskers, use either vsm from the CLI, or click Console > Vov Monitor from the GUI.
This chapter will cover how you can use your web browser to manage FlowTracer.
The Altair Accelerator products have a rich set of programs that can be run on the shell command line.
Altair Accelerator includes a subsystem for managing computing resources. This allows the design team to factor in various constraints regarding hardware and software resources, as well as site policy constraints.
Renaming of nodes is a task for more advanced users. In most cases, it is simpler to forget all nodes and rebuild the trace from scratch.
This manual is aimed at the person who will be the administrator for FlowTracer. This person will be responsible for configuring the network resources, setting up the licensing, and establishing security and access rules for the system.
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