The purpose of ORCAMASH is to smooth out the worst roughness between the other tools. The tools we used were said to be compatible with eachother, we found out otherwise...thus the necessity for a tool that performed like a "glue" between the other tools.

Orcamash has several features that makes the design process faster and more reliable.

Orcamash has an option to check the design for inconsistencies in the netlist (schematic) from ViewDraw including its synthezised instances. This option is usefull to enhance the reliability of the design, since ViewSynthesis sometimes has proven to produce offending constructs such as redundant latches, gates with its output connected back to its input etc. These errors were not detectable in ViewSim but showed up when the design was routed to an FPGA.

Orcamash also has a "bind" option where the connections between different top level instances can be made automatically. All wires having the same name are connected to eachother. This has proven useful for larger designs and also makes it easier for the designer to make significant changes to the design without having to waste time by reconnecting the wires by hand

Orcamash also generates the symbols for the FPGA's with their neccessary pin assignments (pin routing information extracted from ODS) and other needed symbol data for routing on the Aptix board.

Orcamash has several other functions for making the design work easier.