Linux
Linux and Scripting are not only meant for IT administrators. Almost all EDA tools in the Semiconductor industry are made for the Linux environment and are controlled through the command line. Hence, getting familiar with the Linux environment is a bonus skill, placing you a step forward than others. There is no need to replace your windows OS with a Linux-based OS on your system, to play with it. You can use a virtual box to run Linux without affecting your normal Windows OS.
Though you can find many videos on how to run a Linux environment using VirtualBox, here is a video by a channel named “It’s FOSS – Linux Blog” – Click here
Once you have access to the Linux environment, you have plenty of resources that teach you Linux from the basics. There are Udemy courses, NPTEL courses, blog pages, dedicated websites and the official Linux Foundation website as well.
- Learn Linux in 5 days – https://www.udemy.com/course/learn-linux-in-5-days/
- Linux Mastery – https://www.udemy.com/course/linux-mastery/
- The Linux Foundation has a free course teaching Linux to newbies. Click here to access
- An NPTEL course detailing Linux and scripting. Click here to access
- Here is a website that updates you with all the Linux stuff. Click here to access.
- I found a cool website which helps you to learn new things (and in a new way) in Linux and Bash scripting – Click here to access.
- Here is a 3-hr complete Linux Command Line YouTube course. It only takes your patience to learn. Click here to access.
You can find many YouTube channels that teach Linux in unique styles. Find yours and get a good grip on the concept. If you are convinced with the resources provided above, here is the free list of training courses on Linux, by itsFoss.com. Click here to access
If you are looking for a bunch of common and useful commands, here are a few resources which can help you
- “Important Linux commands to know” by How to Geek – Click here
- Linux | Basic to Advance (YouTube Playlist by Team VLSI) – Click here
If you want some cheat sheets, here they are –
You can download cheat sheets from the official site of opensource.com –
- Linux users and permissions – click here
- Bash Cheat Sheet – click here
- Linux commands Cheat Sheet – click here
- Linux grep Cheat Sheet – click here
- Vim Cheat Sheet – click here
- Vim from Tutorial Point – click here
- Mastering Unix Shell website tutorials – click here
- Make file tutorial – click here
Scripting
As mentioned above, EDA tools are operated using command line (most of the tools are developed for Linux environment and are extensively automated via TCL, Perl, Python scripts). We use a bunch of commands to perform a task. But typing commands every time is tedious as well as time-taking process. Hence, we dump all those commands in a script and run the script which is nothing but running commands one after the other based on some conditions (Though this is a vague understanding of scripting, in simple words, this is what it means).
There are many languages like TCL, Perl and Python, which we use to write scripts. There is also a concept of Shell scripting. You can find their official websites to learn about them.
Here are few resources which can help you.
- VLSI Pro – https://vlsi.pro/category/back-end/scripts/
- VLSI Expert – http://www.vlsi-expert.com/search?q=tcl
- iVLSI – http://ivlsi.com/category/scripting/tcl/
- Perl Tutorial – https://www.perltutorial.org/
- Learn Perl – https://www.learn-perl.org/
- There is also a book named “Teach yourself, Perl, in 21 days” – click here
- NPTEL course detailing Linux and scripting. Click here to access
- Bash Terminal – click here
- Bash Scripting – click here
- Shell Scripting tutorial by Edureka – click here
- Shell Scripting bu shellscript.sh – click here
- “Automate the boring stuff with Python” – Click here
- TCl Basics | Tcl Tutorial for Beginners – Click here
- TCl tutorial for VLSI (YouTube Playlist by TechSimplified TV) – Click here
- Scripting resources from learnbyexample – Click here
VLSI Resources 