Editing Magic (software) (section)

{{More citations needed|date=April 2022}}{{Short description|Historical VLSI IC layout editor}}
{{about|the VLSI tool|the rapid application development tool|Magic Software Enterprises}}

{{Infobox software
| name = Magic
| logo = 
| screenshot = 
| caption = 
| collapsible = 
| author = [[John Ousterhout|John K. Ousterhout]], Gordon T. Hamachi, Robert N. Mayo, Walter S. Scott, George S. Taylor
| developer = Magic Development Team
| released = {{Start date and age|1983|04}}
| discontinued = 
| latest release version = 8.3.479
| latest release date = {{Start date and age|2024|05|08}}
| status = 
| repo = https://github.com/RTimothyEdwards/magic
| programming language = [[C (programming language)|C]]
| operating system = [[Linux]]
| platform = 
| size = 
| language = English
| genre = [[Electronic design automation]]
| license = [[BSD license]]<ref>http://opencircuitdesign.com/magic/archive/papers/copyright.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=March 2022}}</ref>
| website = {{url|opencircuitdesign.com/magic/}}
| frequently updated = 
}}
[[Image:Inverter Layout - Magic.png|right|300px|thumb|VLSI layout of an inverter circuit using Magic software]]
'''Magic''' is an [[electronic design automation]] (EDA) layout tool for [[very-large-scale integration]] (VLSI) [[integrated circuit]] (IC)  originally written by [[John Ousterhout]] and his graduate students at [[UC Berkeley]] as part of [[VLSI Project]].  Work began on the project in February 1983.  A primitive version was operational by April 1983,<ref>[http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/1983/CSD-83-154.pdf A Collection of Papers on Magic].</ref> when Joan Pendleton, Shing Kong and other graduate student chip designers suffered through many fast revisions devised to meet their needs in designing the SOAR CPU chip, a follow-on to [[Berkeley RISC]].

Fearing that Ousterhout was going to propose another name that started with "C" to match his previous projects ''Cm*'', ''Caesar'', and ''Crystal'', Gordon Hamachi proposed the name ''Magic'' because he liked the idea of being able to say that people used magic to design chips.  The rest of the development team enthusiastically agreed to this proposal after he devised the [[backronym]] '''M'''anhattan '''A'''rtwork '''G'''enerator for '''I'''ntegrated '''C'''ircuits.  The Magic software developers called themselves magicians, while the chip designers were Magic users.

As [[free and open-source software]], subject to the requirements of the [[BSD license]], Magic continues to be popular because it is easy to use and easy to expand for specialized tasks.