Computer Graphics Exchange (CGX) Format

The Computer Graphics eXchange (CGX) format is a simple binary data format somewhat similar to GDSII, but designed to be more compact. Like GDSII, files consist of a sequential list of variable-length records. It has simplified record structure, but extensions in data flexibility. If is more compact than GDSII and is more efficient to read and write.

The advantages of CGX are smaller files and faster read/write than GDSII. This format was developed by Whiteley Research Inc., but is hereby placed in the public domain without restriction.

The file extension is ``.cgx''. Gzipped files (``cgx.gz'') are supported. Xic will automatically identify this file type, and can read, write, and convert to Xic files just as GDSII.