ODB::Several Chips ?

[ApeachM]

I can see a function of dbDatabase, which is

dbSet<dbChip> dbDatabase::getChips().

However, in dbChip* dbChip::create(dbDatabase* db_) function,

///
/// Create a new chip.
/// Returns nullptr if a chip already exists.
/// Returns nullptr if there is no database technology.
///
dbChip* dbChip::create(dbDatabase* db_)
{
  _dbDatabase* db = (_dbDatabase*) db_;

  if (db->_chip != 0)
    return nullptr;

  _dbChip* chip = db->_chip_tbl->create();
  db->_chip = chip->getOID();
  return (dbChip*) chip;
}

it prevents making several Chip object.
Is getChips() are deprecated one and there's no way to make several chip in current odb version?
Or is there any way to use dbSet<dbChip> dbDatabase::getChips() function and handle several Chip object?

I appreciate for spending your precious time reading my question. Thank you.

[maliberty]

The dbChip is a pretty useless class. You can only create one but you can create multiple dbBlock in one dbChip. I expect to model all the die/tier/stack as dbBlock and mostly ignore dbChip.

[maliberty]

I'd like to remove dbChip at some point but that will require touching a lot of code as it will be a breaking API change.

[ApeachM]

Thank you for the good explanation. I was always wondering about the role of dbChip class. Thank you!