Shared timing graph propagation for multi-mode multi-corner static timing analysis
Granted: April 27, 2021
Patent Number:
10990733
According to certain aspects, the present embodiments include techniques for performing a single timing analysis run for a plurality of views representing different modes and/or corners. An embodiment analyzes and maintains relevant timing information that is different for different views, but otherwise maintains the same information for all views. This allows each individual view in a single run to be analyzed in the same manner as separate runs for each separate view, thereby ensuring…
Functional built-in self-test architecture in an emulation system
Granted: April 27, 2021
Patent Number:
10990728
An emulation system may have a built-in self-test circuit to generate one or more built-in self-test instructions. The one or more built-in self-test instructions may be pseudorandom. The one or more built-in self-test instructions may cause one or more emulation processors of the emulation system to generate one or more deterministic outputs. A testing processor of the emulation system may compare the one or more deterministic outputs to detect a faulty emulation processor, a faulty…
Delay dependence in physically aware cell cloning
Granted: April 27, 2021
Patent Number:
10990721
Electronic design automation systems, methods, and media are presented for cell cloning during circuit design. In one embodiment, for a circuit design comprising a plurality of flip-flop elements having clock inputs provided by a routing tree, a delay is identified for each flip-flop element. The flip-flop elements are clustered by delay to generate at least two clusters of flip-flop elements. Elements within the clusters are then grouped by physical characteristics to generate delay…
Method, system, and product for generating and maintaining a physical design for an electronic circuit having sync group constraints for design rule checking
Granted: April 20, 2021
Patent Number:
10984164
An approach is described for a method, system, and product, the approaching includes identification of an integrated circuit design, identification of sync groups (nets having synchronous voltage levels), generation of a physical design having sync group constraints, and performance of design rule checking on a physical design based on at least transferred sync group information. This provides for performing design rule analysis at least using small minimum spacing requirements then…
System, method, and computer program product for sequential equivalence checking in formal verification
Granted: April 20, 2021
Patent Number:
10984161
The present disclosure relates to a computer-implemented method for use in a formal verification of an electronic design. Embodiments may include receiving a reference model including a software specification, an implementation model at a register transfer level, and a property that analyzes equivalence between the reference model and the implementation model. The method may further include generating one or more case split hints based upon the reference model, that may be used to…
System, method, and computer program product for automatically inferring case-split hints in equivalence checking of an electronic design
Granted: April 20, 2021
Patent Number:
10983758
The present disclosure relates to a method for use in a formal verification of an electronic design. Embodiments may include receiving, using a processor, a reference model including a software specification and an implementation model at a register transfer level. Embodiments may also include generating one or more invariants based upon, at least in part, the reference model, wherein generating one or more invariants includes applying a semantic analysis. Embodiments may further include…
Mid-plane board for coupling multiple circuit frames in a circuit emulator engine
Granted: April 13, 2021
Patent Number:
10980117
A mid-plane board including a first connector configured to receive a first signal from a first circuit board is provided. The mid-plane board includes a second connector configured to provide the first signal to a second circuit board. The first circuit board forms a first plane and the second circuit board forms a second plane, and the first plane and the second plane are substantially parallel. The mid-plane board also includes a cutout configured to allow a coplanar connector to…
Systems and methods of concurrent placement of input-output pins and internal components in an integrated circuit design
Granted: April 13, 2021
Patent Number:
10977408
Embodiments disclosed herein describe systems, methods, and products for concurrently placing and optimizing input-output (IO) pins and internal components of an integrated circuit (IC) design. In an illustrative process flow, the computer (executing an illustrative EDA tool) may import the IC design and unplace the IO pins of the imported IC design. The computer may set one or more constraints for the IO pins with more degrees of freedom than the conventional pre-fixed locations. The…
System and method for debugging in concurrent fault simulation
Granted: April 6, 2021
Patent Number:
10969429
The present disclosure relates to a system and method for debugging in fault simulation associated with an electronic design. Embodiments may include receiving, using at least one processor, an electronic design and performing concurrent fault simulation on a fault to be analyzed associated with the electronic circuit design, wherein the fault has a fault propagation path associated therewith. Embodiments may also include identifying a trace of one or more signals of interest that are in…
Buffer insertion technique to consider edge spacing and stack via design rules
Granted: March 30, 2021
Patent Number:
10963620
Aspects of the present disclosure address improved systems and methods for buffer insertion in an integrated circuit (IC) design using a cost function that accounts for edge spacing and stack via constraints associated with cells in the IC design. An integrated circuit (IC) design comprising a routing topology for a net is accessed. A set of candidate insertion locations along the routing topology are identified. A set of buffering candidates is generated based on the candidate insertion…
Multi-dimension clock gate design in clock tree synthesis
Granted: March 30, 2021
Patent Number:
10963618
Electronic design automation systems, methods, and media are presented for multi-dimension clock gate design in clock tree synthesis. In one embodiment, an input list of clock gate types is accessed, and the list is then used in generating a clock gate matrix. A circuit design with a clock tree is then accessed. The multi-dimensional design involves automatically selecting, for a first clock gate of the routing tree, a first clock gate type from the clock gate matrix based on a size and…
Modifying route topology to fix clock tree violations
Granted: March 30, 2021
Patent Number:
10963617
Aspects of the present disclosure address systems and methods for fixing clock tree design constraint violations. An initial clock tree is generated. The generating of the initial clock tree comprises routing a clock net using an initial value for a parameter that controls a priority ratio between total route length and a maximum source-to-sink route length in each net of the clock tree. A violation to a clock tree design constraint is detected in the clock net in the clock tree, and…
Systems and methods of aligning sets of wires with minimum spacing rules
Granted: March 30, 2021
Patent Number:
10963616
Embodiments disclosed herein describe systems, methods, and products for aligning wires in an integrated circuit (IC) design. An illustrative computer may identity multiple references in a first set of wires and multiple targets in a second set of wires in the IC design. The computer may determine reference target pairs from the multiple references and multiple targets. The computer may calculate a path difference for each of the reference target pairs and align the corresponding wires…
Analyzing clock jitter using delay calculation engine
Granted: March 30, 2021
Patent Number:
10963610
The present embodiments are generally directed to analyzing clock jitter. Jitter affects the clock delay of the circuit and the time the clock is available at sync points, so it is important to calculate its impact correctly to take appropriate margin during timing analysis. Jitter could be due to various reasons—one of them is due to IR Impact on the Clock Tree. IR drop variations between the two consecutive cycles can effectively reduce the available clock period for data to be…
Time-based decision feedback equalizer
Granted: March 23, 2021
Patent Number:
10958484
In some examples, a time-based equalizer can be configured to receive an input signal from a channel. The input signal can be distorted by previously received input signals transmitted over the channel. The time-based equalizer can be configured to compensate for distortions in the input signal caused by at least one previously received input signal to provide an ISI compensated input signal. The time-based equalizer can be configured to compensate for the distortions by edge time…
System, method, and computer program product for determining suitability for formal verification
Granted: March 23, 2021
Patent Number:
10956640
The present disclosure relates to a method for electronic design verification. Embodiments may include receiving, using a processor, an electronic design and providing at least a portion of the electronic design to a machine learning engine. Embodiments may further include automatically determining, based upon, at least in part, an output of the machine learning engine whether or not the at least a portion of the electronic design is amenable to formal verification.
Variable channel multi-controller memory system
Granted: March 23, 2021
Patent Number:
10956342
A multi-controller memory system includes a flexible channel memory controller coupled to at least first and second physical interfaces. The second physical interface is also coupled to an auxiliary memory controller. The physical interfaces may be coupled to separate memory modules. In a single-channel control mode, the memory controllers respectively control the memory modules coupled to the first and second physical interface. In a multi-channel control mode, the flexible channel…
Method to improve testability using 2-dimensional exclusive or (XOR) grids
Granted: March 23, 2021
Patent Number:
10955470
Methods and design system for generating 2-dimensional distribution architecture for testing integrated circuit design that utilizes double grid to minimize interdependencies between grid cells and the associated functional logic to facilitate the a physically efficient scan of integrated circuit designs, that simultaneously minimizes required test application time (“TAT”), test data volume, tester memory and cost associated with design for test (“DFT”), while also retaining test…
System, method, and computer program product for simultaneous routing and placement in an electronic circuit design
Granted: March 16, 2021
Patent Number:
10949596
Embodiments may include receiving an unplaced layout associated with an electronic circuit design and one or more grouping requirements. Embodiments may further include identifying instances that need to be placed at the unplaced layout and areas of the unplaced layout configured to receive the instances. Embodiments may also analyzing one or more instances that need to be placed at the unplaced layout and the one or more areas of the unplaced layout configured to receive the one or more…
Compact four-terminal TCOIL
Granted: March 9, 2021
Patent Number:
10944397
The present embodiments relate generally to data communications, and more particularly to systems including high-speed serializer-deserializer circuits having TCOILs. One or more embodiments are directed to a four-terminal TCOIL structure that consumes the same amount of area on a chip as a traditional three-terminal structure, while providing more bandwidth and less reflection and group delay variation.
