High Speed Logical Circuit Simulator

The present invention relates to improved means and methods for simulating the design and operation of computer logical circuitry.

In recent years, various apparatus and methods have been developed for the purpose of aiding an engineer in the design evaluation and simulation of logical circuitry, such as illustrated for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,583,169 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,590,581. However, such approaches do not significantly relieve the heavy burden on the design engineer in designing, simulating and evaluating computer logical circuitry.

An approach which goes significantly further in aiding the design engineer is exemplified by computer-aided engineering systems wherein an engineer is aided in the design of logical circuitry by interacting with a display terminal controlled by the computer. Systems of this type also tyically provide for a software simulation of the designed logical circuits so that their performance can be tested without having to build the actual hardware. A typical computer aided design (CAD) system currently in use is the Mentor IDEA 1000 system commercially available from Mentor Graphics Corporation, Newport Beach, Calif.

The Mentor system provides for the creation by an engineer, using highly sophisticated graphic aids, of a "bottom-up" software representation of a desired logical circuit design whereby "macrocells" form the lowest level in the design structure. In a typical Mentor system up to 440 different macrocells based on MCA2500ECL technology are available for use in designing logical circuits such as, for example, the logical circuits to be provided for a gate array. Using Mentor, an engineer would design logical circuitry for a gate array by interconnecting the inputs and outputs of particular selected ones of these macrocells to provide the various logical functions desired for the array. The Mentor system permits this to be accomplished much more conveniently and expeditiously than would be possible if this were done in the old way, by hand, or by using the teachings of the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,583,169.

The resulting design connectivity information for the circuitry being designed (for example, a gate array) is stored in the Mentor design data base. Mentor also provides for storage of a Macrocell Library which defines the logical operations provided by each macrocell. Together, these constitute a "bottom-up" software representation of the logical circuitry designed by the engineer using the Mentor system. The Mentor system also provides for simulating the operation of logical circuitry using such a "bottom-up" software representation. However, only a relatively slow simulation is possible using this "bottom-up" software representation because of the relatively large number of processing operations which such a representation requires be performed in order to simulate the required logical functions. This problem is particularly severe where simulation is to be performed for a large number of interconnected Mentor-created logical circuits. As is well known, a slow simulation capability can seriously hamper the development of computer logical circuitry.

A broad object of the present invention is to provide improved means and methods for representing and/or simulating the operation of computer logical circuitry.

A more specific object of the invention is to provide improved means and methods for converting a low order software logical circuit design representation, such as the "bottom-up" logical representation provided by the Mentor system, into a higher order behavioral software representation which can be simulated at much higher speeds.

A further object of the invention is to provide improved means and methods for designing and simulating logic circuitry which permits taking advantage of the features and conveniences of the Mentor system, while at the same time providing for significantly faster simulation speeds.

Another object of the invention is to provide for achieving the above objects in a relatively simple and inexpensive manner.

In a particular preferred embodiment of the invention, a stored bottom-up logical circuit design representation provided by the Mentor system is automatically converted into a stored behavioral software representation which can be simulated at high speed using the simulation capability provided by the Mentor system.

The specific nature of the invention as well as other objects, features, advantages and uses thereof will become evident from the following description of a particular preferred embodiment of the invention along with the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a particular preferred embodiment in accordance with the invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic electrical diagram of a logical circuit which is used to illustrate how the present invention is put into practice.

FIG. 3 illustrates the contents of the Macrocell Definition Library M1 stored in the memory 10 in FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 illustrates the contents of the macrocell connectivity data M2 stored in the memory 10 in FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 illustrates the contents of the behavioral software representation M3 produced by the converter 15 in FIG. 1 in response to M1 and M2.

FIG. 6 illustrates three interconnected gate arrays which may be simulated in accordance with the invention.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of a specific illustrative Pascal-based program which may be used to implement the invention.

For The particular preferred embodiment to be described, which is illustrated in FIG. 1, the aforementioned Mentor system 8 is used to provide a "bottom-up" representation of a desired logical circuit design, such as a gate array. This "bottom-up" representation is stored in a memory 10 and comprises a stored Macrocell Definition Library M1 which defines the logical operations performed by each of up to 440 different macrocells, and Mentor macrocell connectivity data M2 which represents the interconnection between selected macrocells corresponding to the desired logic circuit design. It will be understood that the memory 10 may be part of the Mentor system, or may be a separate memory.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention, a converter 15 makes use of the stored Mentor data M1 and M2 in the memory 10 so as to automatically produce a stored behavioral software representation M3 in the memory 10 of the desired logical circuit design. As is well known, a behavioral representation need merely simulate the external functioning of a logical circuit, while a bottom-up representation (such as provided by the Mentor system) simulates internal logical structure.

In accordance with the invention, a simulator 20 makes use of this higher order behavioral software representation M3 to simulate the operation of its corresponding logic circuit. The design and operation of the converter 15 and the simulator 20 are chosen so that this behavioral software representation produced by the converter 15 is such as to permit relatively fast simulation of the corresponding logical circuit by the simulator 20. In this regard, it is to be understood that the operation of the converter 15 and the simulator 20 may be performed by a data processor appropriately programmed to perform the conversion functions, and in some applications this may be the preferred mode. In the particular preferred embodiment being described, the simulator provided by the Mentor system is used as the simulator 20.

In order to illustrate how the invention may be put into practice, an example will be presented for which it will be assumed that the logical circuit to be simulated in accordance with the invention is the one shown in FIG. 2 containing the four macrocells 30, 32, 34 and 36 connected as shown between a plurality of inputs designated as IN1, IN2, and VEE (along with CLOCK and RESET inputs) and a plurality of outputs designated as OUT1 and OUT2. It will be noted in FIG. 2 that macrocell 30 is designated as being an M202 macrocell, macrocell 32 is designated as being an M291 macrocell and macrocells 34 and 36 are each designated as being an X201 macrocell.

As mentioned previously, for the purposes of this example, it will be assumed that a Mentor representation of the logical circuit of FIG. 2 has been created using the Mentor system, wherein the resulting Mentor connectivity data corresponds to the stored data M2 in the memory 10 of FIG. 1, while the definitions of the M202, M291 and X201 macrocells are contained in the stored Macrocell Definition Library indicated by M1 in FIG. 1. In accordance with the invention, the converter 15 in FIG. 1 operates to access particular data stored in M1 and M2 in the memory 10 and, in response thereto, produce a behavioral software representation of the logical circuit of FIG. 2 which is stored in the memory 10 of FIG. 1, as indicated by M3. The nature of the data in M1 and M2 which is extracted by the converter 15 in producing this behavioral software representation M3 corresponding to the assumed logical circuit of FIG. 2 are illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4, respectively.

First to be considered is the Macrocell Definition Library M1. The pertinent contents of M1 which are applicable to the circuit of FIG. 2 are shown in FIG. 3. It will be understood from FIG. 3 that the logical operation of each of the three types of macrocells, M202, M291 and X201 used in FIG. 2, is represented by one or more Boolean equations. Each type of macrocell contains a macrocell output equation for each macrocell output (for example, note equation (1) in FIG. 3 for the YA output of the M201 macrocell). If a macrocell contains internal storage (such as the M291 macrocell 32 in FIG. 2), a macrocell state equation will also be provided for each internal state of the macrocell. Since the M291 macrocell is a D flip-flop with reset, it is represented in FIG. 3 by two state equations, one for the master and another for the slave (see equation (9) in FIG. 3, which represents the master state equation of a M291 macrocell, and equation (10), which represents the slave state equation of a M291 macrocell).

It will thus be evident from FIG. 3, that each macrocell output equation sets forth the logical function of the corresponding macrocell output pin in terms of the macrocell's input pins and states (if any), while each macrocell state equation sets forth the conditions for switching the corresponding internal storage of the macrocell to that state in terms of the macrocell input pins and any other states of the macrocell including its own state. Note that output and state equations for different macrocells are not mixed--that is, the logical operation represented by each macrocell equation is expressed in terms of the macrocell's own inputs and states and does not contain any outputs or states from any other macrocell.

It should also now be evident that the format for a macrocell output equation in FIG. 3 is:

and that the format for a macrocell master state equation is:

and that the format for a macrocell slave state equation is:

wherein each <Boolean expression> in a macrocell equation is expressed in terms of its own input pins and internal states.

Next to be considered is the Mentor connectivity data M2 illustrated in FIG. 4 for the logical circuit of FIG. 2. For illustrative purposes, the Mentor connectivity data in FIG. 4 is arranged in six columns labeled ELEMENT, INSTANCE, PIN, NETNAME, I/O, and EXT/INT.

The ELEMENT column identifies the type of macrocell (such as M202) while the INSTANCE column uniquely identifies a particular macrocell in the logical circuit of FIG. 2 (see instance number above upper left portion of each of the macrocells 30, 32, 34 and 36 in FIG. 2). For example, note in FIG. 2 that macrocell 30 has the INSTANCE number 1. The PIN column in FIG. 4 identifies the name of the corresponding macrocell PIN for which the following NETNAME column, I/O column and EXT/INT column provide connectivity information. More specifically, the NETNAME column identifies the name of the particular net in the logical circuit of FIG. 2 to which the macrocell pin named in the previous column is connected, the I/O column specifies the signal direction (IN indicates "input" and OP indicates "output"), and the EXT/INT column indicates whether the pin is connected to an internal point (IN) or is connected to a primary input or output of the logical circuit (EXT).

Using the data contained in M1 and M2 illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4 for the circuit of FIG. 2, the converter 15 in FIG. 1 produces the behavioral representation M3 shown in FIG. 1 corresponding to the logical circuit of FIG. 2. The data represented by M3 is illustrated in more detail in FIG. 5 which sets forth the logical equation representations produced by the converter 15 in FIG. 1 for each of the nets NS1, NS2, NS3 and NS4, primary outputs OUT1 and OUT2 and states M291$MQ2 and M291$SQ$2 of the logical circuit of FIG. 2. As also illustrated in FIG. 5, the converter 15 additionally provides rankings for these equations so that they will be evaluated in proper order to appropriately take into account logic settling times, IO nets being ranked so that they are evaluated after other nets of the same rank. This ranking assures that the logical output value of a net will not be generated until the logical values for all higher ranked inputs to the net have been determined. To further enhance the value of the behavioral representation M3, the converter 15 preferably also provides for assigning an appropriate delay value to each primary output based on the number (and optionally also the type) of macrocells between the primary output and the primary inputs and state outputs.

Next to be considered is the manner in which simulation is provided for a behavioral representation of a logical circuit produced as described above and stored in memory 10, such as indicated by M3 in FIG. 1. For the particular preferred embodiment being described, the converter 15 is constructed and arranged to provide the higher order representation M3 in the form of a Pascal-based behavioral language representation (a form of representation well known in the art). An advantage of using such a representation is that M3 can be directly simulated by using as the simulator 20 in FIG. 1 the interactive logic simulator provided as part of the Mentor system.

It is to be understood that additional Mentor connectivity data representations for other logical circuits, such as indicated by M4 and M5 in FIG. 1, may be created using the Mentor system in the same manner as described above for M2. For the purposes of this description, it will be assumed that these logical circuit connectivity representations M2, M4 and M5 correspond to gate arrays G2, G4 and G5, respectively, which are to be interconnected together as shown in FIG. 6. Using the Mentor system, this FIG. 6 logical circuit can in turn be represented by a Mentor connectivity representation, as indicated by M6 in FIG. 1. Then, in the same manner as previously described for producing M3 corresponding to the logical circuit of FIG. 2, M6 is converted by the converter 15 into a higher order Pascal-based behavioral language representation of FIG. 6, as indicated by M7 in FIG. 1 which, like M3, can be be simulated at high speed using the Mentor simulator.

It is to be understood that the present invention is not limited to the particular implementations and/or examples disclosed herein, but is to be considered as including all modifications and variations coming within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

The following is a well documented program listing of a PASCAl-based program entitled "GENBLM". This program may be considered as a software implementation of the converter 15 in FIG. 1. ##SPC1##