DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENTLY PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0025] Integrated circuits, due to their complexity, are typically designed using CAD tools, which are computer programs that allow the designer to build the schematic layout for the internal circuitry of the integrated circuit, simulate the electronic behavior of sections of the circuitry, and create photolithographic masks for constructing the circuits on the substrate of the integrated circuit. Examples of CAD tools include the Cadence tools manufactured by Cadence Design Systems, Inc. of San Jose, Calif., and those based on programming languages including the C++ programming language and the Practical Extraction and Reporting Language (“Perl”). Information on C++ may be found in the American National Standards Institute (“ANSI”) standard ISO/IEC 14882 , titled “Programming languages—C++,” dated 1998 , and information on Perl may be found at the Perl webpage. Perl home page [online]. O'Reilly, 1999 [retrieved on 2002-09-20]. Retrieved from the Internet: <URL: http:/www.perl.com>

[0026] FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a preferred configuration of a computer-aided integrated circuit design system 10 . The designer typically selects electronic components for the integrated circuit using a GUI running on a workstation 12 . For example, the system 10 may include a computer workstation 12 manufactured by Silicon Graphics, Incorporated of Mountain View, Calif. A schematic database 14 is in communication with the workstation 12 and stores information on the graphical symbols for the electronic components of the design. In one embodiment, the GUI includes a graphical display screen 18 and a computer mouse 16 , familiar to those of ordinary skill in the art. The workstation 12 is in communication with the mouse 16 or other graphical input device and interacts with the mouse 16 and display screen through a GUI program running on the workstation 12 .

[0027] The designer uses the mouse 16 to select an electronic component from the schematic database 14 . The designer drags and drops the graphical symbol for the electronic components at a desired position within a schematic that is displayed on a display screen 18 of the workstation 12 . The designer connects the terminals of the selected electronic component to terminals of other components in the schematic with the mouse 16 by drawing lines between the graphical symbols displayed by the GUI on the workstation's 12 display screen 18 .

[0028] The designer may also instruct the CAD system 10 to create a graphical representation of the masks that are used to layout the transistors and interconnections of the electronic circuit blocks on a substrate for the integrated circuit. The CAD system 10 retrieves a representation of the geometric structure of each semiconductor device corresponding to an electronic component from the schematic database and lays out the geometrical structures that correspond to the schematic on the integrated circuit's substrate. Further processing by the CAD system 10 and the workstation 12 produces the graphical representations of the masks that are used to sequentially build the geometric structures using the photolithographic processes that make the integrated circuit. The graphical representations of the masks may be displayed on the workstation 12 or output to a lithographic device 20 that either, as is familiar to those of ordinary skill in the art, draws the mask on a glass plate as in optical lithography, or draws the mask directly on the integrated circuit substrate as in electron-beam lithography.

[0029] An operating environment for the CAD system 10 includes a processing system with at least one Central Processing Unit (“CPU”) and a memory system. Preferably, the at least one CPU controls the operations of the workstation 12 . In accordance with the practices of persons skilled in the art of computer programming, the preferred methods are described herein with reference to acts and symbolic representations of operations that are performed by the processing system, unless indicated otherwise.

[0030] It will be appreciated that the acts and symbolically represented operations include the manipulation of electrical signals by the CPU. The electrical signals represent data bits that cause a resulting transformation or reduction of the electrical signal representation. The workstation 12 and other devices of the CAD system 10 may maintain data bits at memory locations in their respective memory systems to reconfigure or otherwise alter their CPU's operation, as well as other processing of signals, or maintain data bits on the schematic database 14 . The memory locations, such as random access memory (“RAM”) or the medium of the schematic database 14 , are physical locations that have particular electrical, magnetic, or optical properties corresponding to the data bits, depending on the type of memory used. For example, the medium of the schematic database 14 may be a magnetic hard disc and/or a compact disc read only memory (“CD-ROM”) having written thereon data structures and/or data files as is familiar to those of skill in the art.

[0031] The data bits may also be maintained on a computer readable medium including magnetic disks, optical disks, and any other volatile or non-volatile mass storage system readable by the CPU. The computer readable medium includes cooperating or interconnected computer readable media that exist exclusively on the CAD system 10 or are distributed among multiple interconnected processing systems that may be local to or remote to the CAD system 10 .

[0032] FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic migration 30 from a source schematic database 32 to a target schematic database 34 in the computer-aided integrated circuit design system 10 of FIG. 1 . The schematic databases 32 , 34 include representations of electronic circuit blocks that are built out of circuit primitives. A circuit primitive represents a component of an electronic design with which the designer constructs a schematic 38 , 40 . Examples of circuit primitives include transistors, inverters, NAND logic gates, NOR logic gates, and flip-flops. Circuit primitives are stored in respective circuit primitive libraries in the schematic databases 32 , 34 . An entry for a circuit primitive in a circuit primitive library is stored as a data structure in the computer readable medium that hosts the schematic database 32 , 34 .

[0033] As is known to those of ordinary skill in the circuit design art, a designer may design an analog circuit according to a schematic comprising transistors, discrete components, operational amplifiers and other analog circuit primitives. Also the designer may design a digital circuit according to a schematic comprising logic gates. In the latter case, the circuit primitives are the basic logic gates. But there are a variety of transistor designs for, say, a NAND logic gate. Moreover, the NAND logic gate may be buffered to provide a better output signal when operating in conjunction with additional circuitry. The designer may thus select amongst a variety of circuit primitives that provide the common NAND logic function.

[0034] Also, the designer may design a specialized circuit that performs the NAND logic function from scratch as a circuit comprising the transistor circuit primitives. The designer may store the specialized circuit in its transistorized form in the schematic database 32 , 34 . Alternatively, the designer may define the specialized circuit to be a new circuit primitive for a NAND logic gate.

[0035] A circuit primitive data structure may include a graphical symbol for the schematic, parameters that describe the function of the circuit primitive to the CAD system 10 , parameters that describe the geometric structure of the respective electronic component on the integrated circuit substrate, and parameters describing the electrical characteristics of the electronic circuit block or electronic component to the CAD system 10 for purposes of simulating the electrical behavior of the schematic. It should be understood that these parameters are for illustration only and do not limit the circuit primitive data structures and the schematic databases 32 , 34 of CAD systems 10 to the parameters described above. For example, some CAD systems 10 permit the designer to create and associate additional parameters with the circuit primitive, which parameters are stored in the schematic database 32 , 34 as part of an amended circuit primitive data structure.

[0036] In the source schematic database 32 , a source schematic 38 includes source circuit primitives that are associated with the source schematic database 32 , and interconnections among the source circuit primitives. In a preferred embodiment, the source schematic 38 is stored in the source schematic database 32 as separately identified entries for the source circuit primitives or electronic circuit blocks with identifiers for the terminals of each source circuit primitive or electronic circuit block. The source schematic database 32 also includes a list of which terminals are interconnected. For example, the source circuit primitives or electronic circuit blocks may be stored as nodes in a root-and-tree database structure, as is familiar to those of ordinary skill in the art, and the interconnections may be stored as links between the nodes.

[0037] The schematic migration process 36 converts the source schematic 38 comprising source circuit primitives into the target schematic 40 comprising target circuit primitives. For example, in the Cadence CAD system, the schematic migration process 36 is performed by a utility program that is written in the SKILL computer language developed by Cadence Design Systems, Inc. of San Jose, Calif. In the schematic migration process 36 , the CAD system 10 attempts to associate every source circuit primitive with a corresponding target circuit primitive. The CAD system 10 also attempts to associate terminals for the target circuit primitive with respective terminals for the corresponding source circuit primitive. The CAD system 10 constructs the target schematic 40 by retaining the selection of circuit primitives and interconnections used in the source schematic 38 but substituting the target circuit primitives and terminals for the respective source circuit primitives and terminals. The CAD system 10 stores the constructed target schematic 40 in the target schematic database 34 .

[0038] Associating Circuit Primitives

[0039] A step of the schematic migration process 36 is associating a target circuit primitive with a source circuit primitive. FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary source circuit primitive 50 and an exemplary target circuit primitive 52 in the computer-aided integrated circuit design system 10 of FIG. 1 . The source circuit primitive 50 may be stored as a data structure in the source circuit primitive library, which is part of the source schematic database 32 . The target circuit primitive 52 may be stored as a data structure in the target circuit primitive library, which is part of the target schematic database 34 . Each data structure comprises binary information for objects that are grouped together, the grouping represented here by the dotted lines of the circuit primitives 50 , 52 . Each data structure may group objects of varying types, such as a binary representation of a graphical symbol, numerical data, and text strings, or pointers to these objects.

[0040] The source schematic database 32 may be from an external vendor that sells its proprietary schematics to the designer. Alternatively, the source schematic database 32 may be from another design team that is cooperating on designing the integrated circuit, but whose schematic database 32 is different from the target schematic database 34 used by the designer. Additionally, as manufacturing technology develops, a source schematic 38 designed originally in older technology may be the basis for the target schematic 40 in the newer technology. For example, the designer may reuse the source schematic 38 from the source schematic database for 170 nm CMOS technology as a basis for target schematics 40 for 140 nm or 110 nm target technologies. The schematic databases for 170 nm, 140 nm, and 111 nm technologies may differ in several ways. For example, circuit primitives for 110 nm transistors may be associated with more parameters compared to 140 nm or 170 nm transistors because the behavior of 110 nm transistors is more sensitive to variations in parameters for doping, structure, and component separation on the integrated circuit.

[0041] The exemplary source circuit primitive 50 is the circuit primitive for a NAND logic gate from source circuit primitive library A. The data structure for the NAND logic gate is named as “prim_A” in the source circuit primitive library A. The data structure may include a graphical symbol 54 for the NAND logic gate and parameters that describe physical and/or electrical characteristics of the electronic component source corresponding to the source circuit primitive 50 . When the CAD system 10 reads an occurrence of prim_A from the source schematic 38 , the CAD system 10 draws the graphical symbol 54 for the NAND logic gate on the display 18 of the workstation 12 through the GUI. Additionally, the CAD system 10 may calculate the combined physical and/or electrical characteristics of a group of circuit primitives 50 in a schematic 38 . The parameters 57 in the primitive 50 are the names of computer program variables that are used to calculate the combined characteristics of a schematic 38 as a function of the values of the variables.

[0042] Similarly, the exemplary target circuit primitive 52 is the circuit primitive for a NAND logic gate from target circuit primitive library B. The data structure for the NAND logic gate is named as “prim_B” in the target circuit primitive library B. The data structure may include a graphical symbol 56 for the NAND logic gate and parameters 58 for the electronic component associated with the circuit primitive 52 .

[0043] During the schematic migration process 36 , the CAD system 10 associates source circuit primitives 50 with corresponding target circuit primitives 52 . The association may be performed by a utility program running on the CAD system 10 . The source schematic 38 is converted to the target schematic 40 by replacing the source circuit primitives 50 with the target circuit primitives 52 . For example, the CAD system 10 replaces occurrences of prim_A in the source schematic 38 with prim_B from the target circuit primitive library B.

[0044] Typically, the association of a particular source circuit primitive 50 with a corresponding target circuit primitive 52 is determined by whether the source 50 and target 52 primitives include the same character string for the type of circuit primitive. Alternatively, the schematic migration utility program consults a file where the name “prim_A” of the source circuit primitive library A in the source schematic database 32 has previously been associated with the name “prim_B” of the target circuit primitive library B in the target schematic database 34 . Also as an alternative, the schematic migration utility program may associate the two circuit primitives 50 , 52 that have the most number of parameters 57 , 58 in common. The circuit primitives 50 , 52 may further be associated by the CAD system 10 due to other common properties, such as the impedances of inputs or outputs, supply voltage ranges, or switching speed.

[0045] The source circuit primitive 50 , however, may not be associated with a target circuit primitive. In other words, the target circuit primitive is missing. FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic migration process 36 from a source schematic 60 to a target schematic 62 , wherein the target graphical symbol is missing. In the source schematic 60 , the graphical symbol 54 for the source circuit primitive 50 connects to the source graphical symbols 64 for other components in the source schematic 60 through connecting lines 66 . During the schematic migration process 36 , the CAD system 10 replaces the source graphical symbols 64 with the corresponding target graphical symbols 70 . But the target schematic 62 may not include a target graphical symbol corresponding to a source graphical symbol 54 if the source circuit primitive 50 does not correspond to a target circuit primitive 52 . Consequently, as is depicted in FIG. 4 , the target schematic 62 may have an empty graphical area 72 that ordinarily would be occupied by a respective target graphical symbol 52 .

[0046] A consequence of the missing target graphical symbol 70 may be dangling lines 68 in the target schematic 62 . Dangling lines 68 are lines that do not appear to connect to a graphical symbol for an electronic component on the graphical display screen 18 of the CAD system 10 . Further, some CAD systems 10 may interpret the dangling lines 68 as an absence of an electrical connection between the components in the target schematic 62 . The absence of the electrical connection may be interpreted by the CAD system 10 as due to an electrically incomplete target schematic 62 , which may prompt the CAD system 10 to issue an error message associated with an invalid target schematic 62 .

[0047] FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating a preferred method 80 of resolving missing graphical symbols 70 in the CAD system 10 of FIG. 1 . The method 80 includes reading a source circuit primitive 50 from a source schematic database 32 at step 82 . At step 84 , the CAD system 10 determines whether the source circuit primitive 50 corresponds to a target circuit primitive 52 in a target schematic database 34 . If the source circuit primitive 50 does not correspond to the target circuit primitive 52 , the CAD system 10 associates the source circuit primitive 50 with a replacement target circuit primitive at step 86 .

[0048] At step 82 , the CAD system 10 reads a source circuit primitive 50 from the source schematic database 32 . The CAD system 10 may search the source schematic database 32 , or the source primitive library therein, for the data structure corresponding to the source circuit primitive 50 . The CAD system 10 finds an address in the memory for the data structure corresponding to the source circuit primitive 50 and loads the binary information corresponding to the data structure into RAM.

[0049] At step 84 , the CAD system 10 determines whether the source circuit primitive 50 corresponds to a target circuit primitive 52 in a target schematic database 34 . As discussed above, the schematic migration utility program that performs the schematic migration process 36 on the CAD system 10 may consult a file that ostensibly associates source circuit primitives 50 in the source schematic database 32 with corresponding target circuit primitives 52 in the target schematic database 34 . Alternatively, the CAD system 10 may compare the name of the source circuit primitive 50 to the names of target circuit primitives 52 in the target schematic database 34 in a search for an identical character string for the name of the source circuit primitive 50 .

[0050] If there is no target circuit primitive 52 corresponding to the source circuit primitive 50 , the CAD system 10 associates the source circuit primitive 50 with a replacement target circuit primitive at step 86 . In one embodiment of step 86 , depicted in FIG. 6 , the CAD system 10 presents at least one substitute target circuit primitive to the designer on the user interface of the CAD system 10 at step 88 . For example, the CAD system 10 may display the graphical symbols associated with the possible substitute target circuit primitives on the graphical display screen 18 . FIG. 7 is an exemplary display of at least one substitute target circuit primitive. On the graphical display screen 18 , the CAD system 10 may display the source graphical symbol 54 and the graphical symbols 100 of the possible substitute target circuit primitives. Also, the CAD system 10 may display the source parameters 57 and their values for the source circuit primitive 50 and, for comparison, the values of equivalent parameters for the possible substitute target circuit primitives.

[0051] At step 90 , the CAD system 10 receives at least one substitute circuit primitive. In one embodiment, the designer uses the mouse 16 to select a substitute target circuit primitive by positioning the pointer over the selected target graphical symbol 100 and clicking. The GUI recognizes the position of the pointer and associates the position with the selected substitute target circuit primitive.

[0052] At step 92 , the CAD system 10 associates the selected substitute target circuit primitive with the source circuit primitive 50 . For example, the CAD system may update the file that associates source circuit primitives 50 in the source schematic database 32 with corresponding target circuit primitives 52 in the target schematic database 34 . Also, the CAD system 10 inserts the graphical symbol 100 of the substitute target circuit primitive in the target schematic 62 , filling the empty graphical area 72 and connecting to the other target graphical symbols 70 in the target schematic 62 .

[0053] In another embodiment of step 86 , the CAD system 10 creates a dummy target circuit primitive. FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating another method 110 of resolving missing graphical symbols in a computer-aided integrated circuit design system. The method includes reading a source circuit primitive 50 from a source schematic database 32 at step 112 . The source circuit primitive 50 includes a representation of a source set of terminals. At step 114 , the CAD system 10 determines whether the source circuit primitive 50 corresponds to a target circuit primitive in a target schematic database 34 . If the source circuit primitive 50 does not correspond to the target circuit primitive, the CAD system 10 associates the source circuit primitive 50 with a dummy target circuit primitive at step 116 . The dummy target circuit primitive includes a representation of a target set of terminals corresponding to the source set of terminals and also includes a dummy graphical symbol. The target set of terminals is mutually electrically connected. Further, the dummy graphical symbol has graphical representations of the target set of terminals.

[0054] FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating a dummy target circuit primitive 120 . In one preferred embodiment, the CAD system 10 creates a dummy target graphical symbol 122 having the same number of terminals as the source graphical symbol 54 . In the method 110 of FIG. 8 , other objects in the target circuit primitive 52 may be empty. For example, as depicted in FIG. 8 , the target parameters 124 of the dummy target circuit primitive 120 may be absent. Alternatively, the target parameters 124 may be copies of the source parameters 57 .

[0055] To distinguish the dummy target circuit primitive 120 from the target circuit primitive 52 , the data structure corresponding to the dummy target circuit primitive 120 may be renamed. For example, to indicate to the CAD system 10 that the dummy target circuit primitive 120 includes a dummy target graphical symbol 122 , the dummy target circuit primitive 120 may be named “prim_B_dum” to signify that the dummy target circuit primitive 120 is a member of circuit primitive library B. Now during the schematic migration process 36 , the CAD system 10 replaces occurrences of prim_A in the source schematic 60 with prim_B_dum from the target circuit primitive library B.

[0056] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating the construction of the dummy target graphical symbol 122 of FIG. 9 . The CAD system 10 recognizes that the source target graphical symbol 54 has three terminals 130 and also provides the dummy target graphical symbol 122 with the same number of terminals 132 . When creating the data structure corresponding to the dummy target circuit primitive 120 , the CAD system 10 introduces objects that represent the terminals 132 . The CAD system 10 connects the terminals 132 of the dummy target graphical symbol 122 to the other components 70 in the target schematic 60 of FIG. 4 . In this manner, the CAD system 10 replaces the missing target graphical symbol 70 with the dummy target graphical symbol 122 and eliminates the dangling lines 68 . With the inclusion of the dummy target graphical symbol 122 , the CAD system 10 does not interpret the target schematic 62 as electrically incomplete.

[0057] FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment 134 of the dummy target graphical symbol 122 of FIG. 10 . In one embodiment, the CAD system 10 creates the dummy target circuit primitive 120 as equivalent to a resistor network 134 . Each terminal 132 of the dummy target circuit primitive 120 connects to a common electrical point 136 through a resistor 138 . The resistors 138 maintain the electrical connectivity between the terminals 132 and through the target schematic 62 . In one embodiment, the common electrical point 136 is a ground or zero voltage for the integrated circuit. In this case, each terminal 132 is grounded through a respective resistor 138 . Therefore, each of the dangling lines 68 is grounded through the resistors 138 , again providing an electrically complete target schematic 62 . The resistor 138 values may be set to large values, such as a mega-ohm, by the CAD system 10 because a purpose of the resistors 138 is to complete the electrical circuit of the target schematic 62 rather than perform an active role in the target schematic 62 .

[0058] It should be understood, however, that the above embodiment of a p-type transistor is for illustrative purposes only and that the invention includes all types of other components. Further, the form of the data structure for the source 50 and dummy target 120 circuit primitives are also for illustrative purposes only and that many more forms and arrangements of the circuit primitives 50 , 120 are possible.

[0059] During the process of schematic migration, the method 80 of resolving missing graphical symbols recognizes the source circuit primitive 50 does not correspond to a target circuit primitive 52 and associates the source circuit primitive 50 with a substitute 100 or dummy 120 target circuit primitive. In a preferred embodiment, the CAD system 10 creates a log file of actions taken during the method 80 of resolving missing graphical symbols during the schematic migration process 36 . For example, the CAD system 10 may create an ASCII file when the schematic migration utility is loaded into RAM and run on the CPU of the workstation 12 . As the CAD system 10 identifies each source circuit primitive 50 in the source schematic database 32 , the CAD system 10 performs the resolution method 80 described above. If the CAD system 10 detects missing graphical symbols at step 84 , the CAD system 10 writes the name of the source circuit primitive 50 as a character string to the log file. The CAD system 10 may also write the names, if any, of the object corresponding to the source graphical symbol 54 to the log file. Further, if the CAD system 10 associates the source graphical symbol 54 with the substitute 100 or dummy 122 target graphical symbol, the CAD system 10 may also write name of the substitute 100 or dummy 120 target circuit primitive to the log file or a description of the action taken: associating to the substitute 100 or the dummy 120 target circuit primitive.

[0060] The foregoing detailed description is merely illustrative of several embodiments of the invention. Variations of the described embodiments may be encompassed within the purview of the claims. The steps of the flow diagrams may be taken in sequences other than those described, and more or fewer elements or components may be used in the block diagrams. Accordingly, any description of the embodiments in the specification should be used for general guidance, rather than to unduly restrict any broader descriptions of the elements in the following claims.