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US 7,024,640 B2Granted
Integrated circuit cell identification
AssigneeKoninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.
InventorBrent Buchanan
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Apparatus, method and program product for evaluating design code of an integrated circuit. A program assigns an identifier to a cell based upon a cell characteristic. The program catalogs the identifier in a database configured to store and recall the identifier and characteristic along with additional properties that pertain to the cell. The program may associate the identifier or characteristic with a cell embedded in the design code.
Claims5
A method of processing integrated circuit design data, comprising:
- a) reading information from a file;
- b) determining whether an integrated circuit layout cell has been read;
- c) if the determination of (b) is affirmative, determining whether the integrated circuit layout cell read from the file, is a known cell by comparing a set of cell characteristics contained within the integrated circuit layout cell to a plurality of sets of cell characteristics contained within a database, wherein each set of cell characteristics within the database is associated with a unique known cell;
- d) if the determination of (c) is affirmative, a determining whether a designation of a cell characteristics has been made, wherein the designation of cell characteristics is suitable for identifying at least a particular cell;
- e) if the determination of (d) is affirmative, determining if there is a match between at least a portion of the cell characteristics of the integrated circuit layout cell and the designated characteristics;
- and
- f) if the determination of (e) is affirmative, providing an output indicative of the match.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.