US 7,143,341 B1Granted

Method and apparatus for concurrent engineering and design synchronization of multiple tools

AssigneeCadence Design Systems, Inc.

InventorVikas Kohli

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Abstract

Concurrent engineering among multiple design groups is facilitated by maintaining design changes in a data model of a design being developed. Design changes for each group are made from a baseline design. Changes are tracked by maintaining change information from all but an owner of the original baseline design. Changes are synchronized by identifying owner and non-owner changes and merging the changes to produce a final design. Since non-owner changes are tracked, the baseline design is not needed in synchronization. Preferably the invention is applied to electronic designs made by multiple design groups at geographically diverse locations. The invention may also be applied to any system where configuration management of developed software, parts, or any design is needed.

Claims27

Dependent claims

A method of concurrent engineering, comprising the steps of:

establishing a baseline electronic design;
sending copies of the baseline electronic design to different design groups;
modifying more than one of the baseline electronic designs sent to the design groups with engineering changes;
and
synchronizing the modified baselined electronic designs to produce a synchronized design;
wherein:
said synchronization comprises at least one of,
determining if new Id is present in a design connectivity database DESCONN and not present in a layout connectivity database LAYCONN, and then processing a new object corresponding to the new Id added by a front end design tool,
determining if a front end design tool created Id is present in LAYCONN and not present in DESCONN, and then processing an object deleted by the front end design tool,
determining if a front end Id is present in each of LAYCONN, DESCONN, and in an occurrence delete section of LAYCONN, and then processing an object deleted by a layout tool,
determining if a layout Id is present in an occurrence add section of LAYCONN, and then processing a new object added by the layout tool,
determining if a layout id is present in an occurrence delete section of DESCONN and in the occurrence add section of LAYCONN, and then processing the Id added by the layout tool and then deleted by the front end tool,
determining is a same instance id but different cell id is present in DESCONN, and then processing a modify/replace performed by the front end design tool, and
determining each of a new pin net connection id in LAYCONN, a corresponding pin net connection id in the occurrence section of LAYCONN, a new pin net connection id in DESCONN corresponding to the pin net connection id in the occurrence section of LAYCONN, and then processing a simultaneous change of connectivity to a pin by the front end design tool and a back end design tool.

11 more elements

A device, comprising:

means for synchronizing multiple designs each modified from a baseline;
each of said multiple designs comprises a design connectivity database storing design components and connectivity of a design and modifications made by design or front end tools (DESCONN), a layout connectivity database storing layout data and modifications of the design made by layout or backend tools (LAYCONN);
the design connectivity and layout connectivity databases include occurrence sections to identify changes made from a baseline of the designs;
said means for synchronizing comprises comparison means for comparing identifiers contained in the databases and sections of the databases related to added, deleted, and modified components and connectivity of the design, and processing means for merging the changes from the different designs,
wherein said processing means includes means for:
determining if new Id is present in a design connectivity database DESCONN and not present in a layout connectivity database LAYCONN, and then processing a new object corresponding to the new Id added by a front end design tool,
determining if a front end design tool created Id is present in LAYCONN and not present in DESCONN, and then processing an object deleted by the front end design tool,
determining if a front end Id is present in each of LAYCONN, DESCONN, and in an occurrence delete section of LAYCONN, and then processing an object deleted by a layout tool,
determining if a layout Id is present in an occurrence add section of LAYCONN, and then processing a new object added by the layout tool,
determining if a layout id is present in an occurrence delete section of DESCONN and in the occurrence add section of LAYCONN, and then processing the Id added by the layout tool and then deleted by the front end tool,
determining is a same instance id but different cell id is present in DESCONN, and then processing a modify/replace performed by the front end design tool, and
determining each of a new pin net connection id in LAYCONN, a corresponding pin net connection id in the occurrence section of LAYCONN, a new pin net connection id in DESCONN corresponding to the pin net connection id in the occurrence section of LAYCONN and then processing a simultaneous change of connectivity to a pin by the front end design tool and a back end design tool.

9 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.