Method and system for creating and validating low level description of electronic design from higher level, behavior-oriented description, including interactive system for hierarchical display of control and dataflow information
DCFirst Claim
1. An interactive system for hierarchical display of control and dataflow information, on a system including a computer processor, information storage means, and graphical display means, comprising:
- a design description entry device for a user to enter a high-level design description on said system, wherein said design description is stored on said information storage means;
an analyzer for analysis of the high-level design description, identification of modules according to a first predetermined criteria, and organization of said modules according to a second predetermined criteria;
a synthesizer for synthesizing one or more detailed electronic designs from the high-level design description;
a graphical control indicator for graphically representing control and data flow between graphical objects representing modules on said graphical display means, said graphical control and data flow indications representing control and data flow between the modules represented by the graphical objects;
a selector for selecting a level of hierarchical abstraction for any displayed graphical object; and
an indicator for indicating that a displayed graphical object represents a module having progeny modules associated therewith at a lower level of abstraction.
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Abstract
A technique for hierarchical display of control and dataflow graphs allowing a user to view hierarchically filtered control and dataflow information related to a design. The technique employs information inherent in the design description and information derived from design synthesis to identify "modules" of the design and design hierarchy. The user can specify a level of detail to be displayed for any design element or group of design elements. Any CDFG (control and dataflow graph) object can be "annotated" with a visual attribute or with text to indicate information about the design elements represented by the object. For example, block size, interior color, border color, line thickness, line style, etc., can be used to convey quantitative or qualitative information about a CDFG object. Examples of information which can be used to "annotate" objects include power dissipation, propagation delay, the number of HDL statement represented, circuit area, number of logic gates, etc. The user is able to expand and/or compress CDFG blocks either "in-place" on a higher level CDFG display or to be displayed in isolation. Simulation-related data can also be used to annotate the CDFG. By viewing CDFG'"'"'s (particularly annotated CDFG'"'"'s) for a variety of trial designs, a problem-solving user can gain quick insight into the effects and effectiveness of various design choices.
486 Citations
40 Claims
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1. An interactive system for hierarchical display of control and dataflow information, on a system including a computer processor, information storage means, and graphical display means, comprising:
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a design description entry device for a user to enter a high-level design description on said system, wherein said design description is stored on said information storage means; an analyzer for analysis of the high-level design description, identification of modules according to a first predetermined criteria, and organization of said modules according to a second predetermined criteria; a synthesizer for synthesizing one or more detailed electronic designs from the high-level design description; a graphical control indicator for graphically representing control and data flow between graphical objects representing modules on said graphical display means, said graphical control and data flow indications representing control and data flow between the modules represented by the graphical objects; a selector for selecting a level of hierarchical abstraction for any displayed graphical object; and an indicator for indicating that a displayed graphical object represents a module having progeny modules associated therewith at a lower level of abstraction. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method of creating and validating a structural description of an electronic system from a higher level, behavior-oriented description thereof on an interactive system, comprising the steps of:
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entering a high-level design description on said system; storing said design description on said information storage means; analyzing the high-level design description; identifying modules according to a first predetermined criteria; organizing said modules according to a second predetermined criteria; synthesizing one or more detailed electronic designs from the high-level design description; graphically representing control and data flow between graphical objects representing modules on said graphical display means, said graphical control and data flow indications representing control and data flow between the modules represented by the graphical objects; selecting a level of hierarchical abstraction for any displayed graphical object; and providing an indication that a displayed graphical object represents a module having progeny modules associated therewith at a lower level of abstraction. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A method of creating and validating a structural description of a system from a higher level, behavior-oriented description thereof, comprising the steps of:
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entering a specification for a design of desired behavior of the system in a high-level, behavior-oriented language; iteratively simulating and changing the design of the system at the behavioral-level until the desired behavior is obtained; partitioning the design of the system into a number of architectural blocks and constraining the architectural choices to those which meet the high-level timing goals; directing the various architectural blocks to logic synthesis programs, thereby providing a netlist or gate-level description of the design; organizing design objects associated with said architectural blocks in a predetermined hierarchical manner; and displaying at least a portion of the system design as a plurality of graphical objects. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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32. A method of creating an electronic design on a system having an accessible database, design tools, and a display device and one or more input devices enabling a user to interact with the system, comprising:
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displaying a control and dataflow graph representation of an electronic design, the control and dataflow graph being at a given hierarchical level of abstraction; storing in the accessible database information relating to the electronic design at various levels of abstraction;
retrieving information relating to the electronic design from the accessible database;displaying the information contemporaneously with displaying the control and dataflow graph; and providing selectable representations of objects represented in the control and dataflow graph. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
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39. A method of creating and validating a structural description of a circuit or device from a higher level, behavior-oriented description thereof, comprising:
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entering a specification for a design of desired behavior of a device, including high-level timing goals, in a high-level, behavior-oriented language; iteratively simulating and changing the design of the device at the behavioral-level until the desired behavior is obtained; partitioning the design of the device into a number of architect blocks which meet the high-level timing goals; displaying a control and data flow graph corresponding to the partitioned design; and directing the various architectural blocks to logic synthesis programs. - View Dependent Claims (40)
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Specification