Computer-aided design and analysis of circuits and semiconductor – Nanotechnology related integrated circuit design
Reexamination Certificate
2001-08-13
2003-09-23
Smith, Matthew (Department: 2825)
Computer-aided design and analysis of circuits and semiconductor
Nanotechnology related integrated circuit design
C716S030000, C716S030000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06625782
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method and/or architecture for specifying silicon device programming parameters generally and, more particularly, to a method and/or architecture for presenting a programmable die to appear to a user as a family of independent devices.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Developing code for a programmable die to meet a customer's requirements for a new device currently takes a considerable amount of development time and money. The customer's requirements for the new device are matched with the capabilities of existing programmable die, marketing rules and constraints imposed by the vendor. The matching task commonly involves multiple software programs operating separately, or in combination, to define the new device. Consequently, a considerable amount of redundancy is encountered among the multiple software programs resulting in inefficiency. Translations of data among the various software programs also result in a high probability of error.
Referring to
FIG. 1
, a diagram illustrating conventional method
10
for developing a specification for the new device is shown. A user
12
provides a description of a first new device to a graphical user interface (GUI) presentation task
14
. The GUI presentation task
14
relays the first new device description to a first processing task
16
. The first processing task
16
includes a mixture of rules for (i) the silicon that is to become the first new device and (ii) marketing considerations. Once a datasheet type specification for the first new device is created, the first processing task
16
relays the specification information to the GUI presentation task
14
for display back to the user
12
.
The user
12
commonly presents a description of a second new device to the GUI presentation task
14
. The GUI presentation task
14
conveys the second new device description to a second processing task
18
to generate another datasheet type specification. The second processing task
18
contains a copy of the silicon rules and marketing rules used in the first processing task
16
. Once a specification for the second new device is generated, the second processing task
18
relays the specification information to the GUI presentation task
14
for display to the user
12
.
In situations where the user
12
creates a family of new devices, additional processing tasks (not shown) similar to the first and second processing tasks
16
-
18
are created, one for each additional new device. Each additional processing task contains a copy of the silicon rules and the marketing rules. As a result, a considerable amount of redundancy is involved in developing specifications for the family of new devices.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention concerns a method for creating a specification for a device. The method may comprise the steps of (A) creating a base class having a first rule set for a programmable die, (B) filtering a definition for the device against a second rule set to present a result in response to creating, and (C) polymorphing the base class according to the result to present the specification for the device in response to filtering.
The objects, features and advantages of the present invention include providing a method and/or architecture for specifying silicon device programming parameters that may (i) present information to an end user in such a way as to develop a family of parts from a base die, (ii) be cost efficient, (iii) provide faster and more accurate code to market, (iv) support a growing family of devices with minimum development overhead and/or (v) reduce testing time.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4689740 (1987-08-01), Moelands et al.
patent: 5559502 (1996-09-01), Schutte
patent: 5689196 (1997-11-01), Schutte
patent: 6188242 (2001-02-01), Mahajan et al.
patent: WO 96/17305 (1996-06-01), None
patent: WO 98/34376 (1998-08-01), None
patent: WO 99/09712 (1999-02-01), None
JEDEC Standard, “Standard Data Transfer Format Between Data Preparation System and Programmable Logic Device Programmer”, JESD3-C (Revision of JESD3-B), Jun. 1994, pp. 1-35.
Chen Chao
Green David
Cypress Semiconductor Corp.
Levin Naum
Maiorana P.C. Christopher P.
Smith Matthew
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