Model independent simulation

• US 20070038416A1
• Filed: 08/11/2005
• Published: 02/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/11/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GlobalFoundries, Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Ramachandran, Bala, Szaloky, Vincent, Benayon, Jay, Irassar, Pablo
• Granted Patent: US 7,437,277 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 703/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2111/08 Probabilistic or stochastic CAD
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/20 Design optimisation, verification or simulation optimisation, verification or simulation of circuit designs G06F30/30

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art with respect to event driven simulation and provide a method, data processing system and computer program product for mapping a process model for use in a generic simulation engine. In an embodiment of the invention, a generic model simulation method can include mapping a specifically formatted process representation into a generic process model, and providing the generic process model to a simulation engine. The method further can include executing a simulation on the generic process model in lieu of executing the simulation on the specifically formatted process representation.

Claims

1. A generic model simulation method comprising:

mapping a specifically formatted process representation into a generic process model; and

,

providing said generic process model to a simulation engine.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising executing a simulation on said generic process model in lieu of executing said simulation on said specifically formatted process representation.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said mapping a specifically formatted process representation into a generic process model, comprises generating a directed acyclic graph representation of said specifically formatted process representation.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said generating a directed acyclic graph representation of said specifically formatted process representation, comprises:

mapping each element of said specifically formatted process representation into a node in said directed acyclic graph; and

,

defining directed connections between individual nodes in said directed acyclic graph.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said mapping each element of said specifically formatted process representation into a node in said directed acyclic graph, comprises:

mapping known attributes of said specifically formatted process to pre-defined attributes for selected nodes of said generic process model; and

,

mapping other attributes of said specifically formatted process to user-defined attributes referencing corresponding expressions to be evaluated at a designated point in a simulation of said generic process model.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein said mapping each element of said specifically formatted process representation into a node in said directed acyclic graph, comprises:

mapping known attributes of said specifically formatted process to pre-defined attributes for selected nodes of said generic process model; and

,

mapping other attributes of said specifically formatted process to user-defined attributes referencing corresponding call-out handlers to be executed at a designated point in a simulation of said generic process model.

7. A generic model simulation data processing system comprising:

a simulation engine configured to simulate a process represented by a generic process model; and

,

a mapper coupled to said simulation engine and enabled to produce said generic process model from a specific representation of said process.

8. The data processing system of claim 7, wherein said generic process model comprises a plurality of graph elements arranged into nodes of a directed acyclic graph.

9. The data processing system of claim 8, further comprising a component factory configured to produce said graph elements for said mapper when mapping elements of said specific representation of said process into said nodes of said directed acyclic graph.

10. The data processing system of claim 8, wherein said nodes comprise pre-defined attributes for said elements of said specific representation of said process.

11. The data processing system of claim 8, wherein said nodes comprise user-defined attributes for said element of said specific representation of said process, said user-defined attributes specifying one of an expression and a call-out handler.

12. The data processing system of claim 11, further comprising an expression evaluator plug-in coupled to said simulation engine and configured to evaluate expressions defined in user-defined attributes.

13. The data processing system of claim 7, further comprising each of a logger, report generator and dumper coupled to said simulation engine.

14. The data processing system of claim 7, further comprising an updater coupled to said simulation engine and configured to handle event notifications in a simulation of said generic process model.

15. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer usable program code for generic model simulation, said computer program product including:

computer usable program code for mapping a specifically formatted process representation into a generic process model; and

,

computer usable program code for providing said generic process model to a simulation engine.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, further comprising computer usable program code for executing a simulation on said generic process model in lieu of executing said simulation on said specifically formatted process representation.

17. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein said computer usable program code for mapping a specifically formatted process representation into a generic process model, comprises computer usable program code for generating a directed acyclic graph representation of said specifically formatted process representation.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein said computer usable program code for generating a directed acyclic graph representation of said specifically formatted process representation, comprises:

computer usable program code for mapping each element of said specifically formatted process representation into a node in said directed acyclic graph; and

,

computer usable program code for defining directed connections between individual nodes in said directed acyclic graph.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein said computer usable program code for mapping each element of said specifically formatted process representation into a node in said directed acyclic graph, comprises:

computer usable program code for mapping known attributes of said specifically formatted process to pre-defined attributes for selected nodes of said generic process model; and

,

computer usable program code for mapping other attributes of said specifically formatted process to user-defined attributes referencing corresponding expressions to be evaluated at a designated point in a simulation of said generic process model.

20. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein said computer usable program code for mapping each element of said specifically formatted process representation into a node in said directed acyclic graph, comprises:

computer usable program code for mapping known attributes of said specifically formatted process to pre-defined attributes for selected nodes of said generic process model; and

,

computer usable program code for mapping other attributes of said specifically formatted process to user-defined attributes referencing corresponding call-out handlers to be executed at a designated point in a simulation of said generic process model.