SYSTEM DESIGN MANAGEMENT

• US 20150347632A1
• Filed: 01/30/2015
• Published: 12/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens Industry Software Inc. (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Mentor Graphics Corporation (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: McCallum, Darcy, Chown, Bill, Thompson, Eric
• Granted Patent: US 9,773,085 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2111/02 CAD in a network environment, e.g. collaborative CAD or distributed simulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2111/04 Constraint-based CAD
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2111/06 Multi-objective optimisation, e.g. Pareto optimisation using simulated annealing [SA], ant colony algorithms or genetic algorithms [GA]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2111/08 Probabilistic or stochastic CAD
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2111/20 Configuration CAD, e.g. designing by assembling or positioning modules selected from libraries of predesigned modules
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/00 Computer-aided design [CAD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/39 Circuit design at the physical level physical level design for reconfigurable circuits G06F30/347
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/398 Design verification or optimisation, e.g. using design rule check [DRC], layout versus schematics [LVS] or finite element methods [FEM] optical proximity correction [OPC] design processes G03F1/36

Abstract

This application discloses a computing system implementing tools and mechanisms to generate a framework for a system-level design of an electronic system, wherein the system-level design includes multiple electronic designs from different electronic design automation tools. The tools and mechanisms can correlate design components in the electronic designs to different portions of the framework for the system-level design, and determine whether the electronic designs are congruent with the system-level design based, at least in part, on the correlation of the electronic designs to the different portions of the framework for the system-level design.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

defining, by a computing system, objects and attributes that describe characteristics of the objects for a meta model;

defining, by the computing system, one or more conditional action statements associated with the attributes;

correlating, by the computing system, data to at least one of the objects or the attributes; and

determining, by the computing system, whether to perform actions in the conditional action statements based, at least in part, on the correlated data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein correlating data to the objects or attributes in the meta model further comprises identifying associations between the data and objects or attributes.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein correlating data to the objects or attributes in the meta model further comprises inferring associations between the data and the objects or the attributes based on a source or content of the data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the meta model is an extensible data structure capable of describing at least one device, product, process, flow, system, or design by their constituent components, portions, or features as objects or attributes.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the attributes describe physical or functional aspects of the corresponding objects or describe a relationship to another one of the objects.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether to perform actions in the conditional action statements further comprises:

comparing the correlated data against a condition in the conditional action statement; and

selectively performing an action defined in the conditional action statement based on the comparison.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the objects are arranged in the meta model in a hierarchical structure based, at least in part, on common attributes, and wherein the hierarchical structure allows the objects to have corresponding attributes assigned to them directly or inherit the corresponding attributes from other objects at a higher-level in the hierarchical structure.

8. A system comprising:

a memory device configured to store machine-readable instructions; and

a computing system including one or more processing devices, in response to executing the machine-readable instructions, configured to;

define objects and attributes that describe characteristics of the objects for a meta model;

define one or more conditional action statements associated with the attributes;

correlate data to at least one of the objects or the attributes; and

determine whether to perform actions in the conditional action statements based, at least in part, on the correlated data.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the one or more processing devices, in response to executing the machine-readable instructions, are further configured to identify associations between the data and objects or attributes.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the one or more processing devices, in response to executing the machine-readable instructions, are further configured to infer associations between the data and the objects or the attributes based on a source or content of the data.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the meta model is an extensible data structure capable of describing at least one device, product, process, flow, system, or design by their constituent components, portions, or features as objects or attributes.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the one or more processing devices, in response to executing the machine-readable instructions, are further configured to:

compare the correlated data against a condition in the conditional action statement; and

selectively perform an action defined in the conditional action statement based on the comparison.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the objects are arranged in the meta model in a hierarchical structure based, at least in part, on common attributes, and wherein the hierarchical structure allows the objects to have corresponding attributes assigned to them directly or inherit the corresponding attributes from other objects at a higher-level in the hierarchical structure.

14. An apparatus comprising at least one computer-readable memory device storing instructions configured to cause one or more processing devices to perform operations comprising:

defining objects and attributes that describe characteristics of the objects for a meta model;

defining one or more conditional action statements associated with the attributes;

correlating data to at least one of the objects or the attributes; and

determining whether to perform actions in the conditional action statements based, at least in part, on the correlated data.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the instructions are configured to cause the one or more processing devices to perform operations further comprising identifying associations between the data and objects or attributes.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the instructions are configured to cause the one or more processing devices to perform operations further comprising inferring associations between the data and the objects or the attributes based on a source or content of the data.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the meta model is an extensible data structure capable of describing at least one device, product, process, flow, system, or design by their constituent components, portions, or features as objects or attributes.

18. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the attributes describe physical or functional aspects of the corresponding objects or describe a relationship to another one of the objects.

19. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the instructions are configured to cause the one or more processing devices to perform operations further comprising:

comparing the correlated data against a condition in the conditional action statement; and

selectively performing an action defined in the conditional action statement based on the comparison.

20. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the objects are arranged in the meta model in a hierarchical structure based, at least in part, on common attributes, and wherein the hierarchical structure allows the objects to have corresponding attributes assigned to them directly or inherit the corresponding attributes from other objects at a higher-level in the hierarchical structure.