SYSTEM DESIGN MANAGEMENT

• US 20150347633A1
• Filed: 01/30/2015
• Published: 12/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens Industry Software Limited (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Mentor Graphics Corporation (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: McCallum, Darcy, Chown, Bill, Thompson, Eric
• Granted Patent: US 9,734,274 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:

identifying, by a computing system, relationships between objects in a meta model based, at least in part, on attributes of the objects in the meta model;

developing, by a computing system, a hierarchy of the objects based, at least in part, on the identified relationships between the objects in the meta model; and

generating, by the computing system, a graphical presentation of the meta model that includes the objects and links between the objects having common attributes based on hierarchy of the objects.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising annotating, by the computing system, the objects in the graphical presentation with states corresponding to the attributes by adding markers to the objects, which indicate the states corresponding to the attributes, indicate whether portions of the meta model have correlated data, or indicate whether the correlated data corresponds to one or more completed developmental tasks.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising updating, by the computing system in real-time, the states of one or more attributes in the graphical presentation.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the graphical presentation further comprises spatially separating the objects in the graphical presentation whose state depends a state of another one of the objects.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the relationships between objects are defined expressly in the meta model with special attributes associated with the related objects.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the graphical presentation of the objects further comprises:

determining which of the objects in the meta model to include in the graphical presentation based on the defined relationships between the objects or the location of the objects in the hierarchy of objects; and

generating the graphical presentation of the meta model based on the determination.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the graphical presentation is a three-dimensional graphical presentation of the objects and the links.

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;

identify relationships between objects in a meta model based, at least in part, on attributes of the objects in the meta model;

develop a hierarchy of the objects based, at least in part, on the identified relationships between the objects in the meta model; and

generate a graphical presentation of the meta model that includes the objects and links between the objects having common attributes based on hierarchy of the objects.

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 annotate the objects in the graphical presentation with states corresponding to the attributes by adding markers to the objects, which indicate the states corresponding to the attributes, indicate whether portions of the meta model have correlated data, or indicate whether the correlated data corresponds to one or more completed developmental tasks.

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 update, in real-time, the states of one or more attributes in the graphical presentation.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the one or more processing devices, in response to executing the machine-readable instructions, are further configured to spatially separate the objects in the graphical presentation whose state depends a state of another one of the objects.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the relationships between objects are defined expressly in the meta model with special attributes associated with the related objects.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the graphical presentation is a three-dimensional graphical presentation of the objects and the links.

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:

identifying relationships between objects in a meta model based, at least in part, on attributes of the objects in the meta model;

developing a hierarchy of the objects based, at least in part, on the identified relationships between the objects in the meta model; and

generating a graphical presentation of the meta model that includes the objects and links between the objects having common attributes based on hierarchy of the objects.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the instructions are configured to cause the one or more processing devices to perform operations further comprising annotating, by the computing system, the objects in the graphical presentation with states corresponding to the attributes by adding markers to the objects, which indicate the states corresponding to the attributes, indicate whether portions of the meta model have correlated data, or indicate whether the correlated data corresponds to one or more completed developmental tasks.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the instructions are configured to cause the one or more processing devices to perform operations further comprising updating, in real-time, the states of one or more attributes in the graphical presentation.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the instructions are configured to cause the one or more processing devices to perform operations further comprising spatially separating the objects in the graphical presentation whose state depends a state of another one of the objects.

18. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the relationships between objects are defined expressly in the meta model with special attributes associated with the related 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:

determining which of the objects in the meta model to include in the graphical presentation based on the defined relationships between the objects or the location of the objects in the hierarchy of objects; and

generating the graphical presentation of the meta model based on the determination.

20. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the graphical presentation is a three-dimensional graphical presentation of the objects and the links.