Layout designing apparatus for circuit boards

• US 5,691,913 A
• Filed: 03/27/1995
• Issued: 11/25/1997
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/1994
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Nishikawa, Yukinobu, Tsuchida, Masayuki, Uemura, Hirokazu, Miura, Shinji
• Primary Examiner(s): Teska, Kevin J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): GARBOWSKI, LEIGH M
• Application Number:
  US08/410,708
• Time in Patent Office: 974 Days
• Field of Search: 364/488, 364/489, 364/490, 364/491
• US Class Current: 716/122
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/39 Circuit design at the physical level physical level design for reconfigurable circuits G06F30/347
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 1/141 One or more single auxiliary printed circuits mounted on a main printed circuit, e.g. modules, adapters H05K1/142 and H05K1/147 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 1/181 associated with surface mounted components
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 3/0005 for designing circuits by computer

Abstract

A layout designing apparatus for circuit boards including a mother board and a substrate which comprises a layout data storage unit for having areas to store data; an operation unit for giving directions; a mother board setting unit for creating the data about the mother board in the layout data storage unit according to the operation unit; a substrate placement unit for creating the data in the layout data storage unit according to the operation unit so that the substrate of a given configuration is placed on a given place on the mother board; a component placement unit for creating the data in the layout data storage unit according to the operation unit so that components of given configurations are placed on given places on the mother board and on the substrate; a routing unit for creating the data in the layout data storage unit according to the operation unit so that routing paths of given configurations are laid out on the mother board and on the substrate; a display unit; and a layout data display control unit for controlling the display unit to display configurations and places of the mother board, the substrate, components and routing paths as created.

Claims

1. A layout designing apparatus for circuit boards including a mother board and a substrate which is placed thereon comprising:

layout data storage means for having areas to store data;

operation means for giving directions;

mother board setting means for creating data about the mother board in the layout data storage means according to the operation means;

substrate placement means for creating data in the layout data storage means according to the operation means so that the substrate of a given configuration is placed on a given place on the mother board;

component placement means for creating data in the layout data storage means according to the operation means so that components of predetermined configurations are placed on given places on the mother board and on the substrate;

routing means for creating data in the layout data storage means according to the operation means so that routing paths of given configurations are laid out on the mother board and on the substrate;

display means; and

layout data display control means for controlling the display means to display configurations and places of the mother board, the substrate, components and routing paths as created.

2. The layout designing apparatus for circuit boards of claim 1, wherein the component placement means includes:

component configuration data storage unit for storing configurations and sizes of each component placed on the mother board and placed on the substrate;

circuit board judgement unit for judging whether each component is placed on the mother board and on the substrate by the operation means; and

placement processing unit for reading from the component configuration data storage unit the component configuration and size based on the judgement of the circuit board judgement unit and editing the data in the layout data storage means so that a component having an appropriate configuration and size is placed on the circuit board designated by the operation means.

3. The layout designing apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

evaluation value storage means for storing evaluation values for kinds, configurations and sizes of components and combinations of them;

total evaluation value calculation means for calculating a total evaluation value based on the evaluation values of the placed components; and

total evaluation value display control means for controlling the display means to display the total evaluation value.

4. The layout designing apparatus of claim 3, wherein the total evaluation value calculation means calculates individual total evaluation value for each circuit board by totaling the evaluation value for components placed on each circuit board.

5. The layout designing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the routing means includes:

a mother board routing unit for creating the data in the layout data storage means according to the operation means so that the routing path interconnecting the component terminal on the mother board and the given substrate terminal is laid out on the mother board; and

a substrate routing unit for creating the data in the layout data storage means according to the operation means so that the routing path interconnecting the given substrate terminal and the given component terminal on the substrate is laid out on the substrate.

6. The layout designing apparatus of claim 5, wherein the routing means further includes:

a routing judgement unit for judging whether the substrate terminal designated by the operation means is already used for the routing; and

routing path deletion unit for editing the data in the layout data storage means, when the terminal has already been used for routing, so that the routing path for the terminal is deleted.

7. The layout designing apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

equal substrate storage means;

equal substrate designation operation means for designating, from a plurality of substrates placed on the mother board, desired substrates with an equal attribute;

equal substrate setting means for storing information in the equal substrate storage means, the information identifying the substrates designated by the equal substrate designation operation means;

equal substrate judgement means for judging whether the substrate used for placement or routing according to the operation means is one of the equal substrates based on the information in the equal substrate storage means;

equal component placement means for editing the data in the layout data storage unit so that when the equal substrate judgement means judges that one of a plurality of equal substrates has components placed upon it, the counterpart components are placed on the same place of the rest of the equal substrates; and

equal routing path layout means for editing the data in the layout data storage unit so that when the equal substrate judgement means judges that one of a plurality of equal substrates has routing path laid out upon it, the counterpart routing path is laid out on the same area of the rest of the substrates.

8. The layout designing apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

net storage means for storing a plurality of nets, at least one of the nets has a component terminal on the mother board and a component terminal on the substrate, the component terminals are used for interconnection; and

net display control means for controlling the display means to display lines interconnecting component terminals on the display means.

9. The layout designing apparatus of claim 8, wherein the net display control means controls the display means to display the lines corresponding to the nets designated by the operation means as broken lines via the substrate terminals designated by the operation means, at least one of the broken lines connect the component terminal on the mother board and the component terminal on the substrate.

10. The layout designing apparatus of claim 8, wherein the routing means includes:

net choice operation unit for choosing one net from the net storage means, one net being used for the interconnection between the component terminal on the mother board and the component terminal on the substrate;

substrate terminal storage unit for storing information which identifies the substrate terminals which are to be used for routing;

substrate terminal setting unit for setting information in the substrate terminal storage unit, the information identifying all the substrate terminals for the net chosen by the net choice operation unit based on the data in the layout storage means;

substrate routing judgment unit for choosing one substrate terminal from the substrate terminal storage unit and judging whether it is possible to lay out a routing path which interconnects the substrate terminal and the component terminal on the substrate for the nets chosen by the net choice operation unit;

mother board routing judgment unit for judging whether it is possible to lay out on the mother board the routing path between the substrate terminal chosen by the substrate routing judgment unit and the component terminal on the mother board;

routing repeat control unit for deleting, when at lease one of the substrate routing judgment unit and the mother board routing judgment unit judges an "impossible" condition for the chosen substrate terminal in the substrate terminal storage unit and operating so that the processing in the substrate routing judgment unit and the mother board routing judgment unit are repeated; and

routing processing unit for editing the data in the layout data storage means, when the substrate routing judgment unit and the mother board routing judgment unit judge a "possible" condition, so that the routing paths are laid out on the mother board and on the substrate.

11. The layout designing apparatus of claim 1, further comprising;

evaluation value storage means for storing evaluation values of each component, the evaluation values which correspond to kinds, configurations, and sizes of the components and the combination of them;

upper bound evaluation value acquirement means for acquiring an upper bound evaluation value which can be a standard for classifying components;

component classification means for classifying all the components yet to be placed designated by the operation means into components which are to be placed on the substrate and components which are to be placed on the mother board;

total evaluation value calculation means for calculating the total evaluation value by reading and totaling, for each classified component, the evaluation value stored in the evaluation value storage means;

evaluation value judgement means for judging whether the total evaluation value is equal to the upper bound evaluation value or below;

component re-classification means for re-classifying, based on the evaluation values in the evaluation value storage means, the components yet to be placed so that the total evaluation value becomes closer to the upper bound evaluation value, when the evaluation value judgement means judges the total evaluation value is not equal to the upper bound evaluation value or below; and

classification information display control means for operating so that the information about classification by the component classification means and component re-classification means is displayed on the display means.

12. The layout designing apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

component configuration data storage means for storing each component configurations on the mother board and on the substrate;

component acquirement means for acquiring all the components which are to be placed on one substrate; and

substrate configuration decision means for calculating the total occupied size based on a given rule according to the configurations of all the components acquired by the component acquirement means, deciding based on a given rule the size of the substrate which is bigger than and closest to the total occupied size, and editing the data in the layout data storage means to place the decided substrate on the mother board.

13. The layout designing apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

mother board automatic component placement means for editing the data in the layout data storage means so that the substrate, on which components should be placed is decided, is regarded as one component and is placed on the mother board according to a given role.

14. The layout designing apparatus of claim 1, further comprises:

substrate automatic component placement means for editing the data in the layout data storage means , in view of the connection to the already placed other components on the circuit boards, so that the components designated by the operation means are placed on the substrate according to a given rule.