Method for graphically representing a digital device as a behavioral description with data and control flow elements, and for converting the behavioral description to a structural description
First Claim
1. A method for graphically designing a digital device, comprising the steps of:
- identifying a fixed and limited number of descriptors which behaviorally describe any digital device to be designed;
placing symbolic icons representing at least two of said descriptors upon a graphic display and operationally connecting said icons with an arc placed therebetween; and
using a pull-down menu activated from said placed icons, thereafter defining a list of attributes to said icons, wherein said attributes include both data path and control path information for a digital device graphically designed from said placed icons.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A computer-aided synthesis and verification tool is provided for modeling a digital device at a behavioral level and for synthesizing to a structural level utilizing user-defined attributes. The behavioral level is represented as a Data Dependency Graph (DDG) having a plurality of operations (shown as nodes) and operands (shown as arcs) which connect the nodes. Each operation or node is represented as a graphical icon, wherein the icon can have user-defined attributes associated with it. The attributes, nodes, and arcs are compiled and reduced to a Register Transfer Level (RTL) simulation model compatible with present VHDL and Verilog formats. Conversion from a behavioral model to an RTL model includes monitoring the internal states at rising clock edges and constructing states, events and event transistions (i.e., control path information) for each data value in the matrix of values within the data path. The resulting RTL model therefore includes both control path information and data path information, and can be further reduced to technology dependent or silicon dependent circuits or structures.
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Citations
25 Claims
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1. A method for graphically designing a digital device, comprising the steps of:
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identifying a fixed and limited number of descriptors which behaviorally describe any digital device to be designed; placing symbolic icons representing at least two of said descriptors upon a graphic display and operationally connecting said icons with an arc placed therebetween; and using a pull-down menu activated from said placed icons, thereafter defining a list of attributes to said icons, wherein said attributes include both data path and control path information for a digital device graphically designed from said placed icons. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method for capturing a digital device as a behavioral description and for converting the behavioral description to a structural description, said method comprising the steps of:
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constructing a behavioral description of a digital device upon a graphic display by graphically connecting a set of symbolic icons drawn from a fixed number of icons contained within an icon library having fewer than fifteen icons; mapping user-defined inputs to each of said symbolic icons to define a graphical model having data path attributes of said digital device; representing said graphical model as a matrix of data values corresponding to binary values at a plurality of internal states within said graphical model; applying a set of input values to said matrix of data values to modify said matrix and, simultaneous with rising edges of a clocking signal, monitoring the modified said matrix at select said internal states; determining events at the select said internal states, and determining transitions of said events at said internal states between said rising edges of the clocking cycle; and combining events and transitions of events to produce a finite state machine having control path information, and merging said control path information with said data path attributes to produce a structural description of said digital device. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A method for capturing a digital device as a behavioral description, for converting the behavioral description to a structural description, and for verifying the behavioral and structural descriptions of said digital device, said method comprising the steps of:
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providing a library of less than fifteen descriptors which behaviorally describe any digital device to be modeled; placing symbolic icons representing at least two of said descriptors upon a graphic display and operationally connecting said icons with an arc to produce a behavioral description of a digital device; using a pull-down menu activated from selection of said placed icons, mapping entries made by a user to said pull-down menu to define a graphical model having data path attributes of said digital device; representing said graphic model as a matrix of data values corresponding to binary values at a plurality of internal states and an output state of said graphical model; applying a set of input values to said matrix of data values to modify said matrix and produce a sequence of output values; monitoring said a sequence of output values at the output state of said graphical model and, simultaneous with rising edges of a clocking signal, monitoring a resulting sequence of output values at select said internal states of said graphical model; determining events at the select said internal states, and determining transistions of said events at said internal states between said rising edges of the clocking cycle; combining events and transitions of events to produce a finite state machine having control path information, and merging said control path information with said data path attributes to produce a structural description of said digital device; representing said structural description as a matrix of register-transfer level (RTL) data values corresponding to binary values at said output state; and verifying the accuracy of said structural description by comparing the output values at the output state resulting from said applying step with the output values at the output state resulting from said representing step.
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Specification