Part development system

• US 6,177,942 B1
• Filed: 04/30/1996
• Issued: 01/23/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Mentor Graphics Corporation (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Mentor Graphics Corporation (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Yun, Khoong Hock, Keong, Woo Peng, Salzberg, Ken, Huat, Sia Siong, Chung, Liau Hon
• Primary Examiner(s): Trammell, James P.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Cuong H.
• Application Number:
  US08/641,191
• Time in Patent Office: 1,729 Days
• Field of Search: G06/F.300, G06/F 1.750, G06/F 1.900, 395/701, 700/107, 705/29, 705/1, 345/352, 345/348, 345/356, 345/440
• US Class Current: 715/810
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/30 Circuit design

Abstract

A part development system implemented on a computer for developing software versions of parts for use in computer-generated designs, such as electrical circuits. The system includes a process developer environment for developing part development processes and a parts developer environment for developing parts in accordance with such processes. In a preferred embodiment, the two environments are implemented as computer programs with graphical interfaces to enable process developers to easily construct part development processes and parts developers to easily develop parts using the processes. The part development processes capture the library and part specifications required for acceptable parts, thus minimizing errors in part creation and time required for test.

Claims

1. A part development system implemented on a computer, comprising:

(a) a process developer environment that develops software versions of parts for use in computer-generated electronic circuit designs by developing part development processes including;

a process hierarchy area generated on a display providing access to part creation processes used for developing software versions of electronic parts, the processes having at least one process command;

a command list area generated on the display providing access to process commands of a part creation process; and

a menu definition area generated on the display for constructing a menu of the process commands for use with a data object to develop a part; and

(b) a part development environment that develops software versions of parts for use in computer-generated electronic circuit designs by developing parts using part development processes developed with the process developer environment, the parts developer environment comprising;

a process selection area generated on a display for selecting a part development process for developing a part;

an object list area generated on the display providing access lo data objects that can be developed into parts with a selected process;

a means for selecting a data object; and

a command area generated on the display providing a menu of commands that can be selected for use with the data object to develop a part.

2. The part development system of claim 1 including means for associating a data object with a command for making the command available for use upon selection of the data object.

3. The part development system of claim 1 including means for associating a part development tool with a command for invoking the tool upon selection of the command.

4. The part development system of claim 3 including means for providing access to a tool invocation script for the part development tool.

5. The part development system of claim 1 including means for defining arguments for process commands.

6. The part development system of claim 1 including means for defining a results directory for storing results produced by process commands.

7. The part development system of claim 1 including means for defining a results directory for storing results produced by test process commands.

8. The part development system of claim 1 including a computer-readable medium for storing instructions of a computer program comprising the processor developer environment and part developer environment.

9. The part development system of claim 1 wherein the part developer environment further comprises:

means for providing access to a configuration to set program parameters dictated by library and process specifications.

10. The part development system of claim 1 including means for controlling operation of a selected command on a data object to execute only, record only, or execute and record.

11. The part development system of claim 10 including a command buffer for storing recorded commands.

12. The part development system of claim 9 wherein the part developer environment comprises means for managing the execution of a pre-tool script, a tool script and a post-tool script.

13. The part development system of claim 1 including means for launching a development tool associated with a command in response to selection of a command, the tool for operating on the data object.

14. The part development system of claim 1 including means for storing and accessing results of execution in areas defined in the process development environment.

15. The part development system of claim 1 including means for executing the recorded commands in batch fashion.

16. Apparatus comprising:

a process developer environment that executes on a computer for developing part development processes, such processes used for developing software versions of electronic parts for use in computer-generated electronic circuit designs, the process developer environment including a process hierarchy area generated on a display providing access to part creation processes used for developing software versions of electronic parts, the processes having at least one process command;

a command list area generated on the display providing access to process commands of a part creation process; and

a menu definition area generated on the display for constructing a menu of the process commands for use with a data object to develop a part.

17. The process developer environment of claim 16 including means for associating a data object with a command for making the command available for use upon selection of the data object.

19. The part developer environment of claim 17 including means for controlling operation of a selected command on a data object to execute only, record only, or execute and record.

18. Apparatus comprising:

a part developer environment that executes on a computer for developing software versions of electronic parts in accordance with part development processes, the parts developer environment including a process selection area generated on a display for selecting a part development process for developing a part;

an object list area generated on the display providing access to data objects that can be developed into parts with a selected process;

means for selecting a data object; and

a command area generated on the display providing a menu of commands that can be selected for use with the data object to develop a part.