Replacing circuit design elements with their equivalents

• US 7,461,362 B1
• Filed: 12/01/2005
• Issued: 12/02/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Altera Corporation (Intel Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Tabula Incorporated
• Inventors: Redgrave, Jason, Caldwell, Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): Siek, Vuthe
• Application Number:
  US11/292,936
• Time in Patent Office: 1,097 Days
• Field of Search: 716/1, 716/2, 716/5, 716/16, 716/17, 716/3
• US Class Current: 716/132
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/34 for reconfigurable circuits, e.g. field programmable gate arrays [FPGA] or programmable logic devices [PLD]
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 19/17736 Structural details of routing resources
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 19/17772 for powering on or off

Abstract

Some embodiments provided a method of designing a configurable IC. The method includes receiving a first design that has at least one controllable circuit that is initialized by a first type of initialization signal. This first design also at least one controllable circuit that is initialized by a second type of initialization signal. The method defines a second design based on the first design. The method defines this second design by replacing all controllable circuits that are initialized by the first type of initialization signal with functionally equivalent controllable circuits. Each of these functionally equivalent controllable circuits includes a particular controllable circuit that is initialized by the second type initialization signal.

Claims

1. A method of designing a configurable integrated circuit (IC) comprising:

a) receiving a first design that has at least one controllable circuit that is initialized by a first type of initialization signal and at least one controllable circuit that is initialized by a second type of initialization signal;

b) defining a second design based on the first design, wherein said defining comprises replacing all controllable circuits that are initialized by the first type of initialization signal with functionally equivalent controllable circuits, wherein each functionally equivalent controllable circuit is initialized only by the second type of initialization signal.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each functionally equivalent controllable circuit comprises an inverter before an input of a particular controllable circuit and an inverter after an output of the particular controllable circuit.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first type of initialization signal is a set signal and the second type of initialization signal is a reset signal.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first type of initialization signal is a reset signal and the second type of initialization signal is a set signal.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said replacing is performed by adding inverters to an input and an output of each replaced controllable circuit.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the method further comprises an optimization step, said optimization step comprising:

a) identifying a plurality of inverters that are directly connected to each other; and

b) eliminating one or more of said inverters that are directly connected to each other.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein at least one eliminated inverter is an inverter that is included in one of said functionally equivalent controllable circuits.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein at least one eliminated inverter is an inverter that is part of the IC design implemented by the configurable IC.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the configurable IC comprises a plurality of configurable routing circuits for configurably routing signals to and from a plurality of configurable circuits, wherein said controllable circuits comprise a plurality of controllable data registers that are defined by the configurable routing circuits during a plurality of operational cycles of the configurable IC.

10. A method of designing a configurable integrated circuit (IC) comprising:

a) receiving a first design that has at least one controllable circuit with an output that is initialized to a first value, and at least one controllable circuit with an output that is initialized to a second value;

b) defining a second design based on the first design, wherein said defining comprises replacing all controllable circuits with outputs that are initialized to said first value by functionally equivalent controllable circuits, wherein each functionally equivalent controllable circuit includes an output that is initialized only to said second value.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein each particular functionally controllable circuit comprises an inverter before an input of the particular controllable circuit and an inverter after the output of the particular controllable circuit.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein initializing to said first value is done by a set signal and initializing to said second value is done by a reset signal.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein initializing to said first value is done by a reset signal and initializing to said second value is done by a set signal.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein said replacing is performed by adding inverters to an input and said output of each replaced controllable circuit.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises an optimization step, said optimization step comprising:

a) identifying a plurality of inverters that are directly connected to each other; and

b) eliminating one or more of said inverters that are directly connected to each other.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the configurable IC comprises a plurality of configurable routing circuits for configurably routing signals to and from a plurality of configurable circuits, wherein said controllable circuits comprise a plurality of controllable data registers that are defined by the configurable routing circuits during a plurality of operational cycles of the configurable IC.

17. A configurable integrated circuit (IC) for implementing a user design, the configurable IC comprising:

a plurality of controllable configurable circuits having control lines;

wherein the user design specifies at least one controllable circuit that is initialized by a first type of initialization signal and at least one controllable circuit that is initialized by a second type of initialization signal;

wherein the configurable IC implements the user design by implementing all controllable circuits that are initialized by the first type of initialization signal with functionally equivalent controllable circuits, wherein each functionally equivalent controllable circuit is initialized only by the second type of initialization signal.

18. The configurable IC of claim 17, wherein each functionally equivalent controllable circuit further comprises an inverter before an input of the particular controllable circuit and an inverter after an output of the particular controllable circuit.

19. The configurable IC of claim 18, wherein implementing the user design by the configurable IC comprises a further optimization step, said optimization step comprising:

a) identifying a plurality of inverters that are directly connected to each other; and

b) eliminating one or more of said inverters that are directly connected to each other.

20. The configurable IC of claim 17, wherein the configurable IC comprises a plurality of configurable routing circuits for configurably routing signals to and from a plurality of configurable circuits, wherein said controllable circuits comprise a plurality of controllable data registers that are defined by the configurable routing circuits during a plurality of operational cycles of the configurable IC.

21. A configurable integrated circuit (IC) implementing a user design, the configurable IC comprising:

a plurality of controllable configurable circuits having control lines;

wherein the user design specifies at least one controllable circuit that has a control line that activates by a first type initialization signal;

wherein the user design specifies at least one controllable circuit that has a control line that activates by a second initialization signal that is different than said first initialization signal;

wherein the configurable IC implements the user design by utilizing controllable circuits that have control lines that either all activate by only said first initialization signal or all activate by only said second initialization signal.