Method and system for creating, viewing, editing, and sharing output from a design checking system

• US 7,921,390 B2
• Filed: 11/06/2007
• Issued: 04/05/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/12/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: GlobalFoundries, Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Scott, Derrick D, Gates, Charles R, Cook, Michelle K, Chen, Thaddeus, Archambeault, Bruce
• Primary Examiner(s): Siek; Vuthe
• Application Number:
  US11/935,865
• Publication Number:
  US 20080066042A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,246 Days
• Field of Search: 716/1, 716/5, 716/11, 716/106, 716/111, 717/109, 717/115, 717/125
• US Class Current: 716/106
• 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

Existing text output from a design rule checker is put in appropriate input format, and automatically displayed as text within a design tool using existing design tool capabilities, such as highlighting, zooming, and drawing box-regions. A graphical display of the output of the rule checker includes the informative text. Design rule violations are listed in a manner in which they can be individually selected. The output is displayed on a unique software program layer within the design tool so as to not effect or make any permanent changes to the original design file. The layers can be safely deleted when no longer in use.

Claims

1. A method of using text from a design tool to display an output to a user, said method comprising:

graphically displaying said output from said text of said design tool;

graphically listing design rule violations;

displaying said output as part of a software layer of said design tool such that no permanent changes are made to any original design file;

requesting that particular violations be saved in a subset output file;

generating and annotating said subset output file for use by other users such that said subset output file contains only said particular violations said user requested to be saved;

generating said subset output file in a form that allows said subset output file to be applied against the design file;

generating software help functions allowing said user to gain information about design rule violations; and

iterating this process using said subset output file through a rule checking process as many times as necessary to remove said particular violations.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said design tool is a design rule checking system.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said text comprises text output from said design tool.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein said text output from said design tool comprises an input file for software implementing said method.

5. The method of claim 1 including representing said output as part of said software layer of said design tool, and deleting said output when no longer required.

6. The method of claim 5 including having said software layer presented in a pop-up window display.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein said pop-up window further includes information identifying said design rule violations, net name, component name, information relating to design rules.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein said pop-up window further comprises the identification of parameters being checked along with information as to said parameters'"'"' importance.

9. The method of claim 1 including drawing a bounding box around any of said design rule violations.

10. The method of claim 1 including loading and viewing said subset output file without running said design tool rule checker.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein said subset file includes saved information relating to an identified violation.

12. The method of claim 11 further including electronically sharing said saved information with different users.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein said software help functions include highlighting, zooming, measuring cumulative distance between multiple points, changing viewpoints of a design, changing magnification level, changing feature visibility, and changing location of a viewport.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising reselecting said design rule violations to return to an originally presented view.

15. A method of viewing violations identified by a design rule checker comprising:

inputting text output from said design rule checker into a software program routine for viewing said violations;

inputting design file information into said software program routine;

generating a subset output file of said violations for a user to view;

requesting that particular violations be saved in said subset output file such that said subset output file contains only said particular violations said user requested to be saved;

generating said subset output file in a form that allows said subset output file to be applied against the design file;

editing said design file based on said violations; and

iterating this process using said subset output file through said design rule checker process as many times as necessary to remove said particular violations.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

inputting design data and rule checker parameters into a design rule checking tool; and

performing design rule checking.

17. The method of claim 15 including generating a subset text output file of said violations.

18. The method of claim 15 including representing said output as part of a software layer of said design rule checker, and deleting said output when no longer required.

19. The method of claim 18 including having said software layer presented in a pop-up window display.

20. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for using text from a design tool to display an output to a user, said method steps comprising:

graphically displaying said output from said text of said design tool;

graphically listing design rule violations;

displaying said output as part of a software layer of said design tool such that no permanent changes are made to any original design file;

requesting that particular violations be saved in a subset output file;

generating and annotating said subset output file for use by other users such that said subset output file contains only said particular violations said user requested to be saved;

generating said subset output file in a form that allows said subset output file to be applied against the design file;

generating software help functions allowing said user to gain information about design rule violations; and

iterating this process using said subset output file through a rule checking process as many times as necessary to remove said particular violations.

21. The program storage device of claim 20 wherein said text comprises text output from said design tool.

22. The program storage device of claim 21 wherein said text output from said design tool comprises an input file for software implementing said method.

23. The program storage device of claim 20 including representing said output as part of said software layer of said design tool, and deleting said output when no longer required.

24. The program storage device of claim 23 including having said software layer presented in a pop-up window display.

25. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for viewing violations identified by a design rule checker, said method steps comprising:

inputting text output from said design rule checker into a software program routine for viewing said violations;

inputting design file information into said software program routine;

requesting that particular violations be saved in a subset output file;

generating said subset output file of said violations for a user to view such that said subset output file contains only said particular violations said user requested to be saved;

generating said subset output file in a form that allows said subset output file to be applied against the design file;

editing said design file based on said violations; and

iterating this process using said subset output file through said design rule checker process as many times as necessary to remove said particular violations.

26. The method of claim 25 including generating a subset text output file of said violations.