Patents Assigned to Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
  • Patent number: 8375342
    Abstract: An improved method and system for performing extraction on an integrated circuit design is disclosed. Extraction may be performed at granularities much smaller than the entire IC design, in which a halo is used to identify a geometric volume surrounding an object of interest to identify neighboring objects and generate an electrical model. The extraction approach can be taken for Islands, Nets, as well as other granularities within the design. Re-extraction of a design can occur at granularities smaller than a net. Some approaches utilize Island-stitching to replace an island within a net. An approach is also described for improving cross-references for cross-coupled objects.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 7, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2013
    Assignee: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Eric Nequist, Richard Brashears, Matthew A. Liberty, Michael C. McSherry
  • Patent number: 8375350
    Abstract: In one embodiment of the invention, a method is disclosed including executing one or more commands of a work script to perform work on a portion of a netlist of an integrated circuit design; receiving an indication of a program fault in a first integrated circuit (IC) design program performing work on the portion of the netlist in response to the one or more commands of the work script; and generating a debug work script associated with the work script in response to the program fault, the debug work script including an identification of the portion of the netlist of the integrated circuit design upon which work was being performed during the program fault.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2013
    Assignee: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Sascha Richter, Denis Baylor
  • Patent number: 8375348
    Abstract: Disclosed are a method, apparatus, and computer program product to implement routing for double patterning lithography using colored space tiles. A three-phase routing scheme is employed, comprising a global router, a C-router, and a detail router. The C-router provides double patterning color seeding for routing tracks in the electronic design. The detail router employs space-tiles to perform double-patterning based routing for wires in the electronic design. Colored space tiles may be utilized to perform the detail routing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2013
    Assignee: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Satish Samuel Raj, Jeffrey Scott Salowe
  • Patent number: 8370779
    Abstract: Disclosed are systems and methods for electrical verification of integrated circuits. Methodologies are described for verification of the power and ground distribution systems (PDS) for system-on-a-chip (SoC) and the verification of the interaction of the PDS with the behavior of integrated circuits.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 19, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2013
    Assignee: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Steffen Rochel, David Overhauser, Gregory Steele, Kung Hsu
  • Patent number: 8370778
    Abstract: Disclosed are systems and methods for electrical verification of integrated circuits. Methodologies are described for verification of the power and ground distribution systems (PDS) for system-on-a-chip (SoC) and the verification of the interaction of the PDS with the behavior of integrated circuits.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 19, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2013
    Assignee: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Steffen Rochel, David Overhauser, Gregory Steele, Kung Hsu
  • Patent number: 8365113
    Abstract: In one embodiment of the invention, a method includes partitioning an integrated circuit design into a hierarchy of a top level and a plurality of partitions, wherein the top level includes a top level netlist and each partition includes a partition netlist; receiving data path timing budgets and clock path timing budgets for each of the plurality of partitions of the integrated circuit design; and generating a timing budget model of each partition in response to the respective data path timing budgets and clock path timing budgets, wherein each timing budget model includes an intra-partition clock timing constraint for each respective partition for independent implementation of the top level.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 18, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2013
    Assignee: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Vivek Bhardwaj, Oleg Levitsky, Dinesh Gupta
  • Patent number: 8365103
    Abstract: Systems and methods for creating and implementing two-dimensional (2D), image-based design rules (IBDRs) are disclosed. Techniques for creating 2D IBDR can include identifying a search pattern that is representative of a 2D pattern of interest of a design, creating a pattern representation based on the search pattern, defining an anchor point for the pattern representation, and assigning weights to elements of the pattern representation. The 2D MDR can be used in systems and method for searching a design by comparing the 2D IBDR to the design. A number of 2D IBDRs can be merged into a subset of similar 2D IBDRs by characterizing desired rule geometries, sorting the 2D IBDRs into groups according to the desired rule geometries, merging the groups of 2D IBDRs into a single representative search pattern. Additionally, standard design rules can be created from the disclosed 2D IBDRs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2013
    Assignee: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Frank E. Gennari, Ya-Chieh Lai, Matthew W. Moskewicz, Michael C. Lam, Gregory R. McIntyre
  • Patent number: 8364656
    Abstract: An improved approach to pcell caching is disclosed that enables safe and efficient multi-user access to pcell caches. Locking structures are used in conjunction with counters to provide multi-user support for pcell caches. When a modification occurs to cached pcell data, an update is made to the appropriate counter(s). The value(s) of the counters are checked to determine whether the item of data operated upon by an entity is still valid or if another concurrent entity has made changes to the data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2013
    Assignee: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Rajan Arora, Randy Bishop, Arnold Ginetti, Gilles S. C. Lamant
  • Patent number: 8364452
    Abstract: A method and system for lithography simulation and measurement of critical dimensions with improved CD marker generation and placement is disclosed. The method and system specify a position for measuring a difference between a lithography image and a target pattern, generate one or more CD marker candidates, and select at least one CD marker from the one or more CD marker candidates.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 23, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2013
    Assignee: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
    Inventor: Takashi Mitsuhashi
  • Patent number: 8365128
    Abstract: Routing methods for an integrated circuit design layout are disclosed. The layout can include design netlists and library cells. A multiple-level global routing can generate topological wire for each net. An area oriented graph-based detail routing on the design can be performed. A post route optimization after the detail routing can be performed to further improve the routing quality. Some methods can be single threaded all or some of the time, and/or multi-threaded some or all of the time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2013
    Assignee: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Limin He, So-Zen Yao, Wenyong Deng, Jing Chen, Liang-Jih Chao
  • Patent number: 8365125
    Abstract: Disclosed are systems and methods for electrical verification of integrated circuits. Methodologies are described for verification of the power and ground distribution systems (PDS) for system-on-a-chip (SoC) and the verification of the interaction of the PDS with the behavior of integrated circuits.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 19, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2013
    Assignee: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Steffen Rochel, David Overhauser, Gregory Steele, Kung Hsu
  • Patent number: 8358828
    Abstract: A method, system, and computer program product for preprocessing a pattern in a library of patterns and querying a preprocessed library of patterns are disclosed. Embodiments for querying a preprocessed library of patterns are disclosed for determining a distance between the representation for the first pattern and the representation for the second pattern, determining whether the distance between the representation for the first pattern and the representation for the second pattern is within the range for the first pattern, and transforming the second pattern with the transformation matrix to provide information about the second pattern.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 22, 2013
    Assignee: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Srini Doddi, Junjiang Lei, Kuang-Hao Lay, Weiping Fang
  • Publication number: 20130018644
    Abstract: A method and system for controlling granularity of transaction recording and visualizing system performance and behavior in a discrete functional verification software simulation environment is disclosed. According to one embodiment, a simulation of a model is run in a discrete event simulation system for a period of time. During the simulation, statistical values of attribute for a plurality of transactions occurring during the period of time are monitored. Based on a granularity setting, a group of consecutive transactions is grouped into a super transaction, and the statistical values representing the super transaction are recorded to represent the group of transactions. The super transactions are visualized in a visualization tool for analyzing the performance of the model.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 15, 2011
    Publication date: January 17, 2013
    Applicant: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Vincent Motel, Neeti Bhatnagar, George F. Frazier, William W. LaRue, JR.
  • Patent number: 8352235
    Abstract: A method for modeling power management in an integrated circuit (IC) includes: specifying a circuit design and a power architecture for the IC, the power architecture including a plurality of power domains for specifying power levels in different portions of the IC; determining an emulation module for the IC by including one or more hardware elements for modeling the power architecture in the emulation module; and using the emulation module to simulate changing power levels in one or more power domains of the IC including a power shutoff in at least one power domain.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2013
    Assignee: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Tsair-Chin Lin, Bing Zhu, Platon Beletsky
  • Patent number: 8352999
    Abstract: A method of storing secret data in a shared computing environment includes defining secret data, such as a password and administration policies according to a schema of a directory server such as a LDAP server. The secret data and administration polices are centrally stored on the LDAP server. The secret data can be encrypted. Administration polices include authorization and authentication policies, and a security zone can be defined for a collection of entities with a common security characteristic, such as a common password. A security zone defines a group of users and the secret data that can be accessed by the group of users. Multiple security zones can be defined. The secret data can be accessed directly from the server of the directory service without accessing another server or data store assuming the administration policies are satisfied.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2013
    Assignee: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Kaijun Zhan, James Harper
  • Patent number: 8352906
    Abstract: Disclosed are a method, system, and computer program product for implementing external domain independent modeling framework in a system design. In some embodiments, the method or system comprises importing an external model in an external format into the framework while substantially preserving some or all of the interpretation of the external model, determining a internal common representation for the external model within the framework, and displaying or storing the internal common representation in a tangible computer readable medium. In some embodiments, the method or system further comprises validating the accuracy of the internal common representation, determining an analysis or transformation capability for the framework, or outputting a first output model in a second external format. In various embodiments, the method or system requires no external tool compliance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2013
    Assignee: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Yaron Kashai, Stavros Tripakis, Felice Balarin
  • Patent number: 8347248
    Abstract: A method and system to insert redundant vias while preserving timing is disclosed. The system and method preserve the timing during redundant via insertion, which utilizes incremental timing and extraction updates. A budgeting based approach and a path based approach to the method are disclosed. The budgeting approach is faster, while the path based method has a better insight of the worst slack/slew for the entire design.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2013
    Assignee: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Tatjana Serdar, Olivier Omedes
  • Patent number: 8347261
    Abstract: Disclosed is an improved mechanism and method for implementing electronic designs. According to some approaches, a method, mechanism, and compute program product is disclosed for implementing electronic designs that allows visual editing of complex objects with advanced editing features, which also provides for automated correspondence of the editing results to parametric values for a programmable object in the design.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2013
    Assignee: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Arnold Ginetti, Theodore Alan Paone, Gerard Tarroux, Jim Newton, Jean-Noel Pic
  • Patent number: 8344925
    Abstract: A system and method are provided for adaptively controlling timing in SAR ADC of a sampled analog signal within a conversion period. A state machine maintains a set of SAR states including a sampling state and a plurality of bit conversion states. A reference generator generates a quantization level reference for each of the bit conversion states within a parametric settling time thereof. A comparator compares the sampled analog signal with the quantization level reference over a parametric propagation time for determining a hit value for each hit conversion state. A clock generator adaptively defines signals for clocking the state machine and comparator for each SAR state, thereby adaptively delaying bit determination in each bit conversion state by an integration period not less than the settling time, while adaptively delaying quantization level reference generation for a next bit conversion state by a regeneration period not less than the propagation time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2013
    Assignee: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
    Inventor: William Pierce Evans
  • Patent number: 8341572
    Abstract: A system and method are disclosed for waveform based variational static timing analysis. A circuit is divided into its linear circuit parts and non-linear circuit parts and modeled together, by a combination of linear modeling techniques, into linear equations that may be represented by matrices. The linear equations in matrix form may be readily solved by a computer such that an input waveform to an input pin of the circuit can be sequentially “pushed” through the various interconnects and logic networks of the circuit to an output pin. Output voltage waveforms are obtained at each stage of the waveform pushing and may be used to perform static timing analysis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2012
    Assignee: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Saurabh K. Tiwary, Joel R. Phillips, Igor Keller