Patents by Inventor Frank Armbruster

Frank Armbruster has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 9098637
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to a method for verifying a digital design using a computing device. The method may include determining one or more tests associated with verifying the digital design and generating, using the computing device, a verification result by performing one or more verification runs on the digital design. The method may further include merging coverage data generated by the one or more verification runs and ranking the one or more tests based upon, at least in part, a first verification run having a first configuration and a second verification run having a second configuration, wherein the first and second configurations differ.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2015
    Assignee: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Bijaya Kumar Sahu, Frank Armbruster, Hannes Froehlich, Sandeep Pagey
  • Patent number: 8560985
    Abstract: In one embodiment of the invention, a method for verification of an integrated circuit design is disclosed. The method includes independently executing simulation runs in response to a plurality of coverage models to respectively generate a plurality of coverage data for a plurality of functional blocks within one or more integrated circuit designs; generating a target coverage model to selectively merge at least first coverage data associated with a first coverage model and second coverage data associated with a second coverage model; and in response to the target coverage model and the plurality of simulation runs, selectively projecting the plurality of coverage data into a merged coverage data result associated with the target coverage model. The method may further store the merged coverage data results into a storage device. The plurality of simulation runs may include at least one functional simulation run and at least one formal verification run.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 6, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2013
    Assignee: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Bijaya Sahu, Sandeep Pagey, Frank Armbruster, Hannes Froehlich
  • Patent number: 8413088
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for producing a verification of digital circuits are provided. In an exemplary embodiment on the invention, a plurality of verification scopes of an integrated circuit design as defined as part of a verification plan. A plurality of verification runs are executed within two or more verification scopes defined by the verification plan. At least two verification runs are selected to merge verification results together. Like named scenarios are merged together for each verification scope to generate merged verification results that are then stored into a merge database. A verification report is generated for the integrated circuit design from the merged verification results. A merge point may be specified so like named subtrees and subgroups may be merged across different verification scopes of selected verification runs. The merge point may combine check and coverage results obtained during simulation with check and coverage results obtained during formal verification.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2013
    Assignee: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Frank Armbruster, Sandeep Pagey, F. Erich Marschner, Dan Leibovich, Alok Jain, Axel Scherer, Yaron Peri-Glass
  • Patent number: 7353159
    Abstract: The present invention generally relates to hardware development and design, and in particular it relates to a method for simulating hardware. A meta model (22) is compiled for integrating a plurality of n different instantiations (12A, . . . 12N) of the same hardware model, and facilities and signals of different instantiations are resolved by instantiation-specific name space specifications in a code switch (24,26). Thus, computing time is saved because by simulating the meta model, the processor resources, for instance, storage spaces, are utilized more efficiently.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 2002
    Date of Patent: April 1, 2008
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Frank Armbruster, Bodo Eberhard Hoppe, Johannes Koesters, Klaus-Dieter Schubert
  • Publication number: 20020173943
    Abstract: The present invention generally relates to hardware development and design, and in particular it relates to a method for simulating hardware. A meta model (22) is compiled for integrating a plurality of n different instantiations (12A, . . . 12N) of the same hardware model, and facilities and signals of different instantiations are resolved by instantiation-specific name space specifications in a code switch (24,26). Thus, computing time is saved because by simulating the meta model, the processor resources, for instance, storage spaces, are utilized more efficiently.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 15, 2002
    Publication date: November 21, 2002
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Frank Armbruster, Bodo Eberhard Hoppe, Johannes Koesters, Klaus-Dieter Schubert
  • Publication number: 20020156608
    Abstract: The present invention relates to hardware design and simulation thereof. In particular, it relates to a method and system for verifying hardware designs. It is basically proposed to provide a plurality of instruments, i.e., a kind of testcase language, which is able to simplify the hardware verification work. Each of the language elements contributes specifically to the general aim of the present invention, i.e., to improve the management of test cases and their execution. For example, a construct language element is provided which is able to be filled up with technical information about one or more hardware logic functions, and which checks their functionality by its own, returning an error value. Thus, the advantage results that due to the systematic management of testcases an efficient testcase generation and execution can be performed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 17, 2002
    Publication date: October 24, 2002
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Frank Armbruster, Stefan Koerner, Karin Rebmann