Patents by Inventor Thaddeus C. McCracken

Thaddeus C. McCracken 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: 9141743
    Abstract: Disclosed are methods, systems, and articles of manufactures for providing evolving information in generating a physical design with custom conductivity using force models and design space decomposition by first presenting a layout area in an interface. The interface then displays the evolution of the physical design in the interface to reflect temporal states of the physical design during generation of the physical design after the system receives an input for the physical design and a request for creating the physical design.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 22, 2015
    Assignee: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Thaddeus C. McCracken, Joseph P. Jarosz
  • Patent number: 9135373
    Abstract: Disclosed are improved methods, systems, and computer program products for implementing an interface for visualizing, generating, and optimizing an I/O ring arrangement for an electronic design. A ribbon-based interface may be employed to visually see and control the design of the I/O ring.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2015
    Assignee: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Joseph P. Jarosz, Thaddeus C. McCracken, Miles P. McGowan
  • Patent number: 9098667
    Abstract: Disclosed are methods, systems, and articles of manufactures for implementing a physical design with force directed placement or floorplanning and layout decomposition by identifying multiple nodes and then iteratively generating multiple cells by using the multiple nodes in a decomposition process and applying force model(s) to iteratively morph the cells until convergence criteria are satisfied to generate a layout or floorplan of an electronic design without requiring complete conductivity for the electronic design. The initially identified custom conductivity information is maintained throughout this iterative process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2015
    Assignee: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Thaddeus C. McCracken, Joseph P. Jarosz
  • Patent number: 9043742
    Abstract: Disclosed are methods, systems, and articles of manufactures for implementing physical designs by using multiple force models to iteratively morph a layout decomposition. In addition to attractive force model(s) or repulsive force model(s), the physical implementation also uses a containment force model for grouping multiple design blocks or for confining a node of a cell within the boundary of a container. Another aspect is directed at deriving a first force model at the first hierarchical level from a second force model at the second hierarchical level by directly modifying the second model based at least in part on characteristic(s) of the first hierarchical level and of the second hierarchical level. In a design with multiple hierarchies, a cell-based force model is also used to ensure child nodes of a parent cell stay within a close proximity of the parent node of the parent cell.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2015
    Assignee: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
    Inventor: Thaddeus C. McCracken
  • Patent number: 8918751
    Abstract: Disclosed are methods, systems, and articles of manufactures for implementing physical design decomposition with custom conductivity by identifying custom, incomplete conductivity for an electronic design, partitioning a physical design space multiple non-overlapping cells, and iteratively moving at least some of the nodes of these multiple cells to generate a floorplan or a placement layout until one or more convergence criteria are satisfied while maintaining the custom, incomplete conductivity. The floorplan or a placement layout generated resembles the final floorplan obtained through a floorplanner or the final placement layout through a placement tool without requiring that complete conductivity information be provided to the floorplanner or placement tool.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 23, 2014
    Assignee: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
    Inventor: Thaddeus C. McCracken
  • Patent number: 8677307
    Abstract: Disclosed are improved methods, systems, and computer program products for visualizing and estimating IC die arrangement for an electronic design, and for performing chip planning and estimation based upon the estimated and visualized IC die arrangements. According to some approaches, an interface is provided for visualizing different die arrangement options for an electronic design, in which a filmstrip view is provided to display smaller images of different die arrangement options, and a central viewing area is provided to view a larger image of a selected candidate die arrangement. The different images, whether smaller or larger images, are maintained with design object information and not just static images. This allows for selection and highlighting of individual objects within the die arrangement images, as well as corresponding highlighting of that same object in other images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 18, 2014
    Assignee: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Joseph P. Jarosz, Thaddeus C. McCracken
  • Patent number: 8549457
    Abstract: Disclosed is an improved method, system, and computer program product for performing core placement when presented with an I/O ring design. A multi-pass approach is taken to place and shape core objects into the available core area formed by the inner surface of the I/O ring. The multi-pass approach permits very fast placement of the core objects, which still provides for an accurate estimation of the die size and configuration requirements for the electronic design. Moreover, the present approach allows core objects to be placed in a way that retains any preferred affinities for the objects to be located near other objects, e.g., near specific I/Os on the I/O ring.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 1, 2013
    Assignee: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Timothy P. Moore, Thaddeus C. McCracken