Mayank Gupta

US Patent:

20060004557, Jan 5, 2006

Filed:

Jul 1, 2004

Appl. No.:

10/884471

Inventors:

Guillermo Maturana - Berkeley CA, US
Melvin Cardozo - San Jose CA, US
Mayank Gupta - Sunnyvale CA, US
Alok Kuchlous - Sunnyvale CA, US

Assignee:

Synopsys, Inc. - Mountain View CA

International Classification:

G06F 17/50

US Classification:

703014000

Abstract:

During simulation of an IC design, traces of certain signals can be generated, thereby allowing defects in the design to be detected. The traces of these signals, i.e. the target set, are typically saved in a value change file. Unfortunately, this value change file can get very large, thereby causing capacity and performance problems. A technique is described in which a subset of signals that can regenerate the target set of signals is determined. Determining the subset of signals can include identifying state elements (e.g. edge-triggered devices) and corresponding signal dependencies of the IC design. Advantageously, only this subset of signals needs to be saved in the value change file, thereby significantly reducing its size. The target set of signals can be computed on demand after reading the value change file.