IDENTIFYING HIERARCHICAL CHIP DESIGN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY THROUGH DIGESTS

摘要

One method implementation disclosed includes detecting matching leaf cells that have functionally identical designs (optionally, similar designs) and assigning matching names for the matching leaf cells to replace original, non-matching names. Optionally, digests can be calculated for the leaf cells and used to detect similarities and/or differences. The matching names are propagated to at least some higher-level cells in the hierarchical design, in place of the original names. The method can further include calculating digests for at least some of the higher level cells after the propagating of the matching names into the higher level cells. Various design matching technologies can be used in combination with cell renaming and new name propagation, not limited to use of digests. Dependency chains can be calculated to improve propagation of names through the hierarchy.

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method of evaluating similarity of cells used in a hierarchical design of a circuit device, the method including:
calculating digests for at least some leaf cells in the hierarchical design, using a processor, wherein the leaf cells do not contain references to other cells in the design; detecting matching leaf cells that have functionally identical designs using the calculated digests; assigning matching names to the matching leaf cells to replace original, non-matching names of the matching leaf cells; propagating the matching names to higher level cells in the hierarchical design in place of the original names of the matching leaf cells; and calculating digests for at least some of the higher level cells after the propagating of the matching names into the higher level cells.