System for calculating and displaying user-defined output parameters describing behavior of subcircuits of a simulated circuit

摘要

An improved circuit simulator interface permits a user to define one or more output parameters describing behavior of hierarchically-defined subcircuits of a circuit. The user defines each output parameter by a hierarchial expression including one or more primitive output parameters generated by a simulator when simulating the circuit or other user-defined output parameters describing behavior of subcircuits of the circuit. Once the circuit simulator has simulated the circuit and has generated the primitive output parameter values, the simulator interface responds to a user request to display the value of a selected user-defined output parameter by decomposing the hierarchical parameter expression defining the selected output parameter to an expression combining only primitive parameter values. The simulator interface then evaluates the decomposed expression using primitive parameter values generated by the simulator and displays the result.