Patent ID: 9697314
Date: 2017-07-04
CPC Classifications: G06F

Claim:
1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions for an integrated circuit (IC) design tool that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method for identifying and using slices in an IC design flow, the method comprising: identifying a slice in a register-transfer level (RTL) description of an IC design, wherein the slice is a portion of the IC design that occurs at multiple locations in the IC design with a similar timing context, and wherein each occurrence of the slice in the IC design is a slice instance of the slice; creating and maintaining (1) a slice data structure that includes information about the slice, (2) a slice instance data structure for each slice instance of the slice that includes information about the slice instances of the slice, and (3) bidirectional links between the slice data structure and each slice instance data structure; and using the bidirectional links to preserve logical and physical similarity among the slice instances of the slice as the IC design progresses through an IC design flow, by: