Patent ID: 6154874
Filing Date: 2000-11-28
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A method for routing connections between pins in a net, said method comprising the steps of:a. identifying elementary pairs of pins in the net, each such elementary pair defining a line;b. eliminating lines such that a planar graph is formed;c. eliminating further lines such that a spanning tree is formed, said spanning tree connecting each pin in the net;d. identifying basic elements, each basic element forming a portion of said spanning tree;e. constructing a connected cover for said net, said connected cover comprising a plurality of said basic elements; andf. routing between pins of the net in accordance with said connected cover,wherein said elementary pairs are identified by (1) determining for each pin in said net a relative x-coordinate and a relative y-coordinate, (2) constructing for each pin a combined binary coordinate as a function of the pin's relative x-coordinate and relative y-coordinate, (3) ordering the pins in accordance with their respective combined binary coordinates, (4) iteratively combining the pins based on similarity of their combined binary coordinates to form combined pins that are arranged in a hierarchical structure, and (5) iteratively expanding the combined pins to obtain the pins that were combined to form said combined pins and checking for elementary pairs at said expansion iterations.