Patent ID: 6577992
Filing Date: 2003-06-10
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A method of simulating the electrical behavior of a circuit using a hierarchical data structure representing the circuit, the method comprising:starting at a top level in the hierarchical data structure, a current level in the hierarchical data structure being the top level; identifying a node at the current level in the hierarchical data structure, the node being associated with a subcircuit; determining a subcircuit definition associated with the node; associating a one of a plurality of dynamic voltage states for the node from a set of states associated with the subcircuit definition, at least one of the plurality of dynamic voltage states being shared by at least two subcircuit definitions; ascertaining whether a device model calculation exists for the subcircuit definition at the associated dynamic voltage state; and if it is ascertained that a device model calculation does not exist for the subcircuit definition at the associated dynamic voltage state, moving down a level in the hierarchical data structure and repeating the steps of identifying, determining, associating, ascertaining, and moving until it is ascertained that the device model calculation for the subcircuit definition exists or the identified node is a leaf node.