Patent ID: 6754879
Filing Date: 2004-06-22
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A method for providing a behavioral description of a circuit design, the method comprising the steps of:a. providing a template behavioral description, wherein the template behavioral description models a selected portion of the circuit design; b. instantiating a number of template calls in the behavioral description of the circuit design by incorporating the template call into the behavioral description of the circuit design a number of times, thereby resulting in a number of template instantiations, each of the template instantiations including a reference to the corresponding template behavioral description; c. identifying the template calls in the behavioral description of the circuit design that correspond to each of the template instantiations; d. incorporating the behavioral description that corresponds to each of the template instantiations into the behavioral description of the circuit design; e. wherein the behavioral description of the circuit design is stored in a file, and each of the template calls is positioned at a selected location in the file; f. wherein said incorporating step (d) incorporates the template behavioral description at the selected locations in the file that correspond to the template calls; g. wherein said incorporating step 18(d) further includes the step of providing a template marker at each of the selected locations in the file that correspond to the template calls; h. synthesizing the behavioral description of the circuit design into a hierarchical detailed description of the circuit design; i. wherein said synthesizing step results in a number of hierarchical elements, wherein each of the number of hierarchical elements corresponding to one of the template instantiations; j. wherein each of the number of hierarchical elements implements the template behavioral description, and results in a hierarchical detailed description; k. wherein at least a first and second one of the number of hierarchical elements reference a common placement database; l. wherein the first one of the hierarchical elements is placed using a floorplanning tool; m. wherein the first one of the hierarchical elements includes a number of sub-elements; n. wherein selected ones of the number of sub-elements of the first one of the hierarchical elements are placed using the floorplanning tool, and the common placement database is updated to reflect the placement of the sub-elements of the first one of the hierarchical elements; o. placing the second one of the hierarchical elements; p. wherein the second one of the hierarchical elements includes a number of sub-elements, whereby the number of sub-elements of the second one of the hierarchical elements are located at the same relative position as the sub-elements of the first one of the hierarchical elements because the second one of the hierarchical elements references the updated common placement database.