Patent ID: 6035108
Filing Date: 2000-03-07
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
An element layout compaction device comprising:a layout change device for issuing an order to change a layout, for disassembling wiring, terminals and via-holes into elements, for assigning an identical shift aggregate number to all elements associated with terminals in a component, or each element associated with a via-hole to form a shift aggregate group, and for producing vertical ranking data indicative of the ranking of each of said elements in a vertical direction and horizontal ranking data indicative of the ranking of each of said elements in a horizontal direction;an allowable spacing calculator for producing vertical sequence data indicative of the order of each of said elements in the vertical direction from said vertical ranking data, and for producing horizontal sequence data indicative of the order of each of said elements in the horizontal direction from said horizontal ranking data, and for calculating an allowable spacing between terminals or via-holes and other adjacent terminals or via-holes;a compactor having a means for shifting and arranging said terminals and via-holes within said allowable spacing so that said terminals and via-holes may be packed in any of an upward direction, a downward direction, a leftward direction and a rightward direction, and for adding a relative limit amount of shift to a shift amount of the shift aggregate the upper neighboring element belongs to, to obtain a maximum limit amount of shift of the shift aggregate the element under processing belongs to, said relative limit amount of shift being an amount of shift in which the lower neighboring element can approach the upper neighboring element with an allowable spacing, for updating the current shift amount of the shift aggregate the element under processing belongs to, by said maximum limit amount, if the latter is below the former, to sequentially update the shift amounts of elements smaller values from infinity which is the initial value, for shifting and arranging each elements belonging same shift aggregate group together, and for moving terminals and via-holes continuously until a predetermined condition is satisfied to rearrange said terminals and via-holes such that a gap is maintained between said terminals and via-holes and said adjacent terminals and via-holes that can accommodate at least one wire;a wiring compactor for arranging said wiring so that they may be packed in any of the upward direction, the downward direction, the leftward direction and the rightward direction;a rewirer for repositioning said wiring to a position separated by at least the allowable spacing from adjacent elements;a layout data storage device for storing layout data; andan allowable-spacing data storage device for storing the allowable spacing of said terminals and via-holes.