Patent ID: 7246339
Filing Date: 2007-07-17
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method of expanding a library of known structured ASIC equivalents of FPGA logic functions, which library can be reused in designing multiple different structured ASIC products that are respectively equivalent to multiple differently programmed FPGAs, each of the known structured ASIC equivalents that are already in the library having an associated characteristic value that is a characteristic of the FPGA logic function for which it is an equivalent, the associated characteristic values being stored in the library with the known structured ASIC equivalents, the method comprising: computing the characteristic value for a logic function in an FPGA logic design; using the characteristic value to determine whether the library already contains any known structured ASIC equivalents of the logic function by comparing the characteristic value from the computing to the characteristic values that are stored in the library; determining a structured ASIC equivalent of the logic function; and adding the structured equivalent from the determining to the library if the using did not find any known structured ASIC equivalents of the logic function already in the library or if the structured ASIC equivalent from the determining is different from and no less efficient than any known structured ASIC equivalent of the logic function that is already in the library.