Patent ID: 7181383

Claim:
A method of simulating a circuit having a hierarchical data structure, comprising: representing the circuit as a hierarchically arranged set of branches, including a root branch and a plurality of other branches logically organized in a graph; the hierarchically arranged set of branches including a first branch that includes one or more leaf circuits and a second branch that includes one or more leaf circuits; wherein the first branch and second branch are interconnected in the graph through a third branch at a higher hierarchical level in the graph than the first and second branches; creating a static database in accordance with a netlist description of the circuit, the static database including topology information of the circuit; selecting a group circuit for simulation, the group circuit comprises one or more leaf circuits selected from the first branch and the second branch; creating a dynamic database for representing the group circuit, the dynamic database including references to corresponding branches of the hierarchical data structure in the static database for fetching topology information dynamically during simulation; and simulating the group circuit in accordance with the dynamic database.