Patent ID: 8578322

Claim:
A method to create an integrated circuit that includes digital and analog components comprising: displaying on a computer system display, user input to the computer system that specifies configuration information for a circuit design block; wherein the circuit design block includes an instance path that includes a subcircuit instance on the path and that includes a leaf cell on the path; and wherein the configuration information specifies analog simulator use for a subcircuit instance on the path and that specifies a digital simulator use for a leaf cell on the path; saving the user specified configuration information in computer readable storage non-transitory media within a first file that also includes the circuit design block; and associating the circuit design block specified in the first file with an integrated circuit design stored in computer readable storage non-transitory medium; tagging the subcircuit instance and the leaf cell within the circuit design block based upon the specified configuration information to indicate that an analog simulator should be used to simulate the subcircuit instance and that a digital simulator should be used to simulate the leaf cell.