Patent ID: 6954910

Claim:
A method for producing a circuit description of a design, the method comprising: a) from the design, selecting a first candidate sub-network that includes multiple circuit elements; b) generating a parameter based on a set of output Boolean functions performed by the first selected candidate sub-network; c) using the parameter to retrieve a first replacement sub-network from a storage structure that stores replacement sub-networks, wherein the first replacement sub-network comprises multiple circuit elements; d) determining whether to replace the first selected candidate sub-network with the first replacement sub-network in the design; e) if determined to replace the first selected candidate sub-network, replacing the first selected candidate sub-network with the first replacement sub-network in the design; f) from the design, selecting a second candidate sub-network that includes at least one but not all circuit elements of the first replacement sub-network; and g) replacing the second candidate sub-network in the design with a second replacement sub-network from the storage structure.