Patent ID: 8504957

Claim:
A method of automatically identifying, in a specification of a netlist of a complex integrated circuit chip comprising a plurality of nets, without requiring a-prioi knowledge of which of said nets are power or ground nets, those nets that are statistically likely to be power or ground nets, said method comprising: representing said netlist in a computer readable form; using at least one computer processor, software, and memory to analyze said nets from said netlist, and for each analyzed net: a) determining electrical properties of each device or device terminal that is coupled to said analyzed net, and sorting said electrical properties for each device or device terminal into a series of bins, thereby creating a mathematical description of overall electrical properties of various devices that are coupled to said analyzed net; b) comparing said mathematical description with at least one preset mathematical description of a power net or a ground net; and if said mathematical description falls within said at least one preset mathematical description of a power net or a ground net, then at least provisionally determining that said analyzed net is a power net or a ground net, and storing a result of said determining in memory for later use.