Patent ID: 7181706

Claim:
A method of simulating an electrical circuit comprising a plurality of cells to produce simulation results, the method comprising: performing an initial evaluation of at least a sub-plurality of the plurality of cells to determine whether each of the at least a sub-plurality of the plurality of cells is active or inactive; sorting the active cells determined as a result of the initial evaluation into at least one first active cell group; sorting the inactive cells determined as a result of the initial evaluation into at least one second inactive cell group; repetitively re-evaluating said at least a sub-plurality of the plurality of cells to determine whether an activity status of each of the at least a sub-plurality of the plurality of cells has changed from active to inactive or from inactive to active; sorting cells that have changed from inactive cells to active cells into said at least one first active cell group and sorting cells that have changed from active cells to inactive cells into said at least one second inactive cells group; and processing at least some of the simulation results from the cells of the at least one first active cell group differently from the processing of at least some of the simulation results from the cells of the at least one second inactive cell group.