Patent ID: 8589835

Claim:
A method for analyzing a circuit description netlist to produce a higher level description, the method comprising: analyzing a list of signal names that comprise at least a portion of the circuit description netlist according to a list of rules; grouping together signal names from the list of signal names according to similarities as defined by the list of rules; assigning at least one group of signal names to a higher-level interface definition; saving the grouped signal names in memory to produce the higher level description of the circuit description netlist based on the higher-level interface definition; receiving an indication from a user regarding acceptability of the grouping of the signal names based on a result of the analyzing; and if the grouped signal names are not yet acceptable, automatically analyzing the list of signal names at least one more time according to a modified list of rules generated in response to the received indication from the user, wherein analyzing the list of signal names according to the list of rules comprises searching for one or more character substrings within a signal name according to a syntax encompassed within a rule from among said list of rules, wherein the rule refers to one or more characteristic substring constructs that are consistent with a standard or preexisting interface definition.