Patent ID: 8099694

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving input that includes a selection as to a first device package for a first integrated circuit and a selection as to a second device package for a second integrated circuit and wherein resources on the first device package differ from resources on the second device package; determining a correspondence between the resources on the first device package and the resources on the second device package, wherein the determining includes verifying resource assignments received as input against rules regarding legality of resource assignments; and storing the determined correspondence in a device database, wherein the resources on the first and the second device packages include input/output pins and the correspondence constrains the resources on the second device package which are available for selection, wherein the determining includes creating at least a partial design for a virtual device package with input/output pins, wherein the input/output pins in the virtual device package are a superset of the input/output pins on the first device package, and wherein at least one method operation is executed by a processor.