Patent ID: 7392169

Claim:
A method of simulation processing in a data processing system, said method comprising: receiving, within instrumentation code, one or more statements describing a plurality of count events each corresponding to a respective sequence of signal values within a design entity of an HDL simulation model representing a design to be simulated, the plurality of count events including a first count event and a second count event, wherein the instrumentation code identifies said first count event as an outlying count event that is one of a set consisting of a minimum count event and a maximum count event and the second count event is not identified as an outlying count event in the instrumentation code; simulating the design utilizing the HDL simulation model, wherein the simulating includes separately counting occurrences of each of said plurality of count events to obtain a respective count event value for each of said plurality of count events; reporting simulation result data obtained from said simulating, wherein said simulation result data includes said count event values of said plurality of count events, and wherein said simulation result data indicates that the count event value of the outlying count event is associated with one of the set consisting of a minimum count event and a maximum count event; and in response to receipt of said simulation result data, recording said count event values within a data storage subsystem, wherein said recording includes: in response to the simulation result data indicating the count event value of the outlying count event is associated with one of the set consisting of a minimum count event and a maximum count event, determining whether said count event value of said outlying count event exceeds a previously reported count event value for said outlying count event; responsive to a determination of whether said count event value of said outlying count event exceeds the previously reported count event value of the outlying count event, replacing said previously reported count event value of the outlying count event with said count event value of the outlying count event reported in the simulation result data.