Patent Document ID: 7536288
Application ID: 10750590

Base Claim:
1. A method of reporting simulation data obtained by the simulation of an electronic design within a data processing system, said method comprising: a simulator running a testcase against a simulation model of the electronic design, wherein: the simulation model is formed of representations of instances of a plurality of design entities, the instances of the design entities contain a plurality of signals and functional logic that define functional operation of the electronic design, each instance of at least a particular design entity of the plurality of design entities contains an instance of an instrumentation entity that monitors the containing instance of the particular design entity but does not contribute to functional operation of the electronic design, and each instance of the instrumentation entity contains a trace array logically coupled to receive a monitored signal set including at least one signal among the plurality of signals, wherein the trace array is further logically coupled to receive a control signal among the plurality of signals; recording trace data for the monitored signal set within the trace array during the running of the testcase, wherein the recording includes concurrently storing within the trace array multiple values of the monitored signal set obtained over multiple cycles of functional operation of the simulation model, wherein recording trace data includes: recording, within the trace array, values assumed by the monitored signal set during only those cycles of functional operation during which the control signal is asserted and refraining from recording values assumed by the monitored signal set during those cycles of functional operation during which the control signal is not asserted, such that no values assumed by the monitored signal set are recorded for those cycles of functional operation during which the control signal is not asserted; and recording within the trace array a number of functional cycles elapsed between said values assumed by the monitored signal set; exporting said trace data from said trace array in a trace file and storing said trace file in data storage.

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Claim 8:
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein said storing comprises: for each of a plurality of simulation runs, grouping all trace files from that simulation run in a respective one of a plurality of file system subdirectories that are each dedicated to one of the plurality of simulation runs.