The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 14, 1999
Filed:
Nov. 20, 1997
Su Yin, Pittsburgh, PA (US);
Jonathan Cagan, Pittsburgh, PA (US);
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA (US);
Abstract
The present invention is directed to a method of, and apparatus for, solving a packing or layout problem by applying a pattern based search technique to an initial component configuration. By interactively working through a series of new or 'then current' configurations, an optimal component configuration is determined based on a predetermined criterion. According to one embodiment of the invention, at least one perturbation is introduced during the course of the search. The perturbation may be introduced by swapping component positions, increasing move size, or any other activity which breaks or interrupts the pattern of a normal pattern based search.