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:
Oct. 30, 2001
Filed:
Mar. 31, 1999
Ajay Khoche, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Harbinder Singh, San Jose, CA (US);
Dhiraj Goswami, Mountain View, CA (US);
Denis Martin, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Synopsys, Inc., Mountain View, CA (US);
Abstract
A method of and system for inserting test points within an integrated circuit design. According to the present invention, test points are inserted early in the electronic design process and prior to logic synthesis such that the problem of design constraint violation can be avoided. One embodiment of the present invention includes the computer implemented steps of receiving an unmapped netlist of an integrated circuit design, and receiving from an external source, data that indicates the location and the desired functionality of the test point to be inserted. Thereafter, the present invention inserts a generic test point circuit at the indicated location and generates a modified unmapped netlist. Subsequently, the present invention performs a logic synthesis process on the modified unmapped netlist where the generic test point circuit is degenerated into an actual test point circuit for performing the desired functionality. The actual test point circuit may also be merged with other circuitries of the integrated circuit to produce a more efficient design.