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:
Apr. 09, 2002
Filed:
Feb. 02, 1999
Eugene Weddle, San Jose, CA (US);
Roy Wen, San Jose, CA (US);
Bernard E. Stewart, Fremont, CA (US);
Singh Shashij, San Jose, CA (US);
Oak Technology, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
The present invention simulates the behavior of a storage component by first determining whether a timing violation has occurred for the storage component. If one or more timing violations is detected, then an x (indicating uncertainty) is reflected at the output of the storage component. This x is maintained at the output of the storage component for a predetermined number of timing units. After the predetermined number of timing units has expired, the output of the storage component is changed from x to a certain value, such as a logical 1 or a logical 0. By changing the output to a certain value, the present invention prevents the x at the output of the storage component from indefinitely propagating to other components in the circuit. This in turn prevents large numbers of x's from appearing in the simulation results provided to the designer. Instead, values that are certain will appear in the results. Because these values are certain, they can be used by the designer to determine whether the rest of the circuit operated properly.