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:
May. 06, 2003
Filed:
Jun. 30, 1999
John G McBride, Ft Collins, CO (US);
Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P., Houston, TX (US);
Abstract
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for evaluating nodes in an integrated circuit to determine whether or not networks containing the nodes meet certain design criteria. The method and apparatus of the present invention are embodied in a rules checking system which evaluates the nodes in the integrated circuit to determine whether or not the networks in the integrated circuit comply with the design rules. Compliance with any particular rule is verified by performing one or more checks on the particular node being evaluated. Some checks require less time to perform than others. In some cases, the result of a single check can provide a determination as to whether or not the network containing the node being evaluated complies with the rule associated with the particular check. Furthermore, some checks are less expensive in terms of the amount of time required to perform them than other checks. Therefore, it is desirable to prioritize the order in which the checks associated with a particular rule are performed so that the rules checking tasks are performed with maximum efficiency. The rules checking system of the present invention prioritizes the checks so that efficiency in the overall rules checking process is maximized.