Annotating Isolated Signals in IC Design
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Solution Overview
Problem
In low power integrated circuit (IC) designs, power domain crossing signals are difficult to identify and manage due to the lack of visual indicators in conventional Hardware Definition Language (HDL) specifications, leading to potential incorrect behavior and debugging challenges.
Innovation Solution
Annotating power domain crossing signals with visual indicators in source code, schematic, and waveform views to depict relationships with isolation cells, showing their states, which helps users understand and debug IC designs effectively.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If power domain crossing signals are managed using conventional HDL specifications without visual indicators, then the design can be implemented with standard tools, but the signals become difficult to identify and manage, leading to debugging challenges
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies color coding to visually distinguish power domain crossing signals from other signals in the HDL specification. Different colors indicate different power domain associations, enabling designers to quickly identify and track signals that cross power domains without adding complex annotation systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary layer between the conventional HDL specification and the design analysis process. This intermediary system automatically parses HDL code, identifies power domain crossing signals, and presents them with visual indicators, thereby easing identification without requiring direct complexity in the base HDL notation.
2Productivity
If isolation cell connections are not visually indicated in source code and schematic views, then the design files remain simple and uncluttered, but designers cannot quickly grasp the correct behavior of power domain crossing signals during debugging
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary analysis of the HDL specification to identify all power domain crossing signals and their associated isolation cells before the design review or debugging phase. This pre-processing creates a map of relationships that is then presented with visual indicators, allowing designers to immediately understand signal behavior without performing complex analysis during debugging.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates visual copies or representations of the isolation cell connections and power domain relationships that are overlaid on or alongside the conventional schematic and source code views. These visual copies provide additional information about signal behavior without modifying the original design files, thereby improving debugging efficiency without adding permanent complexity to the design representation.
3Loss of information
If the states of isolation cells are not displayed, then the visual representation remains simple, but users cannot understand whether the isolation cell is enabled or disabled, hindering design analysis
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses color changes in the visual indicators to represent the state of isolation cells. For example, different colors or shading levels indicate whether an isolation cell is enabled or disabled, providing immediate visual feedback about the operational state without requiring complex notation or additional text descriptions.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and techniques for creating and displaying a circuit design view are described. A hardware description language (HDL) specification and a power intent specification of the circuit design can be analyzed to determine a correspondence between one or more signals in the HDL specification and one or more isolation cells in the power intent specification. The correspondence can be stored in a memory of a computer, and can be used for annotating a visual representation of a signal in a circuit design view based on a corresponding isolation cell. Next, the circuit design view with the annotated visual representation of the signal can be displayed.