Incremental Compilation for Electronic Design Automation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Electronic design automation (EDA) tools require significant time to process large systems, especially when only localized changes are made, as they often re-process the entire system, which is inefficient and can lead to unfavorable design changes.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of preservation criteria and constraints to identify and preserve unmodified portions of a system, allowing for incremental compilation by reusing previous design results and pruning data structures to reduce compilation runtime.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If EDA tools re-process the entire system from scratch, then design completeness is ensured, but compilation time increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the design system into preservable and non-preservable portions based on modification status. The compilation process is segmented to process only non-preservable portions while reusing results from preservable portions, thereby reducing compilation time while maintaining design completeness through selective preservation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary identification of preservable portions before the main compilation process. By pre-determining which portions can be preserved and storing their design results, the system avoids re-processing these portions, thus reducing compilation time while ensuring that preservation decisions are made with complete information.
2Loss of time
If EDA tools preserve unmodified portions of the system, then compilation time is reduced, but design stability may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements feedback mechanisms where design results from preserved portions are validated against the current design state. The system continuously monitors whether preserved portions remain compatible with modifications in non-preservable portions, ensuring design stability while maintaining compilation time savings through incremental updates.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent makes the preservation status dynamic rather than static. Portions that were previously preservable may become non-preservable if their compatibility changes, and vice versa. This dynamic adjustment ensures design stability while optimizing compilation time by adapting preservation decisions to the current design state.
3Productivity
If preservation constraints are applied to unmodified portions, then compilation efficiency improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and removes preservable portions from the active compilation data structures, storing them separately. This extraction reduces the complexity of data structures that need to be processed during compilation while maintaining compilation efficiency through selective reprocessing of only non-preservable portions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a new dimension to the compilation process by adding preservation status as an additional attribute to design portions. This dimensional change allows the system to track and manage preservable portions separately, improving compilation efficiency without significantly increasing the complexity of core data structures.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for designing a system on a target device includes identifying candidate portions in the system to preserve based on similarities between the system and another system. Preservation criteria are applied on the candidate portions in the system to preserve to identify portions of the system to preserve. Design results from the another system are reused for portions in the system that are preserved.