JP2003228595A - Database and method for designing integrated circuit device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enhance design efficiency by reusing a design database for an integrated circuit device accumulated with a design data effective for reuse, and the design data. <P>SOLUTION: Processing for quality authentication 5 is carried out in every step of a function designing step 1 and mount-facilitating design steps 2, 3. A quality authentication rule used in the each quality authentication 5 is generated from a design rule database 9 by processing in quality authentication rule generation 6. The design data (function design data 16) provided in the respective steps of the function designing step 1 and mount-facilitating design steps 2, 3, and informations and the like (design addition information 17) as to the processing of the quality authentication 5 in the steps are stored in the design database 8, in every finish of the respective steps. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of designing an integrated circuit device and a database used for designing the integrated circuit device, and more particularly to a design technique for reuse design.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Reuse of existing design data has been promoted in order to improve the efficiency of integrated circuit design, and the same function is provided so that design data of an integrated circuit device can be flexibly used for reusable design. A design method has been devised in which each module is stored in a database as a plurality of design data for each implementation method of each stage such as specification, operation, and register transfer level, and the design data according to the design hierarchy is extracted and used. For example, a VCDB (Virtual Core Database) disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-123061 is known. In addition, methods such as source code level syntax / constraint checking and source code coverage calculation have been used as means for verifying the quality of reuse design data stored in a database.

[0003]

In recent years, it has become necessary to improve development efficiency by performing designing for mounting an integrated circuit device upstream. That is, it is necessary to add a description for controlling not only the function but also the ease of mounting and the performance at the time of mounting to the functional design data of each level such as the operation, the specification, or the RTL. Therefore, from one piece of functional design data, the derivation by the test at the mounting stage, the power consumption, and the description about the clock supply will occur. The design constraints of the derived design data are not necessarily the same, and the mounting design to be selected differs depending on the required specifications of the user side. Since the conventional database for reuse design cannot handle the differences due to this implementation design, and the quality verification means of the functional design data cannot reflect the differences in the constraints due to the implementation design, appropriate quality verification is performed. There is a problem that there is no. Further, there is a problem that the reuse of design data that does not conform to the required specifications cannot be expected to improve the design efficiency.

In view of these problems, the present invention provides a design database of an integrated circuit device in which design data effective for reuse and a design database effective for reuse can be obtained to improve design efficiency. A method of designing a circuit device is provided.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, an integrated circuit device design database according to the present invention stores design data generated by execution of a design method for an integrated circuit device. A device design database, wherein the design method comprises (a) a functional design step of generating design data for realizing required functional specifications; and (b) design data generated in the functional design step or other The design data generated in the ease-of-implementation design step of (1) includes one or more ease-of-implementation design steps for changing the design to achieve a predetermined purpose. It is characterized in that the design data generated in each of the optimization design steps is stored for each design step.

This design database stores the design data generated in each of the functional design step and one or more design facilitating design step in the design method of the integrated circuit device for each design step. It is possible to store design data that reflects the differences in the design rules in. That is, according to this design database, design data according to a desired design rule can be extracted and reused, and design efficiency can be improved.

Further, it is preferable that the design database stores quality certification information relating to quality certification processing applied to the design data in association with the design data. Thus, by giving a desired quality certification condition to the design database, it becomes possible to extract design data that matches the quality certification condition, and it is possible to further improve design efficiency.

According to the design method including the step of extracting the design data associated with the quality certification information from the design database by giving the desired quality certification information to the design database, the desired quality certification condition is satisfied. It is possible to reuse design data that satisfies the above condition, and it is possible to design an integrated circuit device with high efficiency.

Further, the design database stores, in association with the design data, easy-implementation design history information relating to one or a plurality of easy-implementation design steps performed until the design data is obtained. preferable. Thus, by providing a desired design history for facilitating mounting to the design database, it becomes possible to extract design data that matches the condition, and it is possible to further improve design efficiency.

According to the design method, which includes a step of extracting the design data associated with the easy-implementation design history information from the design database by providing desired easy-implementation design history information to the design database. The design data satisfying the desired design history for facilitating mounting can be reused, and efficient integrated circuit device design can be performed.

In order to achieve the above object, a method of designing an integrated circuit device according to the present invention includes a function designing step of generating design data for realizing required functional specifications, and the function designing step. Including one or a plurality of facilitating design steps for making a design change to realize a predetermined purpose with respect to the design data generated in (4) or the design data generated in other facilitating design steps. At the same time, each of the functional design step and the implementation facilitation design step (a) a function description process for describing design data according to given conditions, and (b) a quality for generating a quality certification rule according to the design step. The authentication rule generation process and (c) the design data obtained by the function description process are the quality certification rules generated by the quality certification rule generation process. Determining whether satisfy characterized in that it comprises a quality certification process.

According to this method, in each of the functional design step and the implementation facilitation design step,
It is possible to improve the quality of the integrated circuit device by performing the function description and the quality certification according to the condition given to the step and satisfying the quality required for each step.

In the design method, the quality certification rule generating process is a process of acquiring a design rule corresponding to the design step from a design rule database and generating the quality certification rule based on the acquired design rule. Therefore, it is preferable that the design rule database stores design rules and design rule application information indicating design steps to which each design rule is applied or design steps to which the design rule is not applied, in association with each other.

According to this method, a design rule database in which design rules and design rule application information indicating which design step each design rule is applied to (or not applied to) are stored in association with each other is used. By selecting the necessary design rules at each design step,
It is possible to create an appropriate quality certification rule based on the selected design rule. This also has the advantage of improving the quality certification accuracy in each design step.

Further, in the designing method, in each of the functional designing step and the implementation facilitating designing step, the design data generated in the designing step is stored in a designing database, so that the designing rule in each designing step is different. It is possible to store design data that reflects the above. That is, according to this design database, design data according to a desired design rule can be extracted and reused, and design efficiency can be improved.

Further, in the design method, it is preferable that quality authentication information relating to the quality authentication processing applied to the design data is stored in the design database in association with the design data. Thus, by giving a desired quality certification condition, it is possible to realize a design database capable of extracting design data that matches the quality certification condition, and further improve the design efficiency.

Further, the design database stores, in association with the design data, easy-implementation design history information relating to one or a plurality of easy-implementation design steps performed until the design data is obtained. preferable. Thus, by providing a desired design history for facilitating mounting, it is possible to realize a design database capable of extracting design data that matches the design history, and further improve the design efficiency.

[0018]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram conceptually showing a flow of a method for designing a function of an integrated circuit device according to this embodiment. Figure 1
As shown in FIG. 4, the function designing method of the present embodiment includes a function designing step 1 and a plurality of mounting facilitation designing steps (first mounting facilitation designing step 2 and second mounting facilitation designing step 3). Including.

The function designing step 1 is a step of designing a function for realizing a desired specification in the integrated circuit device, and includes three processes of a function description 4, a quality certification 5, and a quality certification rule generation 6.

The first easy implementation design step 2 and the second easy implementation design step 3 are the functional design step 1
This is a step for adding a function for testability and performance at the time of implementation to the configuration designed in 1. In the same way as the functional design step 1, the function description 4, the quality certification 5, and the quality certification rule generation 6 are included. Including one process.

Although this embodiment has the above-described two-steps of facilitation designing steps, the types of facilitation designing steps are determined according to the purpose or standard for facilitating the implementation. And the number is arbitrary.

The functional description 4 of the design steps 1 to 3 shown in FIG. 1 is a function (design data) that can be implemented in an integrated circuit device.
And a test bench for verifying the design data of the register transfer level (RTL) Veri.
The process is described in a description language such as log-HDL.
The processing of this functional description 4 may be performed manually, or E processing may be performed from the design data in the design step of the previous stage.
It may be performed by generating with a DA tool.

In addition, quality certification 5 in design steps 1 to 5
Is a process of checking the quality of the design data described by the function description 4 according to the quality authentication rule generated by the process of the quality authentication rule generation 6 (described later). The process of quality certification 5 is to check the grammar and syntax of the functional description, check the expected value by performing simulation using the testbench, check the source code coverage that verifies the ratio of the functional description verified during the simulation, and testbench. Model check is performed to confirm the correctness of the written specifications. When the result of the quality certification 5 does not satisfy the criteria of the quality certification rule generated by the quality certification rule generation 6, the process returns to the function description 4 and the design data is updated.

Design rules 10 are registered in the design rule database 9. The design rule 10 is, for example, as shown in FIG. 1, a grammatical rule for coding, constraints of an EDA tool, a design rule, a quality target value, and the like. Also,
The design rule database 9 also stores information (design rule application information) indicating what kind of easy-to-implement design is related (or not related) to each design rule. In the process of the quality authentication rule generation 6 of the design steps 1 to 3, the design rule 10 is selected from the design rule database 9 to generate the quality authentication rule used in the quality authentication 5 of each design step. The design rule application information is used to decide whether to select the design rule 10.

For example, as a design rule, "terminal name TC
A rule that "LK is prohibited" is registered, and as design rule application information corresponding to this rule, this design rule is designed to facilitate implementation (testability design).
It is assumed that the information indicating that it is applied to is registered. In this case, when performing the test facilitation design as the implementation facilitation design step in the design step, in the process of the quality certification rule generation 6 of the implementation facilitation design step, the condition is that "it is applied to the test facilitation design". When the design rule is retrieved from the design rule database 9, the above-mentioned design rule “terminal name TCLK is prohibited” is extracted, and the quality authentication rule can be generated based on this.

Further, for example, with respect to the design rule of "asynchronous reset prohibited", this design rule is applied to the test facilitation design, and an implementation facilitation design (low power consumption design) for the purpose of low power consumption. If the design rule application information indicating that it is not applied to the design rule database 9 is registered in the design rule database 9, in the process of the quality verification rule generation 6 of the design for testability, the quality verification rule is generated based on this design rule. You can On the other hand, in the case of low power consumption design, the quality authentication rule is generated based on a design rule other than this design rule.

In the functional design method according to the present embodiment, the design data and the test bench obtained by the processing of the functional description 4 at each stage of the design steps 1 to 3 are stored in the design database every time each design step is completed. Functional design data 16 in 8
Registered as. When the functional design data 16 is registered, the design additional information 17 of the functional design data 16 is also
It is registered in the design database 8. The additional design information 17 includes information on the processing of the quality certification 5 performed in the design step (quality certification information), design history information for facilitating mounting, and the like. Note that the quality certification information specifically includes a functional design step name, a design rule applied in that step, a suitability determination result for each design rule, a quality index value in which the degree of conformity is indexed by scoring, etc. . Also,
The implementation design history information is the functional design data 16
It is the information that shows what kind of implementation design has been done to obtain the implementation facilitation design step name, the implementation facilitation tool name applied at that step, the design rules described in the execution script, etc. including.

As described above, quality certification is performed based on different quality certification rules at all stages of the functional design step and the design facilitation design step, and each time one design step is completed, the quality certification is obtained. The point that the designed data is registered in the design database 8 is different from the conventional design method. Further, not only the design data but also the design additional information is also registered, which is different from the conventional design method.

The design database 8 has a structure in which all the design data obtained by a plurality of different design steps for modules having the same function are classified and stored for each design step. Thus, by designating necessary functions and design steps to the design database 8, it is possible to obtain appropriate design data that has been quality-certified at each design step. Therefore, if the design database 8 is used, it is possible to easily design an integrated circuit by reusing the design data.

FIG. 2 shows the design database 8 of the present invention.
In this example, the configuration of a VCDB (Virtual Core Database) 11 is used. In the VCDB 11, design data for one function is stored as one VC (virtual core) cluster 12.

The VC in the present invention is a concept different from "VC" as a virtual component which is often used synonymously with IP (functional block), and is a system L composed of one integrated block.
It is intended for SI design, and refers to data that includes reusable hardware and software. The VC cluster is a concept that represents a collection of VCs. The VCDB refers to a database used for designing using VC.

Each VC cluster 12 comprises a specification VC 13, an operation VC 14, and a plurality of RTL-VCs 15 (15a, 15b, 15c in FIG. 2). Specifications VC13
It is a VC that stores the data described in the specifications. Action V
C14 stores the data described by the operation. RTL
-VC 15 is a VC that stores data described in RTL (register transfer level).

Here, the operation is defined as allocation of software and hardware for one specification, and generally, there are a plurality of operations for one specification. RT (register transfer) can be realized by hardware for an operation, and generally, for one operation, there are several kinds of realizing methods according to differences in important parameters. There is. That is, it is common to have a plurality of operation VCs for one specification VC and a plurality of RTL-VCs for one operation VC in a hierarchical manner, but in FIG. 1 shows one operation VC 14 and a plurality of RTL-VCs 15 corresponding to one specification VC 13. However, since it can be said that both the specification and the operation represent a functional concept, it may be difficult to distinguish them. In that case, the specification and the operation may be the same hierarchy (one VC). Good.

In the case of this embodiment, the RTL-VC 15a
Has the functional design data 16 and the additional design information 17 relating to the functional design step 1 of FIG.
b has functional design data and design additional information (not shown) regarding the first implementation facilitation design step 2 in FIG. Further, the RTL-VC 15c has functional design data and design additional information (not shown) regarding the second implementation facilitation design step 3 in FIG.

The functional design data 16 of each of the RTL-VCs 15a, 15b, 15c includes the design data and the test bench in each of the design steps 1 to 3. In addition, the design additional information 17 includes, as described above, the ease-of-mounting design history and the quality certification information in each of the design steps 1 to 3. That is, in the past (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-12
The system disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3061) accumulates performance index parameters such as area, speed, or power consumption as information for selecting functional design data from a design database. Design additional information 17 corresponding to the data 16 is stored in the design database 8 (1
It is different from the above conventional system in that it is stored in 1).
Although not shown in FIG. 1 and the like, the performance index parameters used in the above conventional system are also included in the design database 8
It is also possible to have a configuration in which the functional design data is stored in (11) and the function design data can be selected according to the performance index parameter.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is conventionally necessary to individually carry out the design for facilitating mounting after taking out the design data from the design database.
Since the result of each step of the easy implementation design is stored in the design database 8, the difference is that the result of the easy implementation design can be reused. In addition, when a new design for facilitating implementation is performed on the design data extracted from the design database 8, the result may be registered in the design database 8. In this way, the most suitable design data can be retrieved and reused, reducing the design man-hours on the user side, and being able to use lean design data that does not apply unnecessary design stages. The efficiency can be improved.

Next, a concrete example of the design for facilitating mounting and its quality certification will be shown. FIG. 3 shows an example of a circuit configuration obtained in each of these steps when a two-step implementation design step of testability design and low power consumption design is performed after the function design step. In FIG. 3, the circuit configuration 18 is a configuration obtained by the functional design step 1, the circuit configuration 19 is a configuration obtained by the test facilitation design as the first implementation facilitation design step 2, and the circuit configuration 20 is a second implementation easy. This is a configuration obtained by the low power consumption test facilitation design as the optimization design step 3.

The circuit configuration 18 is a quality certification rule based on the general rule of synchronous design, which is based on constraints such as "no logic gate is placed in a clock signal path or a reset signal path".
It is quality certified.

The circuit configuration 19 is a result of the testability design based on the scan test, and is configured so that "in the scan mode, all the flip-flops are driven by the scan clock and can be reset from the outside". ing. As a quality certification rule in this design step, the rule that "the gate does not enter the clock line" is not applied. For example, the rule that "the clock is logically one system when the test mode is ON" Applied.

A circuit configuration 20 obtained by performing a design for facilitating mounting (design for reducing power consumption) for the purpose of reducing power consumption.
Puts a logic gate on the clock signal and controls the supply of the clock when the operation is unnecessary. According to the quality certification rule in this design step, the target value of the source code coverage is set low because the block to which the clock is not supplied is not executed even in the simulation, but the expected value comparison is the same as the function design step. Is applied.

As shown in the above example, the quality certification standard varies greatly depending on the design for easy implementation, and as shown in FIG. 1, the quality certification rule suitable for the design step is used for each design step. By performing the authentication, high quality integrated circuit design data can be obtained.

[0043]

According to the design method of the present invention, high-quality design data can be reused by performing quality verification and reuse of design data according to a design for facilitating mounting, and to improve the development efficiency of an integrated circuit device. The quality can be improved.

According to the design database of the present invention,
It is possible to store and use design data according to a design for facilitating mounting, and to perform flexible integrated circuit device design.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of a design flow of an integrated circuit device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a conceptual configuration example of a design database of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing changes in the circuit configuration for each design step.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Functional design step 2 First step for easy implementation design 3 Second implementation ease design step 4 Functional description 5 quality certification 6 Quality certification rule generation 7 Implementation design steps 8 design database 9 Design rule database 10 design rules 11 VCDB 12 VC cluster 13 Specifications VC 14 Working VC 15 RTL-VC 16 Functional design data 17 additional design information 18 Functional design circuit configuration 19 Circuit configuration by testability design 20 Circuit configuration by low power consumption design

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A design database of an integrated circuit device, which stores design data generated by execution of a method for designing an integrated circuit device, wherein the design method realizes (a) required functional specifications. A functional design step to generate design data,
(B) One or a plurality of implementations in which a design change for realizing a predetermined purpose is added to the design data generated in the functional design step or the design data generated in the other implementation facilitation design steps A design database of an integrated circuit device, comprising: an easy design step, wherein design data generated in each of the functional design step and the easy implementation design step is stored for each design step. 2. The design database of an integrated circuit device according to claim 1, wherein quality authentication information relating to quality authentication processing applied to the design data is stored in association with the design data. 3. The implementation facilitation design history information relating to one or a plurality of implementation facilitation design steps performed until the design data is obtained is stored in association with the design data. Design database of integrated circuit devices. 4. A functional design step of generating design data for realizing a required functional specification, and design data generated in the functional design step or other implementation facilitation design step. And make design changes to achieve the specified purpose,
One or a plurality of implementation facilitation design steps, each of the functional design step and the implementation facilitation design step (a) a functional description process for describing design data according to given conditions; and (b) The quality certification rule generation process for generating the quality certification rule according to the design step, and (c) the design data obtained by the function description process,
A method for designing an integrated circuit device, comprising: a quality authentication process for determining whether or not a quality authentication rule generated by the quality authentication rule generation process is satisfied. 5. The quality authentication rule generation process is a process of acquiring a design rule corresponding to the design step from a design rule database and generating the quality authentication rule based on the acquired design rule. The integrated circuit according to claim 4, wherein the rule database stores design rules in association with design rule application information representing design steps to which each design rule is applied or design steps to which the design rule is not applied. Equipment design method. 6. The method of designing an integrated circuit device according to claim 4, wherein in each of the functional designing step and the implementation facilitating designing step, the design data generated in the designing step is stored in a design database. 7. The method for designing an integrated circuit device according to claim 6, wherein quality authentication information relating to the quality authentication processing applied to the design data is stored in the design database in association with the design data. . 8. The ease-of-implementation design history information relating to one or a plurality of easy-to-implement design steps performed until the design data is obtained in association with the design data,
The method of designing an integrated circuit device according to claim 6, wherein the designing database is stored in the design database. 9. By providing desired quality certification information to the design database of the integrated circuit device according to claim 2,
A method for designing an integrated circuit device, comprising: extracting design data associated with the quality certification information from the design database. 10. The design data associated with the ease-of-implementation design history information is extracted from the design database by providing desired ease-of-implementation design history information to the design database of the integrated circuit device according to claim 3. A method of designing an integrated circuit device, comprising: