JPH01128165A - Parts arrangement method for printed board designing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To divide all parts into blocks of accurate logical function units by applying such a method where the key parts are processed at first as a single block to successively integrate the blocks and arranging only unarranged parts so that each relevant block can be decided in a block dividing state. CONSTITUTION:The relationship between the parts which are paired with each other in the order of smaller distances between them and their relevant block numbers is written into an exclusive table for each arranged parts. Then a table is produced to show the relationship between a selected unarranged parts and the number of wirings to each block. An unarranged parts which has a block where the number of wirings to be led to a certain block is larger than the sum of wirings led to other blocks and unarranged parts or a pair group of said unarranged parts is searched and set at a position having the shortest inter-terminal virtual wiring length together with a block number. In such a way, the blocks having the shortest distances are defined as the same block so that the number of blocks can be cut down to 1/2 in case such block that mentioned above is not available any more. This procedure is repeated. Thus the arranged parts can be divided into blocks for arrangement.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an improvement in a component placement method in analog board design for a printed circuit board design apparatus.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, there has been a printed circuit board design device that designs a pattern of a printed circuit board with the aid of a computer. FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing an example of such a device. In the figure, 91 is a processing device that performs various controls and processes for designing a printed circuit board, and here the computer CPtJ
is included. 92 is an internal bus (B L
IS) Memory that can be accessed by Kohaku, 93 is an external storage device such as a magnetic tape or magnetic disk, 94
9 is a keyboard that can input information and various commands, etc.
5 is a tablet that can input location information, commands, etc., 9
6 is a CRT display device. The external storage device 93, keyboard 94, tablet 95, and CRT display device 96 are each connected to the processing device 91 via an input/output bus (110 Bus).

The processing device 91 executes various processing programs for printed circuit board design according to input information or commands from the keyboard 94 or tablet 95. Various programs are stored in the internal memory 92 or the external storage device 93, and the processing device can read and execute them as appropriate.

The pattern design diagram is displayed on a CRT display device, and an operator can execute pattern design in an interactive manner with this device while viewing the CRT display.

With such a device, it is now possible to pattern design not only digital printed circuit boards but also analog printed circuit boards. When designing a pattern for an analog board, it is necessary to properly arrange components, and there is an automatic component placement process that automatically does this. The processing method for automatic component placement in conventional equipment groups discrete components based on their connection relationships, and then connects these groups to general ICs.
In this method, parts are allocated to slots within the placement area in the same manner as above, and then the groups are disassembled and placed so that the parts do not overlap.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] With this method, parts can be distributed almost evenly within a designated area. However, when grouping, all the parts that make up the group must be placed in one slot, but if the number of parts exceeds the maximum number of parts in the group, the parts that should be included in the group cannot be placed. However, as a result of being treated as separate groups, there is a problem that the positional relationship between individual discrete components does not match the connection relationship.

Furthermore, in analog board design, the placement positions of components are not determined from the beginning (they are subject to change from time to time during the wiring process. Therefore, a placement method that matches the actual design process is required. Ru.

In view of these points, an object of the present invention is to initially place each key component as one block and process it when dividing the components into logical functional units based on their arrangement relationships in the initial placement of the components. Then, by sequentially integrating blocks and placing only unplaced parts so that the block to which each block belongs can be determined reliably, all blocks are integrated into more accurate logical functional unit blocks. The object of the present invention is to provide a parts arrangement method that can separate products.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve such an object, the present invention provides: (1) means for creating a relationship between component pairs that are combined in order of shortest inter-component distance, each component, and the block number to which it belongs; , For the parts that have been placed in advance, write the relationship between the part pair and the block number to which the part belongs, in each dedicated table, ■ Next, use the part/block connection table creation means to write the part pair and the relationship between the part and the block number to which it belongs. A component/block connection table is created that shows the relationship between the number of wires between components and each block, and -0Next, the placement processing means calculates the number of wires to a certain block to the number of wires to other blocks and the number of unplaced wires. Find unplaced parts or groups that combine unplaced parts that have more blocks than the total number of wires to the part, and if there are multiple connection terminals near the connection terminal coordinates in that block, ■Then, if there are no unplaced parts or groups that satisfy the condition (3) above, place them at the position where the virtual wiring length is the most known between the terminals of As a result, blocks with short inter-block distance are considered to be the same block,
Halve the number of blocks, search for unplaced parts or groups that satisfy the condition (3) above, and repeat the operations from ■ to ■ above until there are no more unplaced parts, and block the placed parts. It is characterized by being able to be arranged separately.

[Example] The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the flow of the component placement method of the present invention.

1> The state before executing the component placement method of the present invention is the second state.
As shown in the explanatory diagram of the figure, a plurality of parts (initially each part is a key part) are arranged in a dispersed manner. The present invention creates an inter-component table and a component ID/block number conversion table (hereinafter abbreviated as conversion table) from this state.

As shown in FIG. 3, the inter-component table is a table in which component pairs constituting the inter-component distance are stored in order of the smallest inter-component distance for all keys. Each piece of data is a serial number (serial number) assigned to all parts, that is, a part ID value.

As shown in Figure 4, the conversion table is a table that describes which block each component belongs to, and sequential numbers are entered starting from the smallest component ID, and block numbers are assigned to unplaced components.
O is entered as .

Note that in the initial state, one block has one part.

2) Next, select one unplaced component, refer to the connection wiring information and conversion table for that component, and create a component/block connection table as shown in Figure 5. Check the number of wires and the number of wires with other unplaced parts.

In the component/block connection table shown in Figure 5,
The values in the upper row of the table are the number of connections between the selected target part (referred to as the relevant part) and each block, and the values in the lower row assume that the relevant part belongs to each block (the block shown in the upper column of the table). Indicates the total number of connections between the component and other blocks when

In any block in such a table, ■If there is a block whose upper value is greater than the total value of the lower value and the number of connections from other unplaced parts, that part is Place it on that block.

■Also, if the above conditions are not met and there is a connection with another unplaced part, group it with the connected new unplaced part, and if there is a block that satisfies the above condition Place the group in that block.

This case will be further explained using a specific example as follows. As shown in FIG. 6, block 1, block 2. Suppose there is block 3 and part △ is selected (part A
is the relevant part). The values of the component/block connection table are as shown in the same figure (b).

In other words, in the block 1 column, since the number of connections between component A and block 1 is one, 1 is set in the upper row, and the connection with other blocks when component A is assumed to belong to block 1. Since there is only one number for block 2, 1 is set in the lower row.

Next, regarding the block 2 column, since the number of connections between component A and block 2 is one, 1 is set in the upper row, and component A
Assuming that the block belongs to block 2, the number of connections with other blocks is one only for block 1, so 1 is set in the lower row.

For the last block 3 column, part A and block 3
Since there is no connection with , O is set in the upper row, and assuming that part A belongs to block 3, the number of connections with other blocks is 1 for block 1 and 1 for block 2. Therefore, 2 is set in the lower row.

Now, in this case, component A has one connection to another unplaced component (B). Therefore, since the relationship between the values in the upper and lower rows of the connection table does not satisfy the condition stated in (2) above, it does not currently belong to any block.

However, by grouping parts A and B, the values of the parts/block connection table are changed as shown in Figure 5 (
Since the value shown in (c) is obtained, and the number of connections with other unplaced components is also 0, satisfying the condition (2) above, this group can be classified as belonging to block 1.

When placed in a block in this way, the block number (block number 1 in the above example) is assigned to the part ID/block number in Fig. 4 and the placed parts (parts A and B) in the conversion table. Fill out.

Note that if a group that satisfies the above conditions cannot be created, the parts are left unplaced and the process moves on to the next part.

The actual position of the component is placed near the coordinates of the terminal if there is one connection terminal in the block, and at the position where the virtual wiring length is the shortest among the terminal coordinates if there is a plurality of connection terminals in the block. The virtual wiring length refers to the total length of each connection length when each connection terminal to be connected is connected in a straight line.

■Next, although there are no more unplaced parts (groups) that satisfy the above conditions, if there are still unplaced parts left, the blocks are integrated. Block integration is performed as follows.

First, extract the first component ID pair from the inter-component table shown in Figure 3, and set the block number to which those components belong to the fourth
Part ID/block number shown in the figure.

This is determined from the conversion table, and if the block No. 11 is different, the parts group with the larger block number is absorbed into the other block. That is, all large block numbers in the part ID/block number and conversion table in FIG. 4 are changed to other block numbers, and all block numbers larger than the large block number are decreased by 1. In this way, the component ID pairs in the inter-component table shown in FIG. 3 are processed one after another until the number of blocks is halved. In FIG. 2, the parts surrounded by solid lines become new blocks.

Block integration will be explained with reference to FIG. When part A is selected in the case shown in the same figure (a), the component/block connection table for this part is shown in the same figure (a).
b).

Part A does not currently belong to any block.

Here, block 1 and block 2 are merged to form a new block 1.
Suppose you update to . Block 3 becomes block 2. When integrated in this way, the component/block connection table has values as shown in FIG. Therefore, this part Δ can be placed in the new block 1.

After integrating the blocks in this way, in this state, search again for unplaceable parts (groups) that can be placed, place them if they are found, repeat the block re-integration process, and process when there are no more unplaced parts. end.

As described above, the components can be divided into blocks and arranged based on the mutual connection relationship between the components.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing an example of a main part of a printed circuit board design apparatus that implements the method of the present invention, particularly a portion directly related to the method of the present invention. In the figure, 10 is a processing means for performing various processes related to component placement, 20 is a control means for controlling each functional block of this processing means 10 and writing/reading of memory, 30 is an internal memory for storing data, and 4
0 is the bus.

The control means 20, the processing means 10 and the memory 3° are connected to the bus 4.
Signals and data can be exchanged via 0.

The memory 30 includes a memory 31 for an inter-component table, a memory 32 for a component ID/block number, and a conversion table.
Each memory 33 includes a memory 33 for a component/block connection table.

The processing means 10 includes an inter-component table/conversion table creation functional block 11, a component/block connection table creation functional block 12, a placement processing functional block 13 that performs processing for arranging placeable parts, and block integration. It consists of a block integration processing function block 14.

In such a configuration, the operation is as follows. The inter-component table/conversion table creation function block 11 stores the inter-component distances in the inter-component table memory 31 based on the data related to the parts arrangement that has been set in advance in the initial state (part number, position coordinates of each part, etc.). Part ID pairs are written in descending order of . Also, the part ID/block number and the conversion table are written in the part ID/block number 9 conversion table memory 32.

Next, the component/block connection table creation function block creates a component/block connection table in the memory 33 by referring to the connection wiring information in the memory 31 and the conversion table in the memory 32 for the selected unplaced component. do.

Next, the placement processing function block 13 determines based on the content of the component/block connection table and the presence/absence of connection with unplaced components, and absorbs the component into the block. If it is absorbed, the block number is corrected for the part in the part ID/block NO0 conversion table.

Then, in the block integration processing functional block, if unplaced parts still remain after the block absorption is completed, the inter-component table component ID pairs in the memory 31 are integrated into blocks. In this case, of course, the inter-component table and the component ID/block number.

Update translation table. When the block integration process is completed, the placement process function block is activated again.

Note that the operation sequence of each functional block as described above is managed by the control means 20.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, when dividing components into logical function blocks according to their arrangement relationships in the initial layout in analog board design, each key component is initially divided into blocks. By processing the blocks as one block, then integrating the blocks as they arise, and then arranging only the unplaced parts so that the block to which each block belongs can be determined reliably. It becomes possible to divide all parts into blocks of more accurate logical functional units.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 shows the principle flow of the method of the present invention, Figures 2 to 7
The drawings are diagrams for explaining the present invention in detail, FIG. 8 is a block diagram of essential parts of an apparatus for carrying out the method of the present invention, and FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing an example of a printed circuit board designing apparatus. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10... Processing means, 11... Part table/conversion table creation function block, 12... Part/block connection table creation function block, 13... Arrangement processing function block, 14... Block integration Processing function block, 20...control means, 30...memory, 31...
・Memory for table between parts, 32...Memory for part ID/block number, conversion table, 33... Connection table between parts/blocks. Figure 1 ↓ ↓ Figure 7 (A) (B) Block No., 1 2 3 (C) Block No., 1 2 Figure 8

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A printed circuit board design device that uses a computer to design a printed circuit board pattern on a CRT screen based on input information from an input terminal, which includes: By means of creating a relationship between each part and the block number to which it belongs, for parts arranged in advance, the relationship between the part pair and the part and the block number to which it belongs are written in the respective dedicated tables, (2) Next, The component/block connection table creation means creates a component/block connection table showing the relationship between the selected unplaced component and the number of wires for each block; (3) Next, the placement processing means: Find an unplaced component or a group of unplaced components that has a block where the number of wires to a certain block is greater than the sum of the number of wires to other blocks and the number of wires to unplaced components, and select that block. If there are multiple connection terminals in the vicinity of the connection terminal coordinates within the area, place them at the position where the virtual wiring length is the shortest between each terminal, assign the block number, and (4) Next, apply the condition 3 above. If there are no more unplaced parts or groups that satisfy the requirement, the blocks with short inter-block distances are made into the same block using the block integration method,
Halve the number of blocks, search for unplaced parts or groups that satisfy the condition (3) above, and (5) repeat the operations (3) and (4) above, ending when there are no more unplaced parts. 1. A component placement method for a printed circuit board design device, characterized in that components can be divided into blocks and placed.