JPH03132070A - Wiring path routing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To facilitate routing of an available wiring track by allowing a wiring guide diagram which is shown on a screen in a manual routing mode to show a pair of terminals to be connected and an available wiring track within a routing region which is specified previously. CONSTITUTION:When automatic routing of wiring is completed and switching operation is made on a keyboard to manual routing mode, the manual routing mode is initiated. Then, a screen showing the wiring image of an entire chip appears on a CRT. In this state, an operator specifies terminals T1 and T2 having same potential to be connected thorugh operation of a pointing device, and a lower-left point P1 and an upper-right point P2 within a retrieval area. When the specification is completed, an available wiring track within a specified area can be routed using a wiring data base which is stored in a magnetic disk device. When the routing is completed, a wiring guide diagram showing an expanded chip area information which is specified by the points P1 and P2 appears on the screen. This wiring diagram shows available wiring tracks X1-X5 and Y1-Y7 within the routing region.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object 1] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a wiring route searching device suitable for designing an I'-conductor integrated circuit using a gate array method.

(Prior Art) As is well known, when designing a semiconductor integrated circuit using the gate array method, macro cells designated by the customer are appropriately arranged on basic cells prepared in advance, and the terminals of these macro cells are The circuit functions specified by the customer are achieved by wiring between the two.

Wiring between these terminals is performed using a wiring area called a channel between macrocell rows and an empty area on the macrocell (area that can be used for wiring). Multi-layering is taking place.

Conventionally, when searching for a wiring route between a specified pair of terminals, a wiring route searching device called a graphic editor device or the like has been used.

This wiring route search device has an automatic search mode that automatically searches for a wiring route between a pair of terminals to be connected under predetermined conditions by specifying a pair of terminals to be connected, and sequentially stores interlayer connection points passed along the way, and a wiring guide. A manual search mode is provided in which a diagram is displayed on the screen and interlayer connection points passed through on the way are sequentially stored while waiting for an operator's designation.

When searching for a wiring route, an automatic search mode is first activated to automatically route wiring between each pair of terminals under a predetermined condition F.

Here, various predetermined conditions are set, such as being within a certain distance, being within a certain area, etc., and for this reason, automatic search mode is used to search between all terminals. Wiring is generally difficult.

Therefore, in general, the automatic search mode is switched to the manual search mode along with the operating path Y.

Then, for example, a wiring guide diagram is displayed on the CRT screen, as shown in FIG.

As is clear from the figure, this wiring guide diagram includes transistor rows 1. In addition to the terminals 2, etc., the X direction wiring layer 3. All Y-direction wiring layers 4 are shown at the same time, regardless of whether they are unwired or wired.

In this state, the operator, while operating a pointing device such as a mouse, specifies the pair of terminals to be connected, displays them with high brightness (blink),
Thereafter, a usable wiring track is searched from the X-direction wiring layer 3 and the Y-direction wiring layer 4, and by sequentially following these tracks, the wiring route is searched while sequentially storing the interlayer connection points passed along the way.

However, the wiring guide diagram displayed on the screen in the above-mentioned manual search mode is designed such that the display color 1 display mode etc. is different between the X-direction wiring layer 3 and the Y-direction wiring layer 4. However, since available wiring tracks and already routed segments are displayed at the same time, it is extremely laborious to accurately find out the usable wiring tracks that connect a specified pair of terminals. It is.

Moreover, the shortest wiring route that you have found may actually be already used by another wiring route, and in such cases, it is necessary to remove the interfering wiring by removing the wiring, and then remove the interfering wiring. It is necessary to reroute the stripped wiring using a different route, but finding such interfering wiring is not easy in itself.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) As described above, in the conventional wiring route search device, when switching from automatic search mode to manual search mode,
Since usable wiring tracks and used wiring segments are displayed simultaneously on the screen in a complex manner, it is difficult to accurately find only the usable wiring tracks that connect a specified pair of terminals. It is extremely difficult.

Also, even if you think you have finally found the shortest wiring route, if the wiring segment in question has already been used for another wiring route that connects other terminals on the way, you can find such interfering wiring from the wiring guide diagram. This is even more difficult.

This invention was made in view of the above-mentioned problems.

That is, an object of the present invention is to facilitate the search for usable wiring tracks in the manual search mode in a wiring route search device having this type of automatic search mode and manual search mode.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances.In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a connection between a pair of terminals by specifying a pair of terminals to be connected. There is an automatic search mode that automatically searches the wiring route under predetermined conditions and memorizes the interlayer connection points passed along the way in sequence, and an automatic search mode that displays the wiring guide diagram on the screen and waits for the operator's instructions to pass through the route. In a wiring route search device equipped with a manual search mode in which interlayer connection points are sequentially memorized, the wiring guide diagram displayed on the screen in the manual search mode includes a pair of terminals to be connected and a prespecified search area. The invention is characterized in that it shows the usable wiring tracks.

(Function) According to the present invention, the wiring guide diagram displayed on the screen shows a pair of terminals to be connected and available wiring tracks within a prespecified search area, which is different from the conventional device. Since redundant terminals and used wiring segments are not displayed, the wiring guide diagram is extremely simplified, visibility is improved, and wiring processing can be performed efficiently.

Further, according to the second invention of this application, if there is interfering wiring between the connection points specified by the operator one after another, the interfering wiring is guided and displayed on the screen, and the operator specifies the interfering wiring. Since the interfering wiring in the relevant section is torn off after waiting, it is no longer necessary to manually check the presence or absence of interfering wiring each time, improving work efficiency.

(Embodiment) FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing the electrical hardware configuration of a wiring route search device (referred to as a graphic editor device or the like) according to the present invention.

As shown in the figure, this wiring route search device uses a CPU5 that includes a microprocessor, system ROM, etc.
It is under general control.

The system bus 6 of the CPU 5 has a video RAM 7.
．． CRT controller8. Magnetic disk device 10. Keyboard 11. A pointing device 12 and a RAM 13 are connected.

As is well known, the video RAM 7 stores data to be displayed on the CRT 9.
7 is transferred to the CRT controller 8 by the action of the CPU 5, so that the corresponding image is displayed on the screen of the CRT 9.

The magnetic disk device 10 is a floppy disk.

It consists of a hard disk, etc., and contains various databases necessary for wiring (for example, cell pattern information handled in layout, wiring segment information for connecting cells, information on 81 rules for wiring design, etc.), and databases that have already been completed. In addition to storing the wiring information etc. that have been created, the human power of the wiring route search program related to the present invention is also stored in this magnetic disk device 1.
It is done from 0.

The keyboard 11 is used for various operations by the operator, and switching of search modes, which will be described later, is performed through this keyboard 11.

The pointing device 12 includes a mouse, a trackball,
It is equivalent to a light pen, tablet, etc., and the point specification on the screen described later is done using this pointing device 1.
This is done through 2.

The RAM 13 is used as a program storage area, a work area, etc., and the wiring route search program according to the present invention is executed after being loaded into the RAM 13.

Next, FIG. 2 is a block diagram schematically showing the overall configuration of a wiring bypass search program according to the present invention.

This wiring route search program is started by a predetermined start operation from the keyboard 11.

When the block diagram is started, initial processing is first performed, and various flags and registers provided in the RAM 13 are initialized (step 201).

Thereafter, an image for setting up a search mode is displayed on the screen of the CRT 9, and the CRT 9 enters a state of waiting for mode specification (steps 202, 203).

As described above, in this type of wiring search work, the automatic search mode is initially used to perform the wiring search.

In this state, when the automatic search mode is set (steps 203 YES, 204 automatic search), a predetermined initial screen is displayed on the screen of the CRT 9 indicating that the automatic search mode has started. (Step 205).

Thereafter, starting point and ending point information indicating a pair of terminals with the same potential to be connected is read by manual input by an operator or by automatic input based on wiring specification information (steps 206 and 207).

Further, on the LSI chip image displayed on the screen, the starting point and ending point are displayed with high brightness, for example (step 208), and then a known automatic search process is started (
Step 209).

As described above, since this automatic search process is performed under limited conditions, it is not possible to find all wiring routes by this automatic search.

Therefore, each time the automatic search for each pair of terminals is completed, it is determined whether a wiring route has actually been found and the search has been completed (step 210), and if the search is confirmed to be complete, then (Step 210 YES),
Editing of the wiring information (step 212) and displaying the wiring route on the screen (step 213) are performed, and if the search is not possible (step 211 YES), these processes (steps 212 and 213) are skipped. .

Thereafter, the series of processes described above (steps 205 to 213) are repeated until a predetermined wiring work termination operation is performed from the keyboard 11 (step 214).

On the other hand, when the automatic wiring search is completed and the mode is switched from the keyboard to the manual search mode (steps 202, 203 YES, 204 manual search), the manual search mode, which is the main part of the present invention, is activated. will be started.

In this way, when manual search mode is started, CR
For example, a screen showing a wiring image of the entire chip is displayed as an initial screen on the screen of T9 (step 215).
Thereafter, a state is entered in which it waits for the reading of the connection terminal pair designation (step 216) and the reading of the search area designation (step 217) (step 218).

In this state, the operator
2, as shown in Figure 3, the pair of terminals T, , T2 with the same potential to be connected and the lower left point P1 of the search area are connected.
and specify the upper right point P2.

In this way, when the specification is completed (step 218Y
ES), a search for usable wiring tracks within the specified area is performed using the wiring database stored in the magnetic disk device 10 (step 219).

This search only requires searching for usable wiring tracks within the specified area based on the coordinate information and used flag attached to each X-layer wiring segment and 7-layer wiring segment, and does not require very complicated processing. It's not something you do.

When the search for usable wiring tracks within the area is completed in this way, information on the chip area designated by points p+ and P2 is expanded on the screen based on the search results, as shown in Figure 3. A wiring guide diagram will be displayed (
Step 220).

As is clear from the figure, this wiring guide diagram shows the available wiring tracks X+ -x5, y within the search area designated by the pair of terminals "r, , T2 and the points P, , P2" to be connected.
, ~Y7.

Therefore, as is clear from comparison with the conventional wiring diagram shown in FIG. Extra terminals 2, used wiring segments, etc. are not displayed at all, making the screen extremely simple.

In addition, compared to the screen shown in Fig. 8, the number of wiring segments in the screen shown in Fig. 3 is significantly reduced, or there are generally not many terminal pairs left unwired after the automatic search mode ends. Instead, if only the usable wiring tracks are displayed on the screen, the screen will be quite pure and beautiful like this.

In addition, in the example of FIG. 3, the X-direction wiring segments are shown by broken lines, and the Y-direction wiring segments are shown by solid lines, but these may be displayed in different colors.
Alternatively, they are displayed in a manner that allows them to be distinguished by, for example, having different brightness.

Furthermore, the X-direction wiring segment Xl is displayed as being interrupted at the intermediate sections T,...T4, which indicates that it has been used as part of a wiring route between other terminals. .

Thereafter, the operator sequentially designates the interlayer connection points indicated by P3 to P8 in FIG. 3 on the screen using the pointing device 12.

Then, each time an interlayer connection point is newly specified (steps 221, 222 YES), a check is made to see if there is any interfering wiring on the route between the successively specified connection points (step 223), and the interfering wiring is checked. Only if it does not exist (step 224 NO), the newly specified interlayer connection point is recorded as part of the wiring route, and the wiring information is edited (step 228).

In addition, when the wiring routes are sequentially specified in this way, the determined wiring routes have different brightness and different display colors, as shown by the thick solid line in Figure 4. etc. are characteristically displayed.

In this way, when the specification of connection points between wiring layers progresses to P8, as a result of checking the intermediate route (step 223),
In the section P7-P8, it is determined that there is an interfering wiring (step 224 YES), and then, as shown in FIG. Interference wiring X21. Y21
．． Y22 is characteristically displayed (step 225), and at the same time, the state waits for designation of the peeling section (steps 226 and 227).

In this state, the operator points the pointing device 1
2 to specify the starting point P9 and ending point P10 of the peeling section on the screen.

In this way, when the designation of the peeling section is completed (
Step 227 YES), as shown in FIG.
The interfering wiring in the peeled section is deleted from the already completed wiring information, and then point P8 is designated again as the wiring interlayer connection point (step 22], 222), so that the terminal T1 is removed as shown in FIG. The wiring route from terminal T2 to terminal T2 has a connection point P3. P4. P5. pe, P
It is completed by storing 7°P8 in sequence.

According to the embodiment device described above, the wiring guide diagram displayed on the screen in the manual search mode can be used within the search area specified by the pair of terminals T, , T2 and the points P, , P2 to be connected. Wiring tracks X1-X5 and Y1-Y7
Therefore, the visibility is significantly improved compared to the conventional wiring guide diagram shown in FIG. 8, and the search for the wiring route becomes much easier.

Also, in the manual search mode, the connection point p7 specified by the operator before and after the search is performed. If there is a disturbing wiring between X21Y21. Display Y22 as a guide on the screen, wait for the operator's instructions, and proceed to the corresponding section P9. Because the PIO interference wiring was torn out,
This eliminates the need for the operator to find interfering wiring from a complicated wiring diagram, unlike in conventional equipment, and work efficiency is improved accordingly.

[Effects of the Invention] As is clear from the above description, according to the first invention of the present application, it is easy to find usable wiring tracks from the screen in manual search mode, and wiring processing can be performed efficiently. .

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the hardware configuration of the wiring route search device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the software configuration, and FIG. 3 is a screen explanatory diagram showing the state of the wiring guide diagram in the initial state. Figure 4 is a screen explanatory diagram showing the state of the wiring guide diagram during the wiring route search, Figure 5
The figure is an explanatory screen diagram showing the state of the wiring guide diagram while the interfering wiring is displayed, Figure 6 is an explanatory screen diagram showing the state of the wiring guide diagram after the interfering wiring is deleted, and Figure 7 is the wiring guide diagram after the wiring route is completed. FIG. 8 is an explanatory screen diagram showing the state of the wiring guide diagram in the conventional device. 5...CPU 6...System bus 7...Video RAM 8...CRT controller 9...CRT 10...Magnetic disk device 11...Keyboard 12...Pointing device 13... RAM P, ... Bottom left point P2 of the search area... Top right point P3 to P8 of the search area ... Interlayer connection point T,, T2...
・Pair of terminals you want to connect x, -x5, y, ~Y7...
- Unused 2 P9 wiring segment Y21 in the search area. Y22...Wiring segment P 10...Tear-off section that constitutes interfering wiring

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) An automatic search mode that automatically searches for a wiring route between a pair of terminals under predetermined conditions by specifying a pair of terminals to be connected, and sequentially stores interlayer connection points passed along the way, and displays a wiring guide diagram on the screen. In the wiring route search device, the wiring route search device is equipped with a manual search mode in which interlayer connection points that are passed along the way are memorized in order while waiting for a designation from an operator while displaying the wiring guide map displayed on the screen in the manual search mode. 1. A wiring route search device, characterized in that it indicates a pair of terminals to be connected and available wiring tracks within a prespecified search area.