JPH06119413A - Device and method for deciding parts arrangement position - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the parts arrangement position deciding device for optimumly arranging parts by deciding the positions of function blocks constituting a circuit on a printed circuit board in a parts arranging area. CONSTITUTION:Based on connection relation, an area position decision part 103 for function block arrangement decides the positions of function blocks in the area for arrangement on the printed circuit board. A control part 105 judges whether the arranging position decision result decided by the parts arranging position decision part 104 satisfies a reference provided in advance or not. When it does not satisfy the reference, the control part 105 changes the size of the area for function block arrangement and repeatedly executes an area position decision part 103 for function block arrangement and the parts arranging position decision part 104 so as to provide optimum parts arrangement. Thus, the position of the area for function block arrangement and the arrangement of parts can be automatically decided corresponding to the characteristics of parts belonging to the function blocks and the flow of signals in the circuit.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a component placement position for automatically determining the placement of functional blocks (component groups) obtained by dividing a circuit according to functions and processes and the placement of components within the functional block when designing a printed circuit board. Regarding the decision device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, printed circuit board design CAD (Comput
er Aided Design) has spread, an automatic placement device that automatically determines the position of electronic components is being used in the design of printed circuit boards. In general, such an automatic placement method and automatic placement apparatus automatically place components belonging to a functional block in a designated functional block placement area (component placement area) for each functional block. The functional block referred to here is a circuit used for designing a printed circuit board divided into several blocks according to functions and processes, and the functional block arrangement area is an area for arranging the functional block. In this case, for each functional block, it is necessary to manually specify beforehand the size of the functional block placement area on the printed circuit board and the position on the printed circuit board.

More specifically, in the past, the designation was made using the interactive processing function of CAD. That is, before executing the automatic placement, manually specify (1) the size of the functional block placement area and (2) the position on the printed circuit board. continue,
The automatic placement device (3) automatically places the components belonging to the functional block for each functional block.

Furthermore, (4) As for the functional blocks that cannot be placed as a result of the automatic placement and remain, the size of the placement area is increased by interactive processing as in (1), and (2)
In the same manner as above, the position of the placement area on the printed circuit board is changed and the automatic placement is performed again, which is dealt with.

[0005]

However, according to the above-mentioned conventional technique, it is necessary to manually change the layout area size and respecify the layout area position by trial and error, and especially when the printed circuit board is high. There has been a problem in that it takes a lot of man-hours to obtain the optimum arrangement corresponding to the higher density and the smaller size.

More specifically, since the size of the functional block layout area and the position on the board must be specified manually, if unplaced parts remain as a result of the automatic placement of parts, they are manually specified. It is necessary to enlarge the placement area and respecify its location. Further, when a redundant empty area is created, it is necessary to manually reduce the placement area and respecify its position. Further, in order to obtain an optimum layout corresponding to the high density and downsizing of the printed circuit board, it is necessary to increase or decrease the size of the layout area and respecify the position. As described above, there is a problem that man-hours for manually changing the area size and designating the area position are repeated until the final component arrangement is determined.

In view of the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a component placement position determining device that automatically determines the size of a functional block placement area and a position on a printed circuit board to perform optimal component placement. To do.

[0008]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the component placement position determining apparatus of the present invention determines the components belonging to each component group for each component group into which the components constituting the circuit are grouped. Area size determining means for determining the size of the component placement area to be placed on the board, and the position of the component placement area on the board for each component group, allowing the overlap with the component placement areas of other component groups. Area position deciding means for deciding, and for each part group, deciding the placement position of the part within the part placement area whose size and position have been decided, and in the area where the parts of other part groups have not yet been placed A component position determining means, a determining means for determining, for each component group, whether or not all the components belonging to the component group can be arranged, and the size of an empty area in the component arrangement area. Based on the determination result of the determining means, and area size changing means for changing the size of the component placement region,
The control means activates the area position determining means after activating the area size changing means according to the determination result of the determining means.

Further, instead of the above control means, a control means for activating the part position determining means after activating the area size changing means according to the determination result of the determining means may be provided. The area position determining unit selects a component group having the largest number of connections to the fixed component whose position on the board is predetermined, and determines a predetermined reference point of the component placement area of the component group to be newly arranged as the fixed component. When the component placement area of the component group extends over the board by overlapping with the reference point indicating the position of, the position of the reference point is moved so that it fits inside the board, and it is determined as the reference point of the component placement area. It may be.

The area position determining means further selects only the largest number of connections with the component arrangement area of the circuit group to be newly determined from among the component arrangement areas of the already determined circuit groups. A configuration may be adopted in which the coordinates of the reference points of the selected component placement area are weighted by the number of connections and the weighted average is determined as the coordinates of the component placement area to be newly positioned.

The weighted average may be calculated using the following equation. X = (a1X1 ＋ a2X2 ＋ ・ ＋＋ anXn) / (a1 ＋ a2 ＋ ・ ・
・ ＋ an） Y ＝ （a1Y1 ＋ a2Y2 ＋ ・ ・ ＋ anYn） / (a1 ＋ a2 ＋ ・ ・
-+ An) where (X, Y) is the coordinates of the reference point of the component placement area to be newly placed, and (X1, Y1), (X2, Y2), ... (Xn, Yn) are
Set the coordinates of the reference points of the selected n parts placement areas to a
1, a2, ... An indicate the number of connections between the component placement area to be newly placed and the selected n functional blocks.

Further, the reference point may be the center of gravity of a graphic representing each fixed component and component placement area. The determination means determines that the component placement area is small when there is an unplaced component in the placement result of the component position determination means, and when there is no unplaced component, the sum of the size of the components from the board size and each component circumference. In the configuration, the size of the free area is calculated excluding the size of the predetermined margin area provided with the predetermined width, and if the size of the free area exceeds the predetermined value, the component placement area is determined to be large. It may be.

[0013]

With the above-described means, the component placement position determining apparatus of the present invention includes the area size determining means, and the area size determining means determines the size of the component placement area of the component group obtained by dividing the circuit according to the function or processing. . The area position determining means determines the position of the component placement area on the printed circuit board while permitting overlap with other component placement areas. Further, the component position determining means determines, by the area position determining means, the arrangement positions of all the components that belong to the component group and are the arrangement targets in the determined component arrangement area. afterwards,
The determining means determines whether or not the result of the component position determining means satisfies a preset criterion. If the criteria are not met, the control means resizes the component placement area,
The area position determining means or the component position determining means is activated and repeatedly executed to finally obtain the optimum component arrangement.

This makes it possible to automatically determine the position and the component placement of the component placement area of the functional block according to the characteristics of the components belonging to the functional block and the signal flow of the circuit.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the component placement position determining device of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a functional block layout device according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 in the figure
A storage unit (storage unit) 01 stores necessary information such as the size of the board, the characteristics such as the size and type of each component, the connection relationship between components, and information on functional blocks. This storage unit 1
A specific example of the stored contents of 01 is shown in FIG. Figure 11
(A) shows a functional block list provided for each functional block. The functional block column stores a number for identifying the functional block, the component column stores the number of the component list of the functional block, and the net number column stores the number of nets between the functional block and fixed components or other functional blocks. . The area size column stores the area size determined later, and the area position column stores the coordinates indicating the position of the reference point of the area determined later. FIG. 11B shows the contents of the parts list stored in the parts column of the functional block list. The parts column shows the names and model numbers of the individual parts that make up the functional block.
The columns of size, number of pins, and number of wirings store the size of the component, the number of pins, and the number of wirings, respectively. FIG. 11C shows the contents of the net number list stored in the net number column of the functional block list. The connection destination column and the net number column respectively store the names or numbers of fixed parts and functional blocks that are connection destinations, and the number of nets with the connection destination.

Reference numeral 102 denotes a functional block placement area size determination unit (region size determination means) that determines the size of the placement area of each functional block from the information in the storage unit 101. Reference numeral 103 denotes a functional block placement area position determination unit (region position determination means) on the printed circuit board of the placement area of each functional block based on the information in the storage unit 101 and the size determined by the functional block placement area position determination unit 102. Determine the position of.

Reference numeral 104 denotes a placement target component placement position determination unit (component position determination means), which is a functional block placement area size determination unit 102 and a functional block placement area position determination unit 1.
In the area for arranging the functional blocks determined by 03, the arranging positions of all parts to be arranged that belong to the functional blocks are determined, and the parts for which the arranging positions cannot be determined are stored as unallocated parts Register with 101.

Reference numeral 105 denotes a control section (determination means and control means)
Then, the size of the placement area of the functional block is changed until the placement position determination result of the placement target component placement position determination unit 104 satisfies the preset criteria, and the function block placement area position determination unit 103 and the placement target component placement position are set. The determination unit 104 is repeatedly executed. The operation of the functional block layout device configured as described above will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of the operation of the component placement position determining device shown in FIG. Storage unit 101 in FIG.
It is assumed that the necessary information has already been stored in. (Step 201) The functional block layout area size determination unit 102 of FIG. 1 determines the size of the layout area of each functional block. FIG. 3 shows an operation flowchart of the functional block layout area size determination unit 102. However, it is assumed that the number of designated functional blocks is N and each has a block number i (i = 1 to N).

(Step 311) 1 is substituted for the block number i. (Step 312) Information on the functional block having the block number i is read from the storage unit 101. (Step 313) The functional block layout area size determining unit 102 of FIG. 1A determines the layout area size of the functional block i. FIG. 4 shows a specific example of determining the size of the functional block layout area in the functional block layout area size determination unit. For a certain functional block,
Parts 40 belonging to the functional block and having respective sizes of 4, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1.
1, 402, 403, 404, 405, 406, 40
The area 410 for arranging the functional blocks is determined to be a square so as to have the same size as the total size 16 of the sizes 7, 408 and 409. The size of the area for arranging this functional block can be determined by adding the wiring space to the total size of the components or the size of the entire board by the ratio of the number of components belonging to the functional block to the total number of components. And those determined by using the characteristics of the components, etc. are used. As for the shape of the area, a circular shape, an elliptical shape, a polygonal shape, a similar shape of a printed board, or the like may be used instead of the square shape.

(Step 314) The block number i is incremented by 1 and the next functional block is designated. (Step 315) Block number i is the number of functional blocks N
In the following cases, the process goes to (step 313) and ends when the number of functional blocks is larger than N. By the above operation,
The layout area size is determined for all functional blocks.

(Step 202) When the layout area size is determined, the functional block layout area position determination unit 103 in FIG. 1 then determines the position of the layout area of each functional block on the printed circuit board. . FIG. 5 shows an operation flowchart of the functional block placement area position determination unit 103. (Step 511) 1 is substituted for the block number i.

(Step 512) The information of the functional block i is read from the storage unit 101. (Step 513) The placement area position of the functional block i is determined by the functional block placement area position determination unit 103 of FIG. FIG. 6 shows a specific example of the functional block placement area position determination unit. First, prior to the determination of the functional block placement area position, the reference point is set in advance for each functional block and each component. FIG. 6A shows a specific example of how to take the reference points 603 and 604 with respect to the areas 601 and 602. Here, the intersection of the diagonal lines of the rectangle (center of gravity)
Is the reference point. The reference point is set in the same manner for each individual part. Further, when the area shape is other than a rectangle, the center of gravity, the upper right point of the area, or the like may be used as the reference point.

Next, the functional block placement area position determination unit 103 pays attention to the fixed component and selects the maximum net functional block for the fixed component. A specific example is shown in FIG. Fixing parts 611, 612 on the printed circuit board 610,
One maximum net functional block that maximizes the number of nets connected to 613 is obtained for each. At that time, when there are two or more functional blocks 614 and 615 that maximize the number of nets connected to one fixed component 611, the functional block 6 having a large number of components belonging to each of them.
14 (the number of parts 30> the number of parts 20) is the maximum net function block. When one functional block 616 is the maximum net functional block for the plurality of fixed components 612 and 613, the maximum net functional block is set for the fixed component having a large number of nets connected to the functional block 616. As shown in the figure, when the number of nets is the same, for each functional block, the maximum net functional block for the fixed part 613, which is the one with the smallest number of nets, is the functional block with the second largest number of connections. 616. In addition, the maximum net functional block is always determined for one fixed component by using the attribute of the functional block or component. In FIG. 6B, the maximum net functional blocks are 614, 617, and 616 for the fixed parts 611, 612, and 613, respectively.

Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 7, the functional block placement area position determining unit 103 determines that the fixed parts 611 and 6 are fixed.
The positions are tentatively determined so that the reference points 12 and 613 and the reference points of the maximum net functional block placement areas 614, 617, and 616 obtained in FIG.
Then, the maximum net functional block placement area 61
4, 616, 617 and the printed circuit board 610 are moved in parallel so that the overlapping portion becomes large, and the fixed parts 611, 6
The positions of the maximum net functional block placement areas 614, 617, 616 for the respective 12, 12 613 are determined on the printed circuit board 610.

Further, as shown in FIG. 8, the functional block placement area position determination unit 103 determines the maximum net functional block placement area 61 whose position is determined in FIG. 6B.
4, 617, 616 reference points (X1, Y1), (X2,
Based on Y2) and (X3, Y3), the position of the reference point (X, Y) is determined for the other functional block 619 using the following equation.

X = (aX1 + bX2 + cX3) / (a + b + c) Y = (aY1 + bY2 + cY3) / (a + b + c) where a, b, and c are the functional block placement areas 619 for placement, respectively. The number of nets connected to the areas 614, 617, and 616. In this way, the position of the reference point of the functional block placement area 619 is determined by the weighted average weighted by the number of nets connected to the placement areas 614, 617, 616, whose functional block is the largest net functional block. .

By using the weighted average, it becomes possible to automatically determine the position of the placement area of the functional block and the component placement according to the signal flow of the components and circuits belonging to the functional block. This means that even if the area size of each functional block is changed later, the relative positional relationship between the functional blocks is maintained, so that the arrangement according to the signal flow is obtained. be able to.

In the above example, the functional block placement area 6
There are 3 maximum net function blocks for 16, but unlike this, when there are few fixed parts and there are fewer maximum net function blocks than in the figure, terms are removed from the denominator and numerator by the reduced amount, and conversely from the figure. If there are many, the term should be increased by the amount added to the denominator and the numerator. When determining the position, if the functional block layout area extends beyond the printed circuit board, that portion is deleted from the functional block layout area. In addition, the functional block placement area 419
And 416, part of them may overlap. This is because, in the present embodiment, the position of the reference point is arranged without considering the overlapping of the areas, so that the position can be easily determined, and unarranged parts and redundant areas are generated in the subsequent process. This is because, in the event of occurrence, it is planned to change the size of the area and repeat the position determination of the functional block again for optimization.

Subsequently (step 514), the block number i
Is increased by 1. (Step 515) When i is equal to or smaller than the number N of functional blocks (Step 512), when i is larger than the number N of functional blocks, the process is terminated. As a result, the positions of the placement areas of all the functional blocks are determined. (Step 203) When the position of the functional block placement area is determined, the placement symmetrical component placement position determination unit 10 of FIG.
Step 4 determines the placement positions of all placement target components belonging to each functional block within the placement area of each functional block obtained in (steps 201 and 202). The parts whose placement positions could not be determined are shown as unplaced parts in Fig. 1.
Is registered in the storage unit 101.

(Step 204) In response to the result of the arrangement position determination performed in (Step 203), the control unit 105
Determines whether the preset criteria are met. When the standard is not satisfied, the procedure goes to (step 205), and when the standard is satisfied, the processing is ended. The control unit 105 in FIG. 1 determines that the size of the functional block placement area is small if the unallocated components are registered in the storage unit 101 in FIG. 1, and the unallocated components are registered in the storage unit 101 in FIG. If the extra space is larger than the largest component belonging to the functional block, it is determined that the placement area is too large.

FIG. 9 shows a specific example of the judgment by the control unit 105. 9A and 9B show the state after the placement position is determined by the placement target component placement position determination unit 104 in FIG.
901 is an area for arranging functional blocks, 902, 903,
Reference numerals 904, 905, 906, 907, 908, and 909 denote components belonging to the functional block layout area 901, and 910 denotes extra space.

FIG. 9A is a specific example in the case where it is judged that the standard is satisfied, and the size of the largest part 902 is 36, while the size of the extra space 910 is large. Is 5. FIG. 9B is a specific example in the case where it is determined that the size of the functional block layout area 901 is too large. The largest component 902 has a component size of 36. The size of the space 910 is 37.

As a criterion for the control unit 105, if the total sum of the parts in which the parts are not arranged in the functional block layout area exceeds some percentage of the entire functional block layout area, it is judged to be too large. If various standards are prepared, appropriate standards can be used as needed. Further, as shown in FIG. 9C, the positions of two or more functional block placement areas 920 and 921 overlap each other, and a component 922 belonging to another functional block b is placed in the placement area 920 of a certain function block a. When the position is determined, the extra space 925 may be obtained by considering the component b1 belonging to the functional block b in the same manner as the components 923 and 924 belonging to the functional block a. (Step 205) If the judgment result of the control unit 105 does not satisfy the criterion, the size of the placement area of each functional block is changed, and the process goes to (Step 202). In FIG.
A specific example of a method of changing the layout area size of the functional block of the control unit 105 will be described.

In FIG. 10, when it is determined that the size of the functional block arranging areas 801 and 804 is small, the reference point 802, using a predetermined change amount d,
Area for arranging functional blocks 80 centered on 805
1, 804 are functional block placement areas 803, 806
Expand to. On the contrary, the functional block placement area 803,
If it is determined that the size of 806 is large, the reference block 802, 805 is changed to a center by using a predetermined change amount d, and the functional block placement areas 803, 806 are changed to the functional block placement areas 801, 804. to shrink.
Other than this, as a method of changing the size, a method of enlarging by the total sum of the sizes of the unplaced components, a method of reducing by the extra space, or the like may be used.

After changing the size, the process returns to (step 201) again and repeats the above-mentioned operation, whereby the optimum component placement is finally obtained.

[0037]

As described above, according to the present invention, the placement result is determined, and if the component placement does not meet the standard, the area size is changed and the process is repeated again. This has the effect of significantly reducing the number of man-hours to be iterated by trial and error due to, and shortening the design period. Also, by setting strict criteria,
There is an effect that it is possible to obtain an optimum arrangement corresponding to high density and downsizing of the printed circuit board.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a component placement position determining device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation of the component arrangement position determining device in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation of a functional block layout area size determination unit in the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a specific example of size determination by a functional block placement area size determination unit in the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation of a functional block placement area position determination unit in the embodiment.

FIG. 6A is a diagram showing a specific example of how to set reference points for each functional block and each component in the same embodiment; FIG. 7B is an explanatory diagram of arranging the maximum net functional block for the fixed component by the operation of the functional block placement area position determining unit in the embodiment.

7 is the same as FIG. 6 (b).

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of arranging the maximum net functional block by the operation of the functional block arranging area position determining unit in the embodiment.

FIG. 9A is a diagram showing a state after the placement position is determined by the placement target component placement position determination unit 104 in the embodiment. (B) Same as above. (C) Two or more functional block placement areas 740, 7
21 is an explanatory diagram when the positions of 21 overlap and the placement position of a component 722 belonging to another functional block b is determined in the placement area 740 of a certain functional block a.

FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining changing of the area size by the control unit in the embodiment.

FIG. 11 shows contents of a storage unit in the same embodiment.
(A) The functional block list provided for each functional block, (b) the contents of the parts list stored in the parts column of the functional block list, and (c) the nets stored in the net number column of the functional block list. It is a figure which shows the content of a number list.

[Description of Reference Signs] 101 storage unit 102 functional block placement area size determination unit 103 functional block placement area position determination unit 104 placement target component placement position determination unit 105 control unit

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A region size determining means for determining the size of a component placement region in which components belonging to each component group are placed on a board for each component group into which components that form a circuit are grouped, and for each component group. The area position determining means for determining the position of the component placement area on the board by allowing overlap with the component placement areas of other component groups, and the component placement with the size and position determined for each component group. A component position deciding means for deciding the placement position of the component in the region where the components of other component groups have not been placed yet, and for each component group, the placement of all the components belonging to that component group A determination unit that determines the availability and the size of the empty area in the component placement area, and an area size change unit that changes the size of the component placement area based on the determination result of the determination unit. A component placement position determining apparatus comprising: a changing unit and a control unit that activates the region position determining unit after activating the region size changing unit according to a determination result of the determining unit. 2. The control means of claim 1 is replaced with a control means for activating the part position determining means after activating the area size changing means according to the determination result of the determining means. A component placement position determining device. 3. The area position determining means selects a part group having the largest number of connections to fixed parts whose positions on the board are predetermined, and determines a predetermined part allocation area of a part group to be newly arranged. If the reference point is overlaid on the reference point that represents the position of the fixed component, and the component placement area of the component group extends off the board, move the reference point position so that it fits inside the board, and then move the reference point of the component placement area. 3. The component placement position determination device according to claim 1, wherein the component placement position determination device is configured to determine 4. The area position determining means further has the largest number of connections with the component arrangement area of the circuit group to be newly determined among the component arrangement areas of the circuit groups that have already been determined. Pick out only
4. The weighted average weighted by the number of connections with respect to the coordinates of the selected reference point of the component placement area is determined as the coordinate of the component placement area to be newly positioned. Parts placement position determination device. 5. The component placement position determining apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the weighted average is calculated using the following equation. X = (a1X1 ＋ a2X2 ＋ ・ ＋＋ anXn) / (a1 ＋ a2 ＋ ・ ・
・ ＋ an） Y ＝ （a1Y1 ＋ a2Y2 ＋ ・ ・ ＋ anYn） / (a1 ＋ a2 ＋ ・ ・
-+ An) where (X, Y) is the coordinates of the reference point of the component placement area to be newly placed, and (X1, Y1), (X2, Y2), ... (Xn, Yn) are
Set the coordinates of the reference points of the selected n parts placement areas to a
1, a2, ... An indicate the number of connections between the component placement area to be newly placed and the selected n functional blocks. 6. The component placement position determining apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the reference point is a center of gravity of a graphic representing each of the fixed component and the component placement area. 7. The determination means determines that the component placement area is small when there is an unplaced component in the placement result of the component position determination means, and when there is no unplaced component, the size of the component is determined from the board size. The size of the empty area is calculated excluding the total sum and the size of the predetermined margin area provided with a predetermined width around each component. If the size of the empty area exceeds the predetermined value, the component placement area is large. The component placement position determining device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein