Appeal No. 2006-2382
Application 09/902,140
dependent upon the history during which the hardware has been
operated. Therefore, cyclic operating conditions have to be
investigated and simulated for circuits in SOI technology. A
"functional cycle" represents a defined operating interval having
a start time and a stop time in which, at both times, the input
voltages are the same. The invention checks if the voltage at
CYCLE START matches its voltage at CYCLE STOP under static (DC)
simulation conditions. If not, an indication is obtained which
helps to automatically localize and manually correct voltage
mismatches that are caused by non-cyclic input voltage waveforms.
Example of mismatches between CYCLE START and CYCLE STOP are
described in the specification, pages 10-11.
Claim 1 is reproduced below.
1. A method for simulating hardware circuits during which
voltages are calculated at a plurality of circuit nodes,
comprising the steps of:
(a) carrying out a first DC-simulation run at the beginning
of a functional cycle,
(b) carrying out a second DC-simulation run at the end of
said cycle,
(c) comparing simulated values from both runs at respective
circuit nodes, and
(d) storing mismatch information about static error
afflicted nodes at which the calculated values differ
by more than a predetermined first threshold value.
- 2 -
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007