JP3079232B2 - Cell placement area creation method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an area creating method for creating an area for arranging cells.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when an area for arranging cells is formed by an LSI or the like, for example, as shown in FIG.
Is created, and then the area B is created, so that the area B encloses a necessary area in order to avoid overlapping with the other area A in the drawing, * 1 → * 2 → * 3 → * 4 → * 5 → * 6 →
The area B was created by sequentially instructing one point at a time using a mouse, such as * 1, seven times in total. In addition, when creating the area, an area having a required size (area) is created while considering the number of cells to be arranged in the area.

[0003]

As described above, when an area for arranging a conventional cell is created, * 1 → * 2 → * 3
Many steps are required using the mouse, such as → * 4 → * 5 → * 6 → * 1, and an area must be created to have the required size while considering the number of cells. There was a problem.

[0004] After some regions have been created, mistakes such as not being able to place all the cells to be arranged in the first created region have been found, or an intermediate region has to be deleted. In this case, there is a problem in that for all the regions created after the target region, it is necessary to recreate the regions from the beginning.

According to the present invention, in order to solve these problems, an area is automatically created only by designating roughly two points of an area to be created, and when the area overlaps with another area, the overlapped area is determined. The purpose is to automatically create a region by avoiding it, and to automatically re-create the region after the target when the designer automatically determines the outline only so that the region does not overlap and delete the region And

[0006]

Means for solving the problem will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 1, screen 2
Is a screen for creating an area by designating two points on the opposite corners of a rectangle.

[0007] The floor plan processing section 4 creates an area for arranging cells in response to an instruction of two points on a diagonal of a rectangle from the screen 2. The area management table 6 manages an area (cell arrangement area).

[0008]

According to the present invention, as shown in FIG.
In response to the input of the two diagonal directions of the rectangle in which the cell is to be placed, the floor plan processing unit 4 sets the rectangle having the two points as the diagonal to another area that has already been created. If they do not overlap, create this rectangular area,
When overlapping, avoid this overlapping part and create an area enlarged by this overlapping area.When the designated cell is almost fit in the created area, output the area at this time as a cell arrangement area. The area is expanded to almost fit, and if it fits, but there is too much room, this area is reduced to almost fit, and the expanded / reduced area is output as a cell arrangement area. At this time, the above processing is performed on a rectangle created with a margin specified by parameters more than a rectangle required for arranging a cell specified in advance in accordance with an instruction of two points on the screen from the diagonal of the rectangle. Like that.

Therefore, the rectangle 2 of the region to be created
A region is automatically created simply by specifying a point, and when it overlaps with another region, the region is automatically created avoiding the overlapped region. When the creation and the area are deleted so as not to overlap, the area after the target can be automatically created again.

[0010]

Next, the structure and operation of an embodiment of the present invention will be sequentially described in detail with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention.
In FIG. 1, a display 1 displays a screen 2 and the like. Screen 2 is a screen for creating a rectangular area in which cells are arranged in a conversational manner.

The LSI layout system 3 creates a rectangular area for arranging cells on a substrate, arranges cells in this area, and the like, and is composed of a floor plan processing unit 4 and the like. It is.

The floor plan processing unit 4 receives two points of the diagonal of the rectangle designated by the designer from the screen 2 and does not overlap with another area already created for the rectangle having the two points as the diagonals. An area for arranging such cells is created (see the flowchart in FIG. 3).

The memory 5 has an area management table 6, a cell management table 7, and a work area. The area management table 6 manages a rectangular area in which cells are arranged, the number of cells arranged in this area, and the like (FIG. 4).
reference).

The cell management table 7 manages cells arranged in the area (see FIG. 4). FIG. 2 shows an operation explanatory diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 2A shows an example of creating a region. FIG. 2A-1 indicates two points. These are the two points on the diagonal of the rectangle that the designer wants to create on screen 2, * 1,
* 2 is indicated with a mouse or the like.

In FIG. 2A-2, an optimum area is automatically created in consideration of the number of cells arranged in the area. This corresponds to the fact that the designer indicates two points on the diagonal of the rectangle with the mouse in (A-1) of FIG. 2, and the floor plan processing unit 4 of FIG. Then, a solid-line rectangular area having a margin (for example, 1.2 times) is created.

As described above, the diagonal of the rectangular area where the designer intends to place cells on the screen 2 using the mouse
By simply designating a point, the floor plan processing unit 4 automatically creates a rectangular area having a margin set in advance by parameters.

FIG. 2B shows an example of creating a region. FIG. 2 (b-1) shows a state in which the area B has been created as a solid line area in FIG. 2 (a-2) in an attempt to create a new area B with the area A already created. here,
Since the shaded portion of the region B to be created overlaps with the already created region A, this overlapping portion is avoided, and the area is enlarged by the area of the overlapped portion as shown in FIG.

(B-2) of FIG. 2 shows a state in which the area corresponding to the hatched portion of (b-1) of FIG. As a result, at first, 1 in (b-1) of FIG.
In response to the fact that the designer has designated a rough area in which the cell is to be placed at * 2 * and 2 *, avoid the part that automatically overlaps with the area A already created by the floor plan processing unit 4,
FIG. 2B is enlarged by the area of the overlapping portion.
Area B is automatically created. This allows the designer
It is possible to automatically create a region having an area necessary for arranging cells simply by specifying the approximate rectangular position where cells are to be arranged without considering the overlap of regions.

FIG. 2C shows an example of deletion. (C-1) in FIG. 2 shows a state in which regions A, B, and C are created in this order. In this state, an instruction to delete the area B is issued.

FIG. 2C-2 shows a portion of the area C that overlaps the area A after the area B is deleted in response to the instruction to delete the area B in FIG. , And shows a state after being enlarged by the area of the overlapping portion. When the designer deletes the area B from the screen 2 in this manner,
The area B and subsequent areas are created again. Here, the area C is created by avoiding the area C overlapping with the area A as shown in the figure and enlarging the area by the area of the overlapped area. This makes it possible to automatically delete an arbitrary area and automatically re-create the area.

Next, the operation of the configuration of FIG. 1 will be described in detail according to the order shown in the flowchart of FIG. In FIG. 3, S1 gives an instruction of two points. This is shown in Figure 1
The mouse is used to designate two general points for creating a rectangular area where cells are to be placed on the screen 2 of FIG.

In step S2, α is calculated. This is a calculation of a value (the total area is obtained by setting the number of cells or the area of the cell to 1) to have a margin (for example, 1.2 times) for the preset number of cells to be arranged in the area. I do.

In step S3, a rectangle is calculated. This calculates the size of a rectangle having an area corresponding to α. S4
Calculates β. This is to calculate the number β of cells that can be arranged, except for a portion of the rectangle calculated in FIG. 3 that overlaps another rectangle already created.

In step S5, α and β are compared. In the case of α ≒ β, the process is terminated because the cells have been almost arranged in the created region. On the other hand, when α <β, if the number of cells that can be arranged is larger than the number α of cells when the margin is given in S2, S
In step 6, the size of the rectangle is reduced (the value of α is reduced, specifically, the distance between two points is reduced), and the process proceeds to S3. On the other hand, when α> β, if the number of cells that can be arranged is smaller than the number of cells α when the margin is given in S2,
In S7, the process of enlarging the size of the rectangle is performed (increase the value of α, specifically, enlarging so that the distance between two points is increased), and then proceed to S3.

As described above, the designer merely designates two approximate points of a rectangle in which cells are to be arranged on the screen 2 and the number of cells designated to be arranged in this rectangle has a margin specified by a parameter. Creates a rectangle, terminates when the number of cells specified in this rectangle can be arranged almost exactly, expands the area when the number of cells cannot be arranged, and can reduce the area when the number of cells is too large Become.

Further, as shown in FIG.
Is deleted, the two points (upper left coordinate and lower right coordinate) of the area are input and the steps S3 to S7 are executed for the area after the deleted area B to automatically delete the area after the deleted area B. Can be automatically and sequentially performed.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the area management table of the present invention. 4, an area management table 6 manages areas, and includes area names (eg, areas A and B in FIG. 2), priority, upper left / lower right coordinates, actual number of cells, cell management table 7 and the like.

The cell management table 7 is linked by the link pointer of the area management table 6 and manages information of cells arranged in the area (size information of all cells arranged in the area, etc.). Here, in the cell management table 7, cells to be arranged in the area as shaded in the figure are sequentially linked, in this case, cells 2, 4, 6, 8, and 9 are sequentially linked.

Here, for example, the region B in (b-2) of FIG.
Is created, the area management table 6 stores the area name “area B”, the priority order “second”, and the upper left / lower right coordinates “area B”.
Upper left coordinate / lower right coordinate ”, actual cell number“ for example, 4
Individuals are set and managed. In addition, FIG.
As shown in FIG. 3, when the designer deletes the area B from the screen 2, based on the two points of the upper left / lower right coordinates of the area management table 6 of the area C after the deleted area B, S3 of FIG. To S7 to automatically re-create the area sequentially. Thus, when the designer deletes an arbitrary area, the area can be re-created with reference to the area management table 6 and the cell management table 7 of the area after the deletion.

[0032]

As described above, according to the present invention,
A configuration is adopted in which an area is automatically created only by designating two rectangular points of an area to be created, and an area is automatically created by avoiding the overlapped area when overlapping with another area. Therefore, when the designer only determines the outline and creates and deletes the region so that the region does not overlap, the region after the target can be automatically re-created. Thus, in the interactive system, it is possible to easily create an area by designating two points, or to designate a deletion area and re-create an area after the deletion target. Further, as compared with the conventional case where the designer inputs a large number of points so as not to overlap with other regions, the number of input steps can be greatly reduced and operability can be greatly improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the operation of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an example of an area management table according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1: Display 2: Screen 3: LSI layout system 4: Floor plan processing unit 5: Memory 6: Area management table 7: Cell management table

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A cell arrangement area creating method for creating an area for arranging cells, the method comprising the steps of:
If the rectangle created with the points as diagonal points does not overlap with the other areas already created, create this rectangular area.On the other hand, if it overlaps, create an area enlarged by this overlap avoiding this overlapping part. When the designated cell substantially fits in the created area, the area at this time is output as a cell arrangement area. On the other hand, when the designated cell does not fit, the area is expanded so as not to overlap with another area so as to almost fit. A cell arrangement area creating method, characterized in that, if the area can be accommodated but there is too much room, this area is reduced to almost accommodate the area and the expanded or reduced area is output as a cell arrangement area. 2. A rectangle created with a margin specified by a parameter from a rectangle required for arranging a cell specified in advance in response to an instruction of two points on a diagonal of the rectangle from the screen. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the processing is performed.