JPH05290115A - Method for retrieving specific circuit - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Object] To provide a search method for a specific circuit, which enables easy and high-speed search for whether or not a specific circuit is included in a circuit to be searched. [Configuration] A connection state of a circuit element and its terminal included in a specific circuit is stored, a connection state of a circuit element and its terminal included in a search target circuit is stored, and the stored connection states are collated with each other. By searching for a part or all of the specific circuit from the search target circuit, it is possible to quickly search whether or not the specific circuit is included in the complicated circuit to be searched, and to design the circuit early. Even an inexperienced designer can easily search for a defective circuit or a registered circuit such as a patent from the design circuit, so that the design time can be greatly shortened.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of searching a specific circuit for searching a circuit to be searched for a specific circuit when designing a circuit.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a search for whether or not a circuit designed at the time of circuit design works normally is simulated by using, for example, a circuit simulator. In addition, a skilled designer relies on visual inspection to search whether a registered circuit, such as a patent whose use is restricted, is inadvertently incorporated into a design circuit.

However, although it is possible to detect an inoperable circuit with a circuit simulator, it is not always possible to detect a circuit that is likely to fail. Further, with the recent increase in complexity of circuits, it is becoming difficult to detect the above-mentioned registered circuits by visual inspection. Therefore, for example, if the above-mentioned circuit is discovered during actual manufacturing, it may be necessary to redesign the circuit.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-245974 discloses CA
Although a method for searching for a design error by comparing the design data of the circuit in D with the design data at the mounting stage is disclosed, the design data at the circuit designing time and the designing data at the mounting stage are disclosed. Only the comparison with the design data is made, and the above-mentioned patent-registered circuits or circuits that are likely to fail are not searched.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the problems of the prior art as described above, and its main purpose is to determine whether or not a specific circuit is included in the circuit to be searched. An object of the present invention is to provide a search method for a specific circuit that can be searched easily and at high speed.

[0006]

According to the present invention, there is provided a method of searching a specific circuit for searching a circuit to be searched for a specific circuit formed by connecting a plurality of circuit elements to each other. The step of storing the connection state of the circuit element and its terminal included in the specific circuit, the step of storing the connection state of the circuit element and its terminal included in the search target circuit, and the connection state of each circuit are collated. And the process
This is achieved by providing a method for searching for a specific circuit, characterized in that a part or all of the specific circuit is searched from the search target circuit.

[0007]

According to this structure, even if the circuit is huge or the arrangement is different, it is possible to search for the specific circuit included in the circuit to be searched by simply comparing the connection states. can do.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an apparatus for carrying out a search method to which the present invention is applied. The input unit 1 including various input devices such as a keyboard, a mouse tablet, and a digitizer is connected to the CPU 2. A display 3 and a storage unit 4 including a RAM and the like are connected to the CPU 2. Further, the CPU 2 is provided with a comparison unit 2a for comparing the tables described later.

FIG. 2 shows a flow chart for schematically explaining the flow of searching for a specific circuit in the searched circuit.

First, in step 1, a specific circuit is input from the input section 1 by attaching an arbitrary user setting number to the connection points between the terminals of all the circuit elements in the circuit and the circuit elements connected to each other. , A correspondence table as shown in FIG. 3 is created. Here, in the present specification, a connection point is described as a point that represents a connection state of each terminal including a connection portion in which two or more elements are connected to each other and an open terminal or a terminal that can be treated in the same manner as an open terminal.

Next, in step 2, as shown in FIG.
The CPU 2 converts the user setting number into a predetermined internal number in the order of terminals having large electrical characteristics based on the electrical characteristics of the circuit element such as the directionality of the current of each circuit element. Further, as shown in FIG. 5, each circuit element is converted into an element symbol determined for each type so that the circuit elements can be easily collated at the time of collating the table described later. And step 3
Then, as shown in FIG. 6, a search table in which the circuit elements connected to the respective connection points are made to correspond in the order of the internal numbers is created and stored in the storage unit 4.

In step 4, in the same manner as in step 1 above, all the circuit elements of the circuit to be searched and the connection points between the circuit elements connected to each other are given arbitrary user-set numbers and input from the input section 1. Create a correspondence table for the searched circuit similar to. Then, step 5 and step 6
In the same manner as above, the conversion to the internal number of each connection point and the conversion to the element number of each circuit element is performed, and the searched table that corresponds the circuit elements connected to each connection point in the order of the internal numbers (Fig. 7) is created and stored in the storage unit 4, and the process proceeds to step 7.

Then, in steps 7 and 8, the comparison unit 2a collates the search table (FIG. 6) with the searched table (FIG. 7), that is, whether or not the specific circuit is included in the searched circuit. Then
If it is contained, the contained portion is displayed on the display 3 in step 9 and the search is ended. Here, the display may be performed by reconverting the internal number to the user set number at the time of input and converting the element number into each circuit element name or the like, or by converting into a circuit diagram and displaying.

Below, the specific circuit CT1 shown in FIG. 8 (a) is actually the searched circuit C shown in FIGS. 8 (b) and 8 (c).
A procedure for searching from within T2 and CT3 will be described.

First, the specific circuit CT1 is connected to the searched circuit CT2.
Search from within. An arbitrary user setting number is attached to each connection point in the specific circuit CT1 and each circuit element name is set and input from the input unit 1 to create a correspondence table (see FIG. 9).
(A)), the user setting number is converted into an internal number (FIG. 9 (b)). Also, each circuit element is converted into an element symbol, and a search table is created in which the circuit elements connected to each connection point are made to correspond in the order of the internal numbers (FIG. 9C).

Similarly to the above, regarding the searched circuit CT2, an arbitrary user setting number is attached to the connection points between all the circuit elements and each circuit element connected to each other, and input from the input section 1 to create a correspondence table ( FIG. 10A). A searched table in which the connection points are converted into internal numbers and the circuit elements are converted into element numbers (FIG. 10B), and the circuit elements connected to the connection points are associated in the order of internal numbers (Fig. 10 (c))
To create. Then, the search table (FIG. 9C) is collated with the searched table (FIG. 10C), that is, it is searched whether or not the specific circuit CT1 is included in the searched circuit CT2. still,
Since the searched circuit CT2 does not include the specific circuit CT1, the processing is ended without displaying step 9 in the flowchart of FIG.

Next, the specific circuit CT1 is connected to the searched circuit CT3.
Search from within. First, a search table (FIG.
(C)) is created. Here, it goes without saying that, in practice, a search table stored in the storage unit 4 may be used.

Then, for the circuit to be searched CT3, an arbitrary user setting number is attached to the connection points between all the circuit elements and each circuit element connected to each other, and input from the input section 1 to create a correspondence table (FIG. 11 ( a)). Conversion of each connection point into an internal number and conversion of each circuit element into an element number (see FIG. 11).
(B)), creating a searched table (FIG. 11 (c)) in which the circuit elements connected to the respective connection points are made to correspond in the order of the internal numbers,
The search table (FIG. 9C) is collated with the searched table (FIG. 11C), that is, whether or not the specific circuit CT1 is included in the searched circuit CT3 is searched. Here, the searched circuit CT3
1 includes two sets of the specific circuit CT1.
As shown in FIG. 2, this is displayed on the display 3 and the process ends.

In the present embodiment, the connection points between the elements are converted into internal numbers in consideration of the directionality of the current and the like, and each table is created. We searched for whether or not it was included in the search circuit.This is because the number of connection points is smaller than the number of circuit elements, so the search time can be shortened. Needless to say, a table centering on circuit elements may be used for retrieval. In addition, in the present embodiment, it is searched whether or not there is an exact match with the specific circuit in the circuit to be searched. You may search.

[0021]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the method for searching a specific circuit according to the present invention, it is possible to promptly check whether or not a specific circuit is included in a complicated circuit to be searched without relying on visual observation. Since it is possible to search, even a designer who is not familiar with circuit design can easily search for defective circuits and circuits with patents and other patents registered from the design circuit, greatly reducing design time. Can be promoted. From the above, the effect of the present invention is great.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a search device for a specific circuit to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a circuit search procedure.

FIG. 3 is a correspondence table of circuit elements of a specific circuit and connection points between terminals of each circuit element.

FIG. 4 is a conversion table from user-set numbers attached to terminals of circuit elements of a specific circuit to internal numbers predetermined for each type of terminal.

FIG. 5 is a conversion table from each circuit element name of the specific circuit to an element symbol determined for each type.

FIG. 6 is a search table in which each circuit element is associated with an internal number of each terminal of the specific circuit.

FIG. 7 is a searched table in which each circuit element is associated with an internal number of each terminal of the searched circuit.

FIG. 8A is a circuit diagram showing an example of a specific circuit, and FIGS. 8B and 8C are examples of circuits to be searched.

9A is a correspondence table similar to FIG. 3 in the specific circuit of FIG. 8A, FIG. 9B is a conversion table similar to FIG.
Part (c) is a search table similar to FIG. 6 is a table showing connection point numbers.

10A is a correspondence table similar to FIG. 3 in the searched circuit of FIG. 8B, FIG. 10B is a conversion table similar to FIG. 4 in the searched circuit, Part c) is a searched table similar to FIG.

11A is a correspondence table similar to FIG. 3 in the searched circuit of FIG. 8C, FIG. 11B is a conversion table similar to FIG. 4 in the searched circuit, Part c) is a searched table similar to FIG.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a display screen of inspection results.

[Explanation of reference numerals] 1 input unit 2 CPU 2a comparison unit 3 display 4 storage unit

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A method for searching a specific circuit for searching a specific circuit, which is formed by connecting a plurality of circuit elements to each other, from a search target circuit, wherein a connection state of a circuit element included in the specific circuit and a terminal thereof. And a step of storing the connection state of the circuit element and its terminal included in the search target circuit, and a step of collating the connection state of each circuit, part or all of the specific circuit A method of searching for a specific circuit, characterized in that a search is performed from the circuit to be searched. 2. The method for retrieving a specific circuit according to claim 1, wherein in the collating step, collation is performed in order from a connection state of terminals having large electrical characteristics based on electrical characteristics of the circuit element. ..