	US 7,519,939 B2
	Method and program for supporting register-transfer-level design of semiconductor integrated circuit
Takehiko Tsuchiya, Tokyo (Japan)
Assigned to Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, (Japan)
Filed on Feb. 28, 2007, as Appl. No. 11/680,090.
Application 11/680090 is a division of application No. 11/007891, filed on Dec. 08, 2004, granted, now 7,219,312.
Application 11/007891 is a division of application No. 10/255530, filed on Sep. 26, 2002, granted, now 6,851,102.
Claims priority of application No. 2001-298410 (JP), filed on Sep. 27, 2001.
Prior Publication US 2007/0143731 A1, Jun. 21, 2007
Int. Cl. G06F 17/50 (2006.01)

U.S. Cl. 716—18 [716/1; 716/2; 716/3; 716/5]

4 Claims

1. A computer implemented method for supporting a register-transfer-level (RTL) design of a semiconductor integrated circuit, comprising:

storing a RTL description related to the semiconductor integrated circuit into a first memory, the RTL description including a description of a compound block containing a mixture of logics of combinational and non-combinational circuit descriptions;

extracting a logic of the non-combinational circuit description from the compound block description by checking the mixture of the logics of the combinational and the non-combinational circuit descriptions;

storing a RTL library including cells into a second memory;

comparing the logic of the extracted non-combinational circuit description with a logic of each cell, and;

if the comparison results show that one of the cells has the same logic as the logic of the extracted non-combinational circuit description, replacing the extracted non-combinational circuit description with the cell having the same logic of the extracted non-combinational circuit decription; and

if the comparison results show that the logic of the extracted non-combinational circuit description is not the same as the logic of any of the cells, dividing the extracted non-combinational circuit description into a replaceable part and a remaining part, wherein the remaining part comprises a combinational circuit, and replacing the replaceable part with one of the cells.