Design representation in Movie

An environment for silicon compilation tools in which module generators can be created, maintained, and operated on is defined. A module is defined by its specification, which can be hierarchically parameterized. Instantiation is based on a set of built-in rules including geometrical design rules and composition rules for modules. An abstraction of the functionality is created by defining a formal representation language and a set of operations on descriptions expressed in that language. The representation language is defined in such a way that all descriptions can be represented in two different domains, graphically on the screen and internally in a database. The set of operations can be expressed in both domains. The main advantage of introducing the language is that the functionality of the system can be described in a compact way on an abstraction level much higher than the implementation. The representation language explicitly represents geometrical connectivity and symbolic layout and is used for specifications and instances. Conditional and repetitive layout and regular arrays of modules are supported by the language. Specific support for compaction and routing tools is included