Fast Online/Offline Netlist Compilation of Hierarchical Schematics

We present fast techniques for creating the netlist underlying a hierarchical schematic design. The methods can be used either for creating the netlist as a data structure for further online processing or for creating the netlist as a file for use with other offline design tools that are downstream from the compilation process. The methods we present have been used successfully in the implementation of a hierarchical schematic capture system that supports both netlist compilation and switch-level logic simulation.