Computational Support for Multiplicity in Hierarchical Electronics Design.

While hierarchical design promises design process improvements through structures that better enable computational design, the basic model of blocks, ports, and connections lacks support for multiplicity – dealing with repeated instances of objects. In this work, we explore two extensions of that basic model to support two types of multiplicity, specifically in the context of board-level electronics where this is a common pattern. First, to support blocks that can be arbitrarily scalable across number of devices – e.g., an n-element LED array generator – we extend the existing fixed port interfaces for blocks with port arrays that can have dynamic width with automatic propagation through connections. Second, to support mapping abstract blocks in a design onto physical multipack devices – e.g., combining resistors across the design into a single quad-pack resistor device to optimize for fabrication – we introduce cross-hierarchy packing including support for shared pins. For both of these constructs, we describe the user-facing abstractions, internal representations, and compiler implementation, then demonstrate their end-to-end use through three example designs that we have fabricated and tested.