Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 12
Claim 1
Independent Claim
171 words
A method of simulating a logic system, comprising the steps: (a) maintaining a data structure representing a cyclic time loop having a plurality of time slots, each time slot being associated with a plurality of different simulation time values corresponding to successive cycles around the time loop, (b) inserting simulation events into the time slots, each event having an event time value, and each event being inserted into a time slot corresponding to the event time value of that event, events with different event time values corresponding to different cycles around the time loop being simultaneously present in a single time slot, (c) maintaining a current simulation time value, and incrementing said current simulation time value to simulate passage of time, and (d) accessing the time slot corresponding to the current simulation time value, comparing the event time values of events in that time slot with the current simulation time value, and processing only events in that time slot whose event time values are equal to the current simulation time value.
Claim 2
Independent Claim
171 words
A method of simulating a logic system, comprising the steps: (a) maintaining a data structure representing a cyclic time loop having a plurality of time slots, each time slot being associated with a plurality of different simulation time values corresponding to successive cycles around the time loop, (b) inserting simulation events into the time slots, each event having an event time value, and each event being inserted into a time slot corresponding to the event time value of that event, events with different event time values corresponding to different cycles around the time loop being simultaneously present in a single time slot, (c) maintaining a current simulation time value, and incrementing said current simulation time value to simulate passage of time, and (d) accessing the time slot corresponding to the current simulation time value, comparing the event time values of events in that time slot with the current simulation time value, and processing only events in that time slot whose event time values are equal to the current simulation time value.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
39 words
A method according to claim 1, wherein the step of inserting simulation events comprises inserting an event with event time value T into time slot T MOD L, where L is the number of time slots in the loop.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
55 words
A method according to claim 1, including the further steps of detecting a cycle of the loop in which no events with event time values equal to the current simulation time value, determining the earliest event time value in the loop, and causing the current simulation time to jump to that earliest event time value.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
17 words
A method according to claim 1, wherein the number of time slots in the loop is constant.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
19 words
A method according to claim 4, wherein the number of time slots in the loop is less than 20.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
19 words
A method according to claim 4, wherein the number of time slots in the loop is a prime number.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
17 words
A method according to claim 6, wherein the number of time slots in the loop is 7.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
21 words
A method according to claim 1, including the further step of dynamically varying the number of time slots in the loop.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
55 words
A method according to claim 8, including the further steps of setting the number of time slots in the loop to a minimum value, and then increasing said number of time slots when an attempt is made to insert an event into a time slot that already contains an event with a different event time.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
23 words
A method according to claim 9, wherein the number of time slots in the loop is one of a series of prime numbers.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
26 words
A method according to claim 8, including the step of decreasing the number of time slots in the loop at the end of each simulation run.