US Patent 8001512 Method and system for implementing context simulation

A method, system, and computer program product are disclosed for using pattern-dependent models at early stages of the design process. This addresses the key disadvantage of prior approaches which are restricted to using such models later in the design process for IC designs that are nearly complete. Pattern-dependent manufacturing effects are extracted from early stage designs and using the extracted pattern-dependent effects to efficiently and effectively design the integrated circuit. One or more contexts are built around one or more units of the design, with examples of units being a block or cell. The units are then used in the context to generate pattern-dependent data as a basis for one or more pattern-dependent models.