in the following description , for purposes of explanation , specific numbers , materials and configurations are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention . however , it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without the specific details . in other instances , well known features are omitted or simplified in order not to obscure the present invention . parts of the description will be presented using terms such as accounts , ids , objects , end - user interfaces , buttons , and so forth , commonly employed by those skilled in the art to convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art . parts of the description will be presented in terms of operations performed by a computer system , using terms such as creating , empowering , and so forth . as well understood by those skilled in the art , these quantities and operations take the form of electrical , magnetic , or optical signals capable of being stored , transferred , combined , and otherwise manipulated through mechanical and electrical components of a digital system ; and the term digital system include general purpose as well as special purpose data processing machines , systems , and the like , that are standalone , adjunct or embedded . various operations will be described as multiple discrete steps performed in turn in a manner that is most helpful in understanding the present invention , however , the order of description should not be construed as to imply that these operations are necessarily order dependent , in particular , the order the steps are presented . furthermore , the phrase “ in one embodiment ” will be used repeatedly , however the phrase does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment , although it may . referring now fig2 wherein a block diagram illustrating an overview of the method of the present invention for partitioning and placing a circuit design onto a number of reconfigurable logic devices , is shown . as alluded to earlier , the partition and placement may be performed for the purpose of implementing or emulation the circuit on the reconfigurable logic devices , which may e . g . be general purpose or emulation specific fpgas . examples of general purpose fpgas include but are not limited to those available from manufacturers such as xlinx and altera , both of san jose , calif . ; and examples of emulation specific fpga include but are not limited to the fpga disclosed is u . s . pat . no . 5 , 573 , 388 . as illustrated , the partitioning and placement process of the present invention starts as the prior art process with the netlists of the function blocks of a circuit design , such as function blocks 104 a - 104 n of ic design 102 , being provided along function block lines to a partitioner , such as partitioner 104 , to be correspondingly partitioned along function block lines into partitions 106 a - 106 n . that is , the partitioning results in x 1 partitions 106 a for fb - a 104 a , x 2 partitioned partitions 106 b for fb - b 104 b , and so forth . however , from this point on , the process of the present invention advantageously diverges from the prior art . instead of correspondingly compiling all partitions 106 a - 106 n into configuration files to configure corresponding reconfigurable logic devices to implement or emulate the constituting elements of the partitions 106 a - 106 n , partitions 106 a - 106 n are provided to merger 112 for processing . merger 112 analyzes the partitions 106 a - 106 n , and accords them different treatment in accordance with the results of the analysis . more specifically , in accordance with one embodiment , merger 112 determines if each of the partitions 106 a - 106 n is to be considered a “ majority ” partition or a “ minority ” partition . in one embodiment , a “ majority ” partition is a partition that contains a percentage of the constituting elements of the corresponding function block in excess of a predetermined threshold percentage ( e . g . 5 %), whereas a “ minority ” partition is a partition that contains a percentage of the constituting elements of the corresponding function block that is smaller than the predetermined threshold percentage . the “ majority ” partitions are passed onto compiler 108 for corresponding compilation into configuration files 110 a - 110 n for configuring corresponding reconfigurable logic devices to implement or realize the partitions . accordingly , y 1 configuration files for y 1 logic devices will result for partition 106 a , y 2 configuration files for y 2 logic devices will result for partition 106 b , and so forth , where y 1 , y 2 , . . . yn are less than or equal to x 1 , x 2 , . . . xn , respectively . the “ minority ” partitions , on the other hand are merged into one or more ( z ) composite partitions 114 . in one embodiment , the “ minority ” partitions are merged in accordance with the operating clock domains of the “ minority ” partitions . that is , “ minority ” partitions with the same operating clock domain are merged together across function blocks . the merged composite partitions in turn are provided to partitioner 104 to be partitioned again . as shown , the partitioning results in w 1 through wn cross function composite partitions 116 . these composite partitions 116 are then in turn provided to compiler 108 for compilation into w 1 through wn configuration files for correspondingly configuring a sum of w 1 through wn reconfigurable logic devices to implement or realize the constituting elements of these partitions . experience has shown that a smaller number of reoconfigurable logic devices will be required to implement or realize the circuit elements of these “ minority ” partitions , as compared to the prior art approaches . for example , if a dozen minority partitions are merged into two composite partitions , the two composite partitions are re - partitioned , with the first composite partition partitioned into e . g . 2 composite partitions and the second composite partition partitioned into e . g . 3 partitions . the 5 composite partitions are then compiled into 5 configuration files for configuring 5 reconfigurable logic devices . thus , 5 reconfigurable logic devices will be used to implement or realize the circuit elements of these “ minority ” partitions , as opposed to a dozen of reconfigurable logic devices under the prior art . except for merger 112 , partitioner 104 and compiler 108 are intended to represent a broad range of such elements known in the art . accordingly , except for merger 112 , which will be described in more below , partitioner 104 and compiler 108 will not be further described . from the description to follow , and as it is known for partitioner 104 and compiler 108 , each of these elements , merger 112 , partitioner 104 and compiler 108 may be implemented in any one or more of a number of programming languages known in the art . referring now to fig3 wherein a block diagram illustrating the operating flow of the relevant aspects of merger function 112 of fig2 in accordance with one embodiment . as illustrated , the process starts with merger function 112 selecting a function block for analysis , block 302 ; more specifically , the partitions of the function block . as will be apparent from the totality of the description , the order through which the function blocks are selected for analysis is immaterial , as long as they all get selected and analyzed . at block 304 , merger function 112 selects a specific partition of the currently selected function block for analysis . similarly , the order through which the partitions of a selected function block are selected for analysis is immaterial , as long as they all get selected and analyzed . at block 306 , merger function 112 determines if the selected partition is to be characterized as a “ majority ” or a “ minority ” partition , in accordance with e . g . a predetermined percentage threshold as described earlier . as described earlier , if a partition being analyzed is to be characterized as a “ majority ” partition , the partition is provided to compiler 108 for compilation into a configuration file to configure a corresponding reconfigurable logic device to implement or emulate the circuit elements of the partition , block 308 . on the other hand , if the partition being analyzed is to be characterized as a “ minority ” partition , the partition is merged into a composite partition instead . as described earlier , in one embodiment , the partitions are merged in accordance with their operating clock domain . as illustrated , for the embodiment , merger function 112 determines whether a composite partition exists into which the “ minority ” partition may be merged , block 314 . if such composite partition exists , the “ minority ” partition is merged into the composite partition accordingly , block 318 . otherwise , a new composite partition is first created , block 316 , before merging the “ minority ” partition into the newly created composite partition . upon dispatching a “ majority ” partition to compiler 108 or upon merging a “ minority ” partition into a composite partition , the process continues at block 310 , wherein merger function 112 determines if there are additional partitions of the selected function block to be analyzed . if so , the process returns to block 304 and continues from there as earlier described . if not , merger function 112 determines if there are additional function blocks to be analyzed . if so , the process returns to block 302 and continues from there as earlier described . if not , the process terminates . [ 0033 ] fig4 illustrates the incorporation of the elements of present invention , i . e . partitioner 104 , merger function 112 and compiler 108 into an electronic design automation ( eda ) software suite 402 . beside , partitioner 104 , merger function 112 and compiler 108 , eda software suite 402 may further include one or more other eda tools known in the art . examples of these tools include but are not limited to synthesis tools , place and route tools , design verification check tools , simulation and / or emulation tools , and the like . [ 0034 ] fig5 illustrates the incorporation of eda software suite 402 in a workstation 502 . workstation 502 includes storage medium 506 for storing the implementing programming instructions of eda software suite 402 . preferably , storage medium 506 include non - volatile as well as volatile storage for storing “ permanent ” as well as “ temporal ” ( i . e . working ) copies of the implementing programming instructions of eda software suite 402 . workstation 502 also includes processor 504 coupled to storage medium 506 to execute the implementing programming instructions of eda software suite 402 . except for eda software suite 402 incorporated therein , workstation 502 is otherwise intended to represent a broad range of computer systems known in the art . suitable systems include but are not limited to those available from dell computer of austin texas and hewlett packard of palo alto , calif . for the illustrated embodiment , workstation 502 is a component of emulation system 500 . in addition to workstation 502 , emulation system 500 further includes emulator 512 having a number of reconfigurable logic devices ( with reconfigurable logic resources ) and reconfigurable interconnect resources for realizing circuit designs . partitioner 104 , merger 112 and compiler 108 are employed to partition and place a circuit design onto selected ones of the reconfigurable logic resources 514 of emulator 512 in accordance with the more efficient cross function block manner of the present invention . as a result , for an emulator 512 having a given size of reconfigurable logic resources 514 , a large circuit design may be emulated . as those skilled in the art , this is a significant advantage in view of continuous increase in size and complexity of circuit design , and the cost of emulation systems . except for the elements of the present invention incorporated therein , emulation system 500 is also otherwise intended to represent a broad range of emulation systems known in the art . examples of such emulation systems include but are not limited to the simexpress and celaro emulation systems available from the meta system division , les ulis , france , of mentor graphics corp . of wilsonville , oreg ., usa . [ 0038 ] fig6 on the other hand illustrates the incorporation of the eda software suite 402 having partitioner 104 , merger 112 and compiler 108 of the present invention , onto server 606 . similar to workstation 502 , server 606 includes storage medium 610 and one or more processor 608 for storing and executing eda software suite 402 . server 606 also includes a number of networking / communication resources ( not shown ) for making eda software suite 402 , including partitioner 104 , merger 112 and compiler 108 of the present invention available for use by remote client devices 602 across networking fabric 604 . server 606 may be any one of a number of “ mid - range ” to “ high - end ” servers known in the art , including but are not limited to those available from manufacturers such as ibm of armonk , n . y . and sun microsystems of menlo park , calif . client devices 602 may be any one of a number of networking / communication enabled computing devices known in the art , including but are not limited to those examples enumerated earlier for workstation 502 . networking fabric 604 is intended to represent private lan or wan of “ private ” enterprises , as well as public networks , such as the internet . thus , a method and apparatus for partitioning and placement of a circuit design onto reconfigurable logic devices in a cross function block manner have been described . while the method and apparatus of the present invention have been described in terms of the above illustrated embodiments , those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention is not limited to the embodiments described . the present invention can be practiced with modification and alteration within the spirit and scope of the appended claims . the description is thus to be regarded as illustrative instead of restrictive on the present invention .