Determining high quality initial candidate sink locations for robust clock network design
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsCharles Jay Alpert, Zhuo Li, Chin Ngai Sze, Ying Zhou
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A design tool with an initial sink locator unit determines a number of clock buffers for driving clock signals to loads in a clock distribution network. The design tool determines clusters of loads in the clock distribution network, wherein the number of clusters is equal to the number of clock buffers and the loads are uniformly distributed amongst the clusters. The design tool determines centers of the clusters as initial candidate sink locations for the clock buffers. The design tool iteratively determines new clusters and determines centers of the new clusters as optimized initial candidate sink locations.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- determining, by a machine, a number of clock buffers for driving clock signals to loads in a clock distribution network for a microprocessor design;
- determining clusters of loads in the clock distribution network, wherein the number of clusters is equal to the number of clock buffers and the loads are uniformly distributed amongst the clusters;
- determining centers of the clusters as initial candidate sink locations for the clock buffers;
- and
- determining new clusters of the loads based on the initial candidate sink locations for the clock buffers;
- and
- determining centers of the new clusters of the loads as optimized initial candidate sink locations for the clock buffers.
A computer program product for clock network design, the computer program product comprising:
- a computer readable storage medium having computer usable program code embodied therewith, the computer usable program code comprising a computer usable program code configured to:
- determine, a number of clock buffers for driving clock signals to loads of a clock distribution network design of a microprocessor design;
- determine clusters of loads in the clock distribution network sign, wherein the number of clusters is equal to the number of clock buffers and the loads are uniformly distributed amongst the clusters;
- determine centers of the clusters as initial candidate sink locations for the clock buffers;
- and
- determine new clusters of the loads based on the initial candidate sink locations for the clock buffers;
- and
- determine centers of the new clusters as optimized initial candidate sink locations for the clock buffers.
An apparatus comprising:
- a processor,
- a bus;
- and
- a computer readable storage medium having computer usable program code embodied therewith, the computer usable program code comprising a computer usable program code configured to:
- determine, a number of clock buffers for driving clock signals to loads of a clock distribution network of a microprocessor design;
- determine clusters of loads in the clock distribution network, wherein the number of clusters is equal to the number of clock buffers and the loads are uniformly distributed amongst the clusters;
- determine centers of the clusters as initial candidate sink locations for the clock buffers;
- and
- determine new clusters of the loads based on the initial candidate sink locations for the clock buffers;
- and
- determine centers of the new clusters as optimized initial candidate sink locations for the clock buffers.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.