What-if partitioning and timing

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method for facilitating a user to explore different modifications to a circuit design floorplan, the method comprising:

• displaying a graphical representation of a circuit design floorplan, wherein the graphical representation includes a set of blocks and a set of flylines between blocks, wherein each block corresponds to a portion of the circuit design, and wherein each flyline corresponds to one or more relationships between two blocks;
• displaying a set of metrics associated with one or more blocks or one or more flylines;
• in response to receiving a modification to one or more blocks in the graphical representation, updating the set of metrics without performing expensive netlist modification, placement, routing, and/or propagation of timing information through multiple levels of logic;
• and
• displaying the updated set of metrics.

An apparatus, comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a non-transitory storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to perform a method for facilitating a user to explore different modifications to a circuit design floorplan, the method comprising:
• displaying a graphical representation of a circuit design floorplan, wherein the graphical representation includes a set of blocks and a set of flylines between blocks, wherein each block corresponds to a portion of the circuit design, and wherein each flyline corresponds to one or more relationships between two blocks;
• displaying a set of metrics associated with one or more blocks or one or more flylines;
• in response to receiving a modification to one or more blocks in the graphical representation, updating the set of metrics without performing expensive netlist modification, placement, routing, and/or propagation of timing information through multiple levels of logic;
• and
• displaying the updated set of metrics.