Systems and methods for flexibly optimizing processing circuit efficiency

A method of using circuit design equipment to design a processing circuit, the method comprising:

• with the circuit design equipment, identifying a plurality of clock signal frequencies for the processing circuit;
• with the circuit design equipment, identifying an optimal clock signal frequency from the plurality of clock signal frequencies;
• and
• with the circuit design equipment, providing a logic design that implements the identified optimal clock signal frequency to circuit fabrication equipment for fabricating the processing circuit based on the logic design and the identified optimal clock signal frequency.

A method of operating circuit design equipment, the method comprising:

• with the circuit design equipment, identifying a logic design for a circuit, wherein the logic design specifies a plurality of chip area constraints for the circuit;
• with the circuit design equipment, identifying a plurality of clock signal frequencies for the circuit;
• with the circuit design equipment, generating a cost function based on the plurality of chip area constraints and the plurality of clock signal frequencies for the circuit;
• and
• with the circuit design equipment, optimizing the generated cost function to identify an optimal clock signal frequency of the plurality of clock signal frequencies and an optimal chip area constraint of the plurality of chip area constraints for the circuit.