Carry chain reduction and replacement for circuit designs

A system, comprising:

• a memory capable of storing program instructions;
• and
• a hardware processor capable of executing the program instructions to perform operations including:
• detecting a carry chain instance of a circuit design that is under-utilized, wherein the carry chain instance has a first number of logic levels and includes one or more carry chain primitives dedicated for implementing carry chain logic;
• generating an updated carry chain instance having a second number of logic levels less than the first number of logic levels;
• and
• replacing, within the circuit design, the carry chain instance with the updated carry chain instance.

A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, wherein the program instructions are executable by computer hardware to cause the computer hardware to initiate executable operations comprising:

• detecting a carry chain instance of a circuit design that is under-utilized, wherein the carry chain instance has a first number of logic levels and includes one or more carry chain primitives dedicated for implementing carry chain logic;
• generating an updated carry chain instance having a second number of logic levels less than the first number of logic levels;
• and
• replacing, within the circuit design, the carry chain instance with the updated carry chain instance.