Method and apparatus for performing power routing in ASIC design

A computer program product comprising:

• a computer readable medium having computer program code embodied therein for building a circuit, the computer readable medium comprising computer program code configured to cause a computer to:
• perform placement of one or more standard cells to obtain a physical layout;
• and
• after said placement, route one or more power resources across said physical layout, wherein routing said one or more power resources comprises analyzing power consumption of said physical layout to determine where said one or more power resources are to be routed.

In a computer system, an apparatus comprising:

• a processor;
• a process executing on said processor, said process configured to:
• obtain a physical layout through placement of one or more standard cells;
• analyze power consumption of said physical layout to determine where one or more power resources are to be routed;
• and
• route said one or more power resources across said physical layout after said placement.

In a computer system, an apparatus comprising:

• means for performing placement of one or more standard cells to obtain a physical layout;
• means for analyzing said physical layout to determine power routing requirements;
• and
• means for routing one or more power resources across said physical layout after said placement.

In a computer system, a method comprising:

• performing placement of a plurality of cells to obtain a physical layout;
• after said placement:
• analyzing said physical layout to determine power routing requirements;
• routing one or more power resources across said physical layout in accordance with said power routing requirements;
• and
• incrementally translating one or more of said plurality of cells to correct one or more design rule violations associated with said one or more power resources.

In a computer system, a method comprising:

• performing placement of a plurality of cells in a current circuit module;
• determining if said current circuit module merits a power resource;
• if said current circuit module requires a power resource, inserting one or more substantially empty cells in said circuit module;
• after placement of a physical layout comprising said current circuit module, routing one or more power resources over said one or more substantially empty cells.