Timing closure methodology
AssigneeMagma Design Automation, Inc.
InventorLukas P. P. P. van Ginneken
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An automated method for designing an integrated circuit layout using a computer based upon an electronic circuit description and based upon cells which are selected from a cell library, each of the cells having an associated area, comprising the steps of: (a) placing each of the cells in the integrated circuit layout so that the cells can be coupled together by wires to form a circuit path having an associated predetermined delay constraint wherein the cells are coupled together based upon the electronic circuit description input to the computer; (b) connecting the cells together with the wires to form the circuit path; and (c) adjusting an area of at least one of the cells to satisfy the associated predetermined delay constraint of the circuit path.
Claims19
An automated method for designing an initial integrated circuit layout with a computer, based upon an electronic circuit description and by using a cell library containing cells that each have an associated relative delay value, comprising the steps of:
- (a) selecting a plurality of cells from the cell library that are intended to be coupled to each other with a plurality of wires and that can be used to implement a digital circuit based on the electronic circuit description input to the computer;
- and
- (b) determining, using a portion of a computer program that contains a sequence of instructions, an initial intended area of each of the selected plurality of cells, the initial intended area of at least some of the selected plurality of cells being determined using the associated relative delay values of the some selected cells and initial intended lengths of some of the wires coupled to each of said some selected cells in order to meet predetermined timing constraints associated with each of said some cells that are coupled to another cell.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.