Methods for designing integrated circuits employing voltage scaling and integrated circuits designed thereby

A method of designing an integrated circuit, comprising:

• generating a functional design for said integrated circuit;
• determining performance objectives for said integrated circuit, said performance objectives including one selected from the group consisting of:
• a target power consumption,
• a target area, and
• a target speed;
• determining an optimization target voltage for said integrated circuit;
• determining whether said integrated circuit needs voltage scaling to achieve said performance objectives at said optimization target voltage and, if so, selecting between employing static voltage scaling or adaptive voltage scaling;
• using said optimization target voltage to synthesize a netlist from said functional integrated circuit design that meets said performance objectives and a clock tree for said integrated circuit, wherein said using is performed by a processor;
• determining a routing at said optimization target voltage;
• implementing a layout of said integrated circuit from said netlist;
• and
• performing a timing signoff of said layout at said optimization target voltage.

A computer program product, comprising a non-transitory computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, said computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method of designing an integrated circuit, said method comprising:

• generating a functional design for said integrated circuit;
• determining performance objectives for said integrated circuit;
• determining an optimization target voltage for said integrated circuit;
• determining whether said integrated circuit needs voltage scaling to achieve said performance objectives at said optimization target voltage and, if so, selecting between employing static voltage scaling or adaptive voltage scaling;
• using said optimization target voltage to synthesize a netlist from said functional integrated circuit design that meets said performance objectives
• determining a routing at said optimization target voltage;
• implementing a layout of said integrated circuit from said netlist;
• and
• performing a timing signoff of said layout at said optimization target voltage.

A computer program product, comprising a non-transitory computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, said computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method of designing an integrated circuit, said method comprising:

• generating a functional design for said integrated circuit;
• determining performance objectives for said integrated circuit, said performance objectives including one selected from the group consisting of:
• a target power consumption,
• a target area, and
• a target speed;
• determining an optimization target voltage for said integrated circuit;
• determining whether said integrated circuit needs voltage scaling to achieve said performance objectives at said optimization target voltage and, if so, selecting between employing static voltage scaling or adaptive voltage scaling;
• using said optimization target voltage to synthesize a netlist from said functional integrated circuit design that meets said performance objectives and a clock tree for said integrated circuit;
• determining a routing at said optimization target voltage;
• implementing a layout of said integrated circuit from said netlist;
• and
• performing a timing signoff of said layout at said optimization target voltage.