Method and apparatus for integrating signal transition time modeling during routing

A non-transitory computer readable medium including a sequence of instructions stored thereon for causing a computer to execute a method comprising:

• routing a system on a target device;
• determining whether timing data is stale upon detecting a change in signal transition time, wherein the signal transition time is an amount of time required for a signal to transition from a first percentage of a power voltage step height that represents an OFF/ON state to a second percentage of the power voltage step height that represents an ON/OFF state;
• performing static timing analysis if the timing data is stale;
• calculating transition time budgets utilizing information from the static timing analysis;
• and
• re-routing the system on the target device using the transition time budgets.

A system designer, comprising:

• a routing unit to route a system on a target device;
• a routing manager to determine whether timing data is stale upon detecting a change in signal transition times, wherein the signal transition time is an amount of time required for a signal to transition from a first percentage of a power voltage step height that represents and OFF/ON state to a second percentage of the power voltage step height that represents an ON/OFF state;
• a static timing analysis unit to perform static timing analysis if the timing data is stale;
• a transition time budget unit to calculate transition time budgets utilizing information from the static timing analysis, wherein the routing unit re-routes the system on the target device using the transition time budgets.

A method for designing a system on a target device, comprising:

• routing the system on the target device;
• determining whether timing data is stale when a change in signal transition time is detected, wherein the signal transition time is an amount of time required for a signal to transition from a first percentage of a power voltage step height that represents an OFF/ON state to a second percentage of the power voltage step height that represents an ON/OFF state;
• performing static timing analysis in response to determining that the timing data is stale;
• calculating transition time budgets utilizing information from the static timing analysis;
• and
• re-routing the system on the target device using the transition time budgets in response to determining that the timing data is stale, wherein one of the routing, determining, performing, and calculating is performed by a processor.