Synopsys, Inc.

Benoit Lemonnier

Kenneth S McElvain

William Halpin

Methods and apparatuses to design an integrated circuit are discussed. In one embodiment, the method of designing an integrated circuit comprises partitioning a chip resource into a plurality of sections, and calculating the rank of the sections based on a quality metric. The method further comprises removing the sections with the lowest ranks from consideration by a placement transform.

Architectural physical synthesis

The present invention discloses methods and apparatuses to design an integrated circuit. According to one aspect, a method of designing an integrated circuit comprises determining a state of a design of the integrated circuit at a high level design representation of the integrated circuit, wherein the state of the design of the integrated circuit comprises a netlist with at least one of timing data, resource information, placement information, routing information, and power data. The method further comprises determining a first transform for the state, changing the state of the design at the high level design representation of the integrated circuit using the first transform, and determining a second transform based on the changed state.

The present invention discloses methods and apparatuses to design an integrated circuit. According to one aspect, the present invention circuit design discloses an iterative process of synthesis and placement where each iteration provides incremental changes on the design of the integrated circuit. The synthesis transform is then made with accurate timing information from the placement, and the process is incrementally iterative toward the final timing enclosure of the design. The incrementally iterative approach of the present invention provides a continuous advancement from synthesis to placement and vice versa, with the incremental improvements on synthesis made with knowledge of current instance placement, and the incremental improvements on placement made with knowledge of current circuit logic.

The present invention discloses methods and apparatuses to design an integrated circuit. According to one aspect, the present invention circuit design discloses an iterative process of synthesis and placement where each iteration provides incremental changes on the design of the integrated circuit. The incrementally iterative approach of the present invention provides a continuous advancement from synthesis to placement and vice versa, with the incremental improvements on synthesis made with knowledge of current instance placement, and the incremental improvements on placement made with knowledge of current circuit logic. According to another aspect, the present invention circuit design discloses incremental force directed placement transforms utilizing resource layers to address the heterogeneous resource distribution problem, where the force on an instance can be a weighted average of the forces from its resource layers based on the local congestion of those resources. In addition, incremental area removal method can be utilized to address resource utilization problem through a quality metric based on force directed placement transforms, such as a resource demand topological mapping.

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Palo Alto, CA, United States of America

Benoit Lemonnier