International Business Machines Corporation

Michael Alexander Bowen

Howard Harold Smith

Byron Lee Krauter

Alina Deutsch

Christopher J Berry

Adam P Matheny

David J Widiger

Gerard Vincent Kopcsay

Barry Jay Rubin

Allan Harvey Dansky

Amanda Christine Venton

Fadi Y Busaba

Moises Cases

Gustavo Enrique Tellez

Michael H Wood

David S Wolpert

Rahul Rao

Peter J Camporese

Robert Mahlon Averill, Iii

Michael R Scheuermann

Gerald Strevig, Iii

Mitchell R DeHond

Amy May Tuvell

Clay Chip Smith

Steven Arthur Schmidt

Adrian Zuckerman

Joseph Koone

Smitha Reddy

Aspects of the invention include methods, systems, and computer program products for integrated circuit development using cross-hierarchy antenna condition verification. A method includes obtaining a design of a hierarchical macro distributed between multiple files for an integrated circuit and analyzing, by a design verification tool, a route between at least one child macro and at least one pin of the hierarchical macro as defined in the files. The method further includes determining, by the design verification tool, a plurality of connection characteristics of the at least one child macro and the at least one pin forming the route and calculating, by the design verification tool, an antenna condition for the route based on the connection characteristics. The design of the hierarchical macro is adjusted to remove a violation of an antenna rule based on determining that the antenna condition of the route violates the antenna rule.

Cross-hierarchy antenna condition verification

Embodiments include predictive antenna diode insertion. Aspects of the invention include obtaining a design of a macro, the design including an internal pin disposed on a first layer of the macro. Aspects of the invention also include determining a length of a wire needed to connect the internal pin to a furthest edge of the macro for each of two layers above the layer the internal pin. Aspects of the invention further include adding, to the design of the macro, an antenna diode to the internal pin based on the determination that an area of the wire needed exceeds a threshold value, wherein the area of the wire is based on the length and a width of the wire.

Predictive antenna diode insertion

Aspects of the invention include generating a set of via mesh specifications for a cell within an integrated circuit. Each via mesh specification defines one or more straps on each layer above a first layer, which includes one or more pins that form a pin terminal, to a top layer that connects the cell to a net for interconnection of the cell with one or more other cells, and also one or more vias that interconnect adjacent ones of the layers. Aspects also include verifying whether each via mesh specification is a universally routable via mesh specification guaranteeing that the cell interconnects with other cells through the net while meeting all design rules, and including only the via mesh specifications of the set of via mesh specifications that are universally routable in a library of via mesh specifications. The library is used to finalize and fabricate the integrated circuit.

Generation and selection of universally routable via mesh specifications in an integrated circuit

A method for preprocessing tie net routing data organizes the data into a plurality of tie nets each based on an optimal connection path between a pin or set of pins and the power grid. The router then routs the data embodying the thusly-simplified plurality of tie nets. Once the routing is complete, post processor takes the routed design and returns it to its original net list state while keeping the routing solution.

Method for simplifying tie net modeling for router performance

An integrated circuit chip has new Frequency dependent RLC extraction and modeling providing on chip integrity and noise verification and the extraction and modeling employs:

Integrated circuit chip having on-chip signal integrity and noise verification using frequency dependent RLC extraction and modeling techniques

A method for pre-wiring through multiple levels of metal using flues includes steps of: receiving information comprising flue geometries and flue properties; producing multiple routing patterns of a design for the flues; identifying macro instance terminals to be pre-wired in the design; selecting at least one of the routing patterns for the macro instance terminals in the design to avoid blockage; and instantiating the design such that the flues can be manipulated as vias.

Process for managing complex pre-wired net segments in a VLSI design

New Frequency dependent RLC extraction and modeling for on chip integrity and noise verification employs:

Method for on-chip signal integrity and noise verification using frequency dependent RLC extraction and modeling techniques

Deterministic evaluation of coupling noise voltage is a function of many physical and electrical parameters such as wiring level, widths, spacing, net topologies, drv impedance and slew rates. This evaluation requires electrical modeling and subsequent circuit simulation to assess the sensitivities of these parameters. These sensitivities can be categorized as coupling guidelines that can be directly linked through extracted physical design data. This invention discloses the development and implementation of a technique for using a coupling guideline table early in the design of an integrated circuit when all the parameters generally required for coupling noise voltage calculations are not available. The steps include: creating a flat wire routing map of the integrated circuit, identifying the coupled wire segments on the integrated circuit, tracking wire interconnection patterns on the integrated circuit, deriving electrical parameters for the coupled wire segments, and generating a coupling guideline table with parameters for a plurality of electrical parameters. The parameters in the coupling guideline table are applied to the derived electrical parameters and a report is generated that lists the derived electrical parameters that fail to comply with the parameters in the coupling guideline table.

Method for performing coupling analysis

An apparatus and method for determining power consumption in logic devices including mixed static and dynamic logic blocks is implemented. Input logical signals are tagged as having dynamical behavior or static behavior, and the power consumption of the logic block determined according to the behavior of the input signal. If an input signal has dynamic behavior, an output signal making a transition in response thereto will make two transitions per clock cycle, and the per cycle power consumption of the logic block is accordingly weighted. In another embodiment, a Boolean behavior signal is calculated for each block from clock phase tags and &ldquo;one cycle per cycle&rdquo; circuit level simulations. The per cycle power consumption of each logic block receives a weight in response to the Boolean behavior signal, according the behavior of the block characterized thereby.

Data processing system and method to estimate power in mixed dynamic/static CMOS designs

A method of on-chip interconnect design in an integrated circuit (IC) is provided. Fast circuit simulations of each net constituting the IC are performed for noise margin and slew rate analysis. A resistor/capacitor (RC) network for each net is generated from net lengths, and assignments of parasitic cross-coupling capacitances and shunt capacitances derived from three-dimensional field solver evaluations of pre-routing phase estimated wire geometries. If the noise margin and slew rate criteria are not satisfied for the net under simulation, the simulations are iterated, with a new wire geometry selected between iterations, until the criteria are satisfied. Each net is tagged with a wire geometry that satisfies noise margin and slew rate requirements which can then be passed to a routing tool.

Method of on-chip interconnect design

A program method for noise calculation and modeling caculates crosstalk voltage for a planned chip design, by first running routing and crosstalk routines for creating crosstalk rules for the planned design of a chip and loading crosstalk rules after routing is completed, and calculating the noise voltage of the planned design based on the exact topologies/paths of the victim and perpetrator nets of the planned design by path tracing and outputing a program file which contains the calculated noise voltage and a complete tabulation of the key physical and electrical parameters of the victim and perpetrator nets of the planned design, and then modeling using a network analysis program to selected nets of the design which exceed allowed noise limitations and obtaining the planned design net's network topology as an output while using the program file containing noise voltage calculation results as an input to the net's topology circuit simulation modeling program and outputting a nodal voltages vs. time data at each receiver location on a victim net as well as key nodes on any perpetrator nets of said planned design.

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Poughkeepsie, NY, United States of America

Michael Alexander Bowen