The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 12, 2006
Filed:
May. 30, 2003
Paul DE Dood, Pleasanton, CA (US);
Brian Lee, Cupertino, CA (US);
Daniel Albers, Beaver, PA (US);
Prolific, Inc., Newark, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for optimizing a circuit design using a library of cells in which a continuous spectrum of cells are provided. A library containing real and virtual cells is used so that cells can be selected across a wide spectrum of a design parameter, such as drive strength. The cells are provided in discrete steps small enough that the effect of having a continuous spectrum of cells is achieved. After optimization, only the cells finally selected need be actually synthesized, and when these constitute a small percentage of the total number of cells, the impact to library size and final placement and routing is minimized. Thus the ability to optimize across a continuous spectrum is achieved while preserving a cell library based design flow.