Architecture and method for compensating for disparate signal rise and fall times by using polarity selection to improve timing and power in an integrated circuit

Abstract

A method for reducing delay in an integrated circuit by compensating for differences in rise and fall delay times comprises creating a timing graph; computing minimum delay tuples for nodes in the timing graph; if there is not at least one feasible delay tuple, determining a longest path and computing minimum delay tuples for the longest path; changing polarities on the longest path to reduce delays; updating the timing graph by transferring new polarity and delay values; performing timing analysis to determine a new longest path if the new longest path is shorter than the prior longest path, accepting a resulting polarity selection and computing minimum delay tuples for the longest path; if the new longest path is not shorter than the prior longest path, accepting a resulting polarity selection and implementing changes in a user-program bitstream.