System and method for employing side transition times from signoff-quality timing analysis information to reduce leakage power in an electronic circuit and an electronic design automation tool incorporating the same

Abstract

The disclosure provides leakage power recovery that considers side transition times of multi-input cells. In one embodiment, a leakage power recovery system is disclosed that includes: (1) a power recovery module that considers side transitions when making a first conditional replacement of a cell in a path of a circuit design with a lower leakage cell and estimates delays and slack of the at least one path of the circuit design, and (2) a speed recovery module that makes a second conditional replacement of a slower lower leakage cell of the path with a higher leakage cell when there is a timing violation with respect to the path, determines if any other cells of the at least one path has a slower input transition and makes a third conditional replacement of a driver thereof to a higher leakage cell when the driver is one of the slower lower leakage cells.