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Recent years have seen rapid strides in the level of sophistication of VLSI circuits. On the performance front, there is a vital need for techniques to design fast, low-power chips with minimum area for increasingly complex systems, while on the economic side there is the vastly increased pressure of time-to-market. These pressures have made the use of CAD tools mandatory in designing complex systems. Timing Analysis and Optimization of Sequential Circuits describes CAD algorithms for analyzing and optimizing the timing behavior of sequential circuits with special reference to performance parameters such as power and area. A unified approach to performance analysis and optimization of sequential circuits is presented. The state of the art in timing analysis and optimization techniques is described for circuits using edge-triggered or level-sensitive memory elements. Specific emphasis is placed on two methods that are true sequential timing optimizations techniques: retiming and clock skew optimization. Timing Analysis and Optimization of Sequential Circuits covers the following topics: Algorithms for sequential timing analysis Fast algorithms for clock skew optimization and their applications Efficient techniques for retiming large sequential circuits Coupling sequential and combinational optimizations. Timing Analysis and Optimization of Sequential Circuits is written for graduate students, researchers and professionals in the area of CAD for VLSI and VLSI circuit design.

The automation of layout synthesis design under stringent timing specifications is essential for state-of-the-art VLSI circuits and systems design. Especially, the timing-driven layout synthesis with optimal placement and routing of transistors with proper sizing is most critical in view of the chip area, interconnection parasitics, circuit delay and power dissipation. This book presents a systematic and unified view of the layout synthesis problem with a strong focus on CMOS technology. The criticality of RC parasitics in the interconnects and the optimal sizing of both p-channel and n-channel transistors are illustrated for motivation. Following the motivation, the problems of modelling circuit delays and transistor sizing are formulated and solved with mathematical rigour. Various delay models for CMOS circuits are discussed to account for realistic interconnection parasitics, the effect of transistor sizes, and also the input slew rates. Also many of the efficient transistor sizing algorithms are critically reviewed and the most recent transistor sizing algorithm based on convex programming techniques is introduced.For design automation of the rigorous CMOS layout synthesis, an integrated system that employs a suite of functional modules is introduced for step-by-step illustration of the design optimization process that produces highly compact CMOS layout that meet used-specified timing and logical nettist requirements. Through most rigorous discussion of the essential design automation process steps and important models and algorithms this book presents a unified systems approach that can be practised for high-performance CMOS VLSI designs. The book should serve as a valuable reference and can be used as text in advanced courses covering VLSI design, especially for design automation of physical design.

The exponential scaling of feature sizes in semiconductor technologies has side-effects on layout optimization, related to effects such as interconnect delay, noise, crosstalk, signal integrity, parasitics effects and power dissipation, that invalidate the assumptions that form the basis of previous design methodologies and tools. This book is intended to sample the most important, contemporary and advanced layout optimization problems emerging with the advent of very deep submicron technologies in semiconductor processing. A reference work for graduate students, senior undergraduates and researchers.

Introduction The exponential scaling of feature sizes in semiconductor technologies has side-effects on layout optimization, related to effects such as inter­ connect delay, noise and crosstalk, signal integrity, parasitics effects, and power dissipation, that invalidate the assumptions that form the basis of previous design methodologies and tools. This book is intended to sample the most important, contemporary, and advanced layout opti­ mization problems emerging with the advent of very deep submicron technologies in semiconductor processing. We hope that it will stimulate more people to perform research that leads to advances in the design and development of more efficient, effective, and elegant algorithms and design tools. Organization of the Book The book is organized as follows. A multi-stage simulated annealing algorithm that integrates floorplanning and interconnect planning is pre­ sented in Chapter 1. To reduce the run time, different interconnect plan­ ning approaches are applied in different ranges of temperatures. Chapter 2 introduces a new design methodology - the interconnect-centric design methodology and its centerpiece, interconnect planning, which consists of physical hierarchy generation, floorplanning with interconnect planning, and interconnect architecture planning. Chapter 3 investigates a net-cut minimization based placement tool, Dragon, which integrates the state of the art partitioning and placement techniques.

Moore's law [Noy77], which predicted that the number of devices in­ tegrated on a chip would be doubled every two years, was accurate for a number of years. Only recently has the level of integration be­ gun to slow down somewhat due to the physical limits of integration technology. Advances in silicon technology have allowed Ie design­ ers to integrate more than a few million transistors on a chip; even a whole system of moderate complexity can now be implemented on a single chip. To keep pace with the increasing complexity in very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuits, the productivity of chip designers would have to increase at the same rate as the level of integration. Without such an increase in productivity, the design of complex systems might not be achievable within a reasonable time-frame. The rapidly increasing complexity of VLSI circuits has made de- 1 2 INTRODUCTION sign automation an absolute necessity, since the required increase in productivity can only be accomplished with the use of sophisticated design tools. Such tools also enable designers to perform trade-off analyses of different logic implementations and to make well-informed design decisions.

Recent years have seen rapid strides in the level of sophistication of VLSI circuits. On the performance front, there is a vital need for techniques to design fast, low-power chips with minimum area for increasingly complex systems, while on the economic side there is the vastly increased pressure of time-to-market. These pressures have made the use of CAD tools mandatory in designing complex systems. Timing Analysis and Optimization of Sequential Circuits describes CAD algorithms for analyzing and optimizing the timing behavior of sequential circuits with special reference to performance parameters such as power and area. A unified approach to performance analysis and optimization of sequential circuits is presented. The state of the art in timing analysis and optimization techniques is described for circuits using edge-triggered or level-sensitive memory elements. Specific emphasis is placed on two methods that are true sequential timing optimizations techniques: retiming and clock skew optimization. Timing Analysis and Optimization of Sequential Circuits covers the following topics: Algorithms for sequential timing analysis Fast algorithms for clock skew optimization and their applications Efficient techniques for retiming large sequential circuits Coupling sequential and combinational optimizations. Timing Analysis and Optimization of Sequential Circuits is written for graduate students, researchers and professionals in the area of CAD for VLSI and VLSI circuit design.

Moore''s law [Noy77], which predicted that the number of devices in­ tegrated on a chip would be doubled every two years, was accurate for a number of years. Only recently has the level of integration be­ gun to slow down somewhat due to the physical limits of integration technology. Advances in silicon technology have allowed Ie design­ ers to integrate more than a few million transistors on a chip; even a whole system of moderate complexity can now be implemented on a single chip. To keep pace with the increasing complexity in very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuits, the productivity of chip designers would have to increase at the same rate as the level of integration. Without such an increase in productivity, the design of complex systems might not be achievable within a reasonable time-frame. The rapidly increasing complexity of VLSI circuits has made de- 1 2 INTRODUCTION sign automation an absolute necessity, since the required increase in productivity can only be accomplished with the use of sophisticated design tools. Such tools also enable designers to perform trade-off analyses of different logic implementations and to make well-informed design decisions.

Recent years have seen rapid strides in the level of sophistication of VLSI circuits. On the performance front, there is a vital need for techniques to design fast, low-power chips with minimum area for increasingly complex systems, while on the economic side there is the vastly increased pressure of time-to-market. These pressures have made the use of CAD tools mandatory in designing complex systems. Timing Analysis and Optimization of Sequential Circuits describes CAD algorithms for analyzing and optimizing the timing behavior of sequential circuits with special reference to performance parameters such as power and area. A unified approach to performance analysis and optimization of sequential circuits is presented. The state of the art in timing analysis and optimization techniques is described for circuits using edge-triggered or level-sensitive memory elements. Specific emphasis is placed on two methods that are true sequential timing optimizations techniques: retiming and clock skew optimization. Timing Analysis and Optimization of Sequential Circuits covers the following topics: Algorithms for sequential timing analysis Fast algorithms for clock skew optimization and their applications Efficient techniques for retiming large sequential circuits Coupling sequential and combinational optimizations. Timing Analysis and Optimization of Sequential Circuits is written for graduate students, researchers and professionals in the area of CAD for VLSI and VLSI circuit design.