Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for performing timing analysis on a circuit design

US5719783A · kind A · utility

34Cited by
9References
12Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateFeb 7, 1996
Grant dateFeb 17, 1998
Priority date
Expiry dateFeb 7, 2016

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F30/3312
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method and apparatus for efficiently performing timing analysis on a circuit design. The present invention essentially provides a hybrid between a path enumeration algorithm and a critical path algorithm. As such, the present invention increases the number and degree of timing violations reported by a Critical Path Analysis (CPA) algorithm, while maintaining a performance advantage over a Path Enumeration (PE) algorithm. This is accomplished by providing a number of "pseudo" clocks to selected latches within the circuit design database, thereby tricking the CPA algorithm into reporting more timing violations than would otherwise be reported.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.