Patent · US Active

System for and method of placing clock stations using variable drive-strength clock drivers built out of a smaller subset of base cells for hybrid tree-mesh clock distribution networks

US9443053B2 · kind B2 · utility

4Cited by

29References

23Claims

0Family size

Assignee

Cavium, LLC. · US

Inventors

Nikhil Jayakumar · San Jose, US
Vivek Trivedi · Fremont, US
Vasant K. Palisetti · Santa Clara, US
Bhagavati R. Mula · San Jose, US
Daman Ahluwalia · Los Gatos, US
Amir H. Motamedi · Munich, DE

Key dates

Filing date	Dec 26, 2013
Grant date	Sep 13, 2016
Priority date	—
Expiry date	May 24, 2034

Classification

Technology area (CPC G)Physics
CPC primaryG06F2119/12
WIPO fieldComputer technology
WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Clock stations in a hybrid tree-mesh clock distribution network are placed and routed using placement information embedded in instance names of the macrocells that form the clock-distribution network. The instance name includes (X,Y) coordinate information corresponding to placement of the macrocell in the physical layout of the network design. Base cells in each macrocell are placed in a known deterministic arrangement, such as one on top of another in a layout of the clock distribution network, all at the same (X,Y) offset. Preferably, the base cells are all from a standard-cell library, thereby reducing design cost and debug.

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