Variable power rail design

摘要

A system and design methodology for performing routing in an integrated circuit design is disclosed. An integrated circuit design is first created using standard cells having metal level 2 (M2) power rails. Routing is performed and power rail current density for the integrated circuit is computed. Standard cells that have power rail current density below a predetermined threshold are replaced with a functionally equivalent standard cell that does not have M2 power rails, and the routing operation is performed again, until the design converges.

主权项

1. A method for designing an integrated circuit, comprising:
obtaining a first standard cell library; obtaining a second standard cell library, wherein the first standard cell library and second standard cell library are logically equivalent, and wherein one of the first standard cell library and second standard cell library are of an M2PR type and another of the first standard cell library and second standard cell library are of an M2PRE type; placing cells from the first standard cell library in an integrated circuit design embodiment; performing a first routing using the placed cells from the first standard cell library; identifying standard cells for replacement; replacing the identified standard cells with standard cells from the second standard cell library; and performing a second routing using the placed cells from both the first standard cell library and second standard cell library.