Integrated circuit having building blocks

摘要

An integrated circuit ( 300 ) has a regular grid formed by substantially identical building blocks ( 100 a-i). To avoid possible routing conflicts around the edges of the integrated circuit ( 300 ), which can be introduced by the use of a single type of an asymmetric building block, the integrated circuit ( 300 ) is extended with routing cells ( 200 ) that provide routing at the edges of the grid that are uncovered by the routing networks of the building blocks ( 100 a-i). The routing cells ( 200 ) and the switch cell ( 250 ) are combined with a first routing structure ( 330 ) and a second routing structure ( 340 ) to form a routing network ( 280 ) surrounding the grid of the integrated circuit ( 300 ). Consequently, an integrated circuit ( 300 ) is presented that comprises only a single type of building block ( 100 a-i) but still has a fully symmetric routing architecture.