System and method for probabilistic criticality prediction of digital circuits

摘要

The present invention is a system and method for determining criticality probability of each node, edge and path of the timing graph of a digital circuit in the presence of delay variations. The delay of each gate or wire is assumed to consist of a nominal portion, a correlated random portion that is parameterized by each of the sources of variation and an independent random portion. Correlations are taken into account. Both early mode and late mode timing are included; both combinational and sequential circuits are handled; static CMOS as well as dynamic logic families are accommodated. The criticality determination complexity is linear in the size of the graph and the number of sources of variation. The invention includes a method for efficiently enumerating the critical path(s) that is/are most likely to be critical.