Abstract: An integrated circuit chip is made using Genie, a described computer chip design tool which can analyze the data contained within an entire endpoint report, compute relationships between paths based on shared segments, and display this information graphically to the designer. Specifically, Genie groups failing paths into Timing Islands. A timing island is a group of paths which contain at least one shared segment. The most frequently shared segment is sifted to the top of the priority list for each island, and is labeled as the Hub. Thinking of timing islands as a tree, the hub of the island would be the trunk. If you chop the tree down by the trunk, all of the branches, limbs and twigs will fall down too. This is analogous to fixing the timing failures in the hub, and the fix trickling out to each of the segments that dangle off the hub.

Abstract: An integrated circuit chip has more “timing closure efficient” Timing Driven Placements by implementing our new net weight for negative slack paths to enhance timing closure behavior is provided by a NSRF (Negative Slack Recover Factor). This new weight would not be based on the absolute amount of negative slack in a path, but rather it would be based on the proportion or percentage of the path's total net delay adder that must be recovered in order to achieve timing closure (zero slack). After an initial or previous placement has been created, then a list of paths with timing violations with a Negative Slack Recover Factor (NSRF) is created for each net in each of the timing paths on the list of paths, and then calculating a NSRF net weight factor for use in subsequent placements and also assigning nets in the list of paths with no timing violations a NSRF default value of one.