Incremental Placement-Based Clock Network Minimization Methodology

Power is the major challenge threatening the progress of very large scale integration (VLSI) technology development. In ultra-deep submicron VLSI designs, clock network size must be minimized to reduce power consumption, power supply noise, and the number of clock buffers which are vulnerable to process variations. Traditional design methodologies usually let the clock router independently undertake the clock network minimization. Since clock routing is based on register locations, register placement actually strongly influences the clock network size. This paper describes a clock network design methodology that optimizes register placement. For a given cell placement result, incremental modifications are performed based on the clock skew specifications by moving registers toward preferred locations that may reduce the clock network size. At the same time, the side-effects to logic cell placement, such as signal net wirelength and critical path delay, are controlled. Test results on benchmark circuits show that the methodology can considerably reduce clock network size with limited impact on signal net wirelength and critical path delay.