Integrated Clock Mesh Synthesis With Incremental Register Placement

Abstract

A clock mesh planning and synthesis method is proposed which significantly reduces the power dissipation on the network while considering the power density and timing slack simultaneously. The proposed method is performed at the postplacement stage and consists of three major steps: 1) feasible moving region construction of each register considering timing slack; 2) mesh grid wire generation and placement; and 3) incremental register placement for stub wire minimization considering power density and timing slack. The advantages of the proposed method are the reduced power dissipation-28% on average on the benchmark circuits-the optimized power density, and the guaranteed nonnegative timing slack. These advantages are possible through a decreased timing slack (1.1% of the clock period) and change in the logic wirelength (+5.9%) on the benchmark circuits.