Timing and area optimization for standard-cell VLSI circuit design

A standard cell library typically contains several versions of any given gate type, each of which has a different gate size. We consider the problem of choosing optimal gate sizes from the library to minimize a cost function (such as total circuit area) while meeting the timing constraints imposed on the circuit. After presenting an efficient algorithm for combinational circuits, we examine the problem of minimizing the area of a synchronous sequential circuit for a given clock period specification. This is done by appropriately selecting a size for each gate in the circuit from a standard-cell library, and by adjusting the delays between the central clock distribution node and individual flip-flops. Experimental results show that by formulating gate size selection together with the clock skew optimization as a single optimization problem, it is not only possible to reduce the optimized circuit area, but also to achieve faster clocking frequencies. Finally, we address the problem of making this work applicable to very large synchronous sequential circuits by partitioning these circuits to reduce the computational complexity. >