Embedded Logic Standard Cells for Multi-Bit Memory Optimization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Designing complex integrated circuits with thousands, millions, or billions of components is excessively time-consuming and costly when done manually, necessitating efficient automation tools to manage component placement and logic implementation.
Innovation Solution
The use of Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools and standard cell libraries, along with a circuit design engine that includes a circuit analysis and modification engine and a circuit synthesizer, to automate the design process by breaking down the circuit into smaller pieces, optimizing cell usage, and converting high-level designs into lower-level implementations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If manual design methods are used for complex integrated circuits, then design precision can be maintained, but design time and cost increase excessively
Solution Approach 1:
The design system segments the integrated circuit design into hierarchical levels (logical layer, physical layout layer, transistor layer). Each level can be designed and verified independently, with automated tools handling the complexity of lower levels while designers focus on higher-level architecture, thus maintaining precision without excessive time investment.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces standard cell libraries as intermediary components between high-level design specifications and low-level implementation details. These pre-characterized cells serve as building blocks that automatically handle complex transistor arrangements and routing, enabling automated design tools to generate precise implementations without manual intervention at every detail level.
2Reliability
If manual design methods are used for complex integrated circuits, then design quality can be controlled, but design cost increases excessively
Solution Approach 1:
The automated EDA tools perform self-verification and optimization of circuit designs through built-in validation engines that check timing, power, and area constraints. Standard cell libraries contain pre-verified implementations that automatically ensure design quality without requiring expensive manual review processes, reducing overall design costs while maintaining reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system allows designers to specify performance parameters (speed, power, area) at the logical design level, and automated tools automatically optimize the implementation to meet these parameters. This parameter-driven approach ensures design quality requirements are met while minimizing cost through automated optimization rather than expensive manual tuning.
3Productivity
If standard cell libraries are used, then design productivity increases, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Standard cell libraries provide universal building blocks that can be reused across multiple design contexts. A single standard cell implementation can serve multiple logical functions through different instantiation and configuration, reducing the need to design custom circuits for each function and thereby managing overall circuit complexity while maintaining high productivity through reuse.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent manages complexity by adding the dimension of hierarchical abstraction. Instead of presenting the full transistor-level complexity to designers, the system operates at multiple abstraction levels where standard cells appear as simple logical units at higher levels, hiding the underlying complexity in lower levels. This dimensional separation allows high productivity at the design level while complexity is managed at the implementation level.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and method are provided that include a standard cell with multiple input and output storage elements, such as flip flops, latches, etc., with some combination logic interconnected between them. In embodiments, the slave latches on input flip flops are replaced with a fewer number latches at a downstream node(s) of the combination logic resulting in improved performance, area and power, while maintaining functionality at the interface pins of the standard cell. The process of inferring such a standard cell from a behavioral description, such as RTL, of a design or remapping equivalent sub-circuits from a netlist to such a standard cell is also described.