STA (static-timing analysis) was nearly an instant success at timing closure 15 years ago, and nothing much has changed since except for creating partitioning/scheduling algorithms to parallelize the algorithms for multicore CPUs. This stasis has allowed an increase in the number of instances in adesign, the number of modes in which you must analyze a design, and the number of process corners. Consequently, runtimes for full designs across modes and corners have become enormous-days, in some cases.rnThat situation has turned STA from an elegant, fast tool into a powerful and trusted, but ponderous, necessity, consuming licenses and days of precious schedule with abandon. If there were a way to dramatically speed up STA, users would need fewer licenses, could save the real-estate and power costs for huge server collections, and could employ the tool in situations in which it has become impractical today, such as checking timing constraints or evaluating ECOs (engineering change orders).
展开▼
