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Verifying Clock Schedules

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The Best of ICCAD

Abstract

Many recent papers have formulated both timing verification and optimization as mathematical programming problems. Such formulations correctly handle level-sensitive latches, long and short path considerations, and sophisticated multi-phase clocking schemes.

This paper deals with the computational aspects of using such a formulation for verifying clock schedules. We show that the formulation can have multiple solutions, and that these extraneous solutions can cause previously published algorithms to produce incorrect or misleading results. We characterize the conditions under which multiple solutions exist, and show that even when the solution is unique, the running times of these previous algorithms can be unbounded. By contrast, we exhibit a simple polynomial time algorithm for clock schedule verification. The algorithm was implemented and used to check the timing of all the circuits in the ISCAS-89 suite. Observed running times are linear in circuit size and quite practical.

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References

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© 2003 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Szymanski, T.G., Shenoy, N. (2003). Verifying Clock Schedules. In: Kuehlmann, A. (eds) The Best of ICCAD. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0292-0_48

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0292-0_48

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-5007-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-0292-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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