Calculated risks: quantifying timing error probability with extended static timing analysis
File(s)KevinTCAD18.pdf (1.58 MB)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Murray, Kevin
Suardi, Andrea
Betz, Vaughn
Constantinides, GA
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Timing analysis is a key step in the digital design process. By modeling device delay variations statistical static timing analysis (SSTA) reduces pessimism compared to traditional static timing analysis (STA). However, it ignores the circuit's logic which causes some timing paths to never, or only rarely, be sensitized. We introduce a general timing analysis approach and tool to calculate the probability that individual timing paths are sensitized, enabling the calculation of bounding delay distributions over all input combinations. We show how this analysis is related to the well-known #SAT problem and present approaches to improve scalability, achieving, on average, results 75% to 37% less pessimistic than STA while running 569 to 16 times faster than Monte-Carlo timing simulation.
Date Issued
2019-04-01
Date Acceptance
2018-03-03
Citation
IEEE Transactions on Computer - Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems, 2019, 38 (4), pp.719-732
ISSN
0278-0070
Publisher
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Start Page
719
End Page
732
Journal / Book Title
IEEE Transactions on Computer - Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems
Volume
38
Issue
4
Copyright Statement
© 2018 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting /republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.
Sponsor
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC)
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC)
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (E
Royal Academy Of Engineering
Imagination Technologies Ltd
Identifier
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8328922
Grant Number
EP/I012036/1
EP/I020357/1
11908 (EP/K034448/1)
Prof Constantinides Chair
Prof Constantinides Chair
Subjects
Computer Hardware & Architecture
0906 Electrical and Electronic Engineering
1006 Computer Hardware
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2018-03-30