Zero skew clock routing for fast clock tree generation

Reaz, M. B. I.; Ibrahimy, M. I.; Mohd-Yasin, F.; Mohammad, A.

doi:10.21608/iceeng.2008.34322

Zero skew clock routing for fast clock tree generation

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ International Islamic University Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

² Multimedia University, Cyberjaya, Malaysia.

10.21608/iceeng.2008.34322

Abstract

Abstract:
A Zero Skew Clock Routing Methodology has been developed to help design team
speed up their clock tree generation process. The methodology works by breaking up
the clock net into smaller partitions, then inserting clock buffers to drive each portion,
and lastly, routing the connection from original clock source to each newly inserted
clock buffers with zero skew. A few Perl scripts and a new Visual Basic based routing
tool have been developed to support the methodology implementation. The routing
algorithm used in this tool is based on the Exact Zero Skew Routing Algorithm. The
methodology has been tested using a real design database and resulting in a significant
improvement in the through put time required to complete the clock tree generation.
This improvement is attributed to the ability to generate clock tree on much smaller
portions of clock nets that supports of speeding up the clock tree generation process in
IC design.

Keywords