ABSTRACT
An ecient design ow benets from a shared data representation across steps, thus avoiding slow le-based exchange. Greater integration of design-ow steps is also motivated by the wealth of complex models describing more sophisticated physical phenomena arising in advanced nodes. Analysis engines utilizing these models require costly multiyear development eorts and must be reused in dierent steps of the ow. For instance, modern delay calculation in the presence of noise and process variations is so complex that either the entire engine or its main components are reused in various steps of the ow. e modeling of noise eects, which was earlier performed by mostly stand-alone analysis tools, is now becoming an integral part of nearly all steps of the ow, starting from physical synthesis and preroute optimization.
