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x6 Drive Strength for Critical Path Cells

  
gate count               1611
number of cells           540
number of library cells   167
number of used cells       49
max fanin                  17
max input capacitance     199
max internal fanout        34
critical path  0fF       2149
critical path  6fF       2523

Now an x6 drive strength is added for those functions where its size is not too big:

an2v0x6    an3v0x6    aoi21v0x6
nd2v0x6    nd2av0x6   nd2abv0x6
nd3v0x6    nr2v0x6    nr2av0x6
oai21v0x6  or2v0x6    or3v0x6

a total of 12 new cells.

Compared to the previous experiment, where only inverters had a drive strength above x4, there is a 1.7% speed improvement at the cost of a 2.5% area increase. The x6, x4 and x3 drive strength usage is:

       x3   x4   x6
an2     0    0    2
aoi22   1    0    -
cgi2   15    -    -
iv1     1   12   10
nd2a    0    2    0
nr2a    0    1    0
nr2     0    0    1
oai21   9   10    9
xaon21  2    -    -
xnr2    1    -    -
xoon21  3    -    -
xor2   14    1    -
TOTAL  46   26   22

17% of the cells are larger than an x2 drive strength. As before, the bulk of the x6 usage is with the oai21v0x6 cells.

The critical path below shows an xooi21v0x05 weak drive strength cell with a delay of 161ps. Its presence shows that there is another parallel critical path, slightly faster, also driven by gate no. 6, the oai21v0x6. If the xooi21v0x05 is buffered up, it slows down the oai21v0x6 which in turn makes the second critical path slower than this one (by 2ps).
The parallel critical path is the one with the x6 drive strength oai21 cells.

    x 1          17                  199
 1  nd4v0x2       1  d->z      310   111
 2  oai21v0x6     4  b->z      395    85
 3  iv1v0x12      1  a->z      441    46
 4  oai21v0x6     4  a2->z     537    96
 5  iv1v0x12      1  a->z      583    46
 6  oai21v0x6     4  a2->z     661    78
 7  xooi21v0x05   1  b->z      822   161
 8  xor2v0x2      1  a->z      925   103
 9  xor3v1x2      1  c->z     1012    87
10  oai21v0x3     1  b->z     1074    62
11  oai31v0x2     2  b->z     1152    78
12  iv1v0x4       1  a->z     1202    50
13  cgi2v0x2      2  c->z     1301    99
14  iv1v0x4       1  a->z     1355    54
15  cgi2v0x3      2  c->z     1439    84
16  iv1v0x4       1  a->z     1489    50
17  cgi2v0x2      2  c->z     1586    97
18  iv1v0x4       1  a->z     1641    55
19  cgi2v0x3      2  c->z     1724    83
20  iv1v0x4       1  a->z     1779    55
21  cgi2v0x3      2  c->z     1880   101
22  iv1v0x8       1  a->z     1932    52
23  cgi2v0x3      2  a->z     2032   100
24  iv1v0x6       1  a->z     2081    49
25  cgi2v0x3      2  c->z     2160    79
26  an2v0x6       2  b->z     2266   106
27  an2v0x6       2  b->z     2386   120
28  xaon21v0x3    0  a2->z    2523   137
    r 15

Table of synthesis results  
  critical path (ps) gate count cell count porosity library cells used cells
synthesis 1 4279 1561 923 43%   9  8 basic inverters, NAND & NOR gates
synthesis 2 4236 1472 792 45%  15 12 AND & OR gates
synthesis 3 4157 1357 696 46%  19 16 AOI & OAI gates, 2/1 and 2/2
synthesis 4 4157 1357 696 46%  20 16 mxi2 2-way inverting mux
synthesis 5 3983 1343 668 48%  21 16 cgi2 carry generator inverting
synthesis 6 3948 1352 668 48%  28 18 inverters with multiple drive strengths
synthesis 7 3061 1433 666 51%  70 27 x2 drive strengths for all functions
synthesis 8 3056 1456 666 52%  70 30 BOOG with x1 drive strengths
synthesis 9 2960 1476 666 53%  70 32 BOOG with x05 drive strengths
synthesis 10 2963 1480 666 53%  76 34 nd2a and nr2a cells
synthesis 11 2963 1480 666 53%  79 34 nd2ab type of 2-OR
CyHP library 3778 1539 832 46%  18 17 Minimum size library
synthesis 12 2908 1362 553 54%  91 38 AND/OR into XOR/XNOR
synthesis 13 2893 1378 551 55% 103 39 aoi211, aoi31, oai211 & oai31
synthesis 14 2931 1400 562 55% 104 38 3-XOR gate, 1/2 stage delays
synthesis 15 2886 1390 536 56% 109 40 3-XOR/XNOR gates as 2×2-I/P gates
synthesis 16 2665 1514 538 60% 136 46 x3 drive strength cells
synthesis 17 2567 1571 540 61% 155 49 x4 drive strength cells
synthesis 18 2523 1611 540 62% 167 49 x6 drive strength cells
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