Patent ID: 8019580

Claim:
A computer implemented method for transient thermal modeling of integrated circuits comprising: computing first respective power dissipations of respective elements of an integrated circuit in accordance with a first discrete simulation time interval; computing respective temperatures of the elements, based at least in part on the first respective power dissipations; computing second respective power dissipations of the elements based at least in part on the respective temperatures and in accordance with a second discrete simulation time interval; wherein the computing respective temperatures is in accordance with a third discrete simulation time interval; wherein the acts of computing are in accordance with advancement of simulation time; wherein the acts of computing are in accordance with a spatially-varying grid and a temporal grid; wherein the first discrete simulation time interval is later, with respect to the advancement of simulation time, than the second discrete simulation time interval; and further comprising adjusting a duration of at least one of the discrete simulation time intervals based at least in part on an error computed by one of the acts of computing.