Patent ID: 8448122

Claim:
A method of implementing a circuit design within a programmable integrated circuit (IC), the method comprising: identifying each of a plurality of implementation directives embedded within a register transfer level description of the circuit design; mapping, using a processor, each sub-circuit of a plurality of sub-circuits of the circuit design specified by a portion of the register transfer level description and associated with one of the plurality of implementation directives, to at least one component of the programmable IC in which the circuit design is to be implemented; wherein at least one of the plurality of implementation directives specifies, at least in part, a power usage requirement for the associated sub-circuit; responsive to determining that a portion of a sub-circuit of the circuit design is associated with an implementation directive that specifies a power usage requirement and is mappable to more than one type of component, selecting one component of the more than one type of component that results in lower power consumption for mapping of the sub-circuit to the one component; wherein at least one implementation directive of the plurality of implementation directives includes a property indicating priority of the implementation directive with respect to others of the implementation directives; prioritizing the plurality of sub-circuits for placing and routing according to the property indicating priority of the at least one implementation directive; placing the plurality of sub-circuits for the programmable IC according to the plurality of implementation directives; routing the plurality of sub-circuit for the programmable IC according to the plurality of implementation directives; and outputting a programmatic description, comprising placement and routing information, for the plurality of sub-circuits.