Patent ID: 7603643

Claim:
A computer implemented method for conducting design explorations of an integrated circuit, comprising: obtaining a design description of the integrated circuit, wherein the design description includes a virtual design block; creating a representative netlist for representing the virtual design block, wherein the representative netlist includes one or more soft design models, and each soft design model comprises one or more template cells for modeling a portion of the integrated circuit; defining physical attributes for the one or more soft design models in accordance with one or more area requirements of the virtual design block, wherein the one or more soft design models are described with flexible shape and flexible pin locations; performing the design explorations of the integrated circuit using the one or more soft design models and their corresponding template cells, wherein the act of performing the design exploration is performed by at least one processor, and the design explorations are performed without requiring specifying a pin location; generating a representative implementation of the integrated circuit using one or more results of the design explorations; and displaying the one or more results of the act of performing the one or more design explorations on a display apparatus or storing the one or more results in a computer readable storage medium or a storage device.