Patent ID: 7490204

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: retrieving timing parameter ranges for a plurality of timing parameters, each of the timing parameter ranges corresponding to a memory system architecture; determining that, in order to comply with each of the timing parameter ranges for the plurality of timing parameters, a design of a memory controller exceeds one or more pre-determined design goals, the design goals selected from the group consisting of a silicon area size and a schedule milestone; in response to determining that the design of the memory controller exceeds one or more of the pre-determined design goals in order to comply with each of the timing parameter ranges for the plurality of timing parameters, identifying a troublesome parameter value combination that includes a plurality of parameter values, wherein each of the parameter values corresponds to one of the timing parameter ranges; determining an occurrence probability of the plurality of parameter values, which signifies the probability that the troublesome parameter combination will occur; based upon the occurrence probability, identifying a constraint that simplifies the design of the memory controller that, when simplified, results in the memory controller meeting each of the one or more pre-determined design goals; configuring the memory controller based upon the identified constraint that simplifies the design of the memory controller; and selecting an external memory based upon the identified constraint.