Patent ID: 8539411

Claim:
Computer executable program code embodied in a non-transitory computer usable medium for configuring a processor to compute the delay of an integrated circuit (IC), said computer executable code comprising: a base corner module for characterizing libraries, for an IC being constructed, about three base corner points comprising BC PVT, NOM PVT and WC PVT; an off-corner module for calculating K factors for four off-corner points to the base corner points; and, a delay computing module for calculating delay for the off-corner points using the K factors; wherein: the delay of the IC is calculated using the off-corner point K factors; and the off-corner points comprise: for base corner BC PVT (best case for P, best case V and best case T): Off-corner point A: BC PV+WCT (best case P, best case V and worse case T) Off-corner point B: BC PV+BCT+ΔT (best case P, best case V and best case T plus a perturbation in temperature, ΔT) Off-corner point C: BC PT+WCV (best case P, best case T and worse case V) Off-corner point D: BC PT+BCV+ΔV (best case P, best case T and best case V plus a perturbation in voltage, ΔV); and, for the NOM PVT (Nominal P, nominal V and nominal T) base corner: Off-corner point A 2 : NOM PV+WCT (nominal P, nominal V and worse case T) Off-corner point B 2 : NOM PV+BCT+ΔT (nominal P, nominal V and best case T plus a perturbation temperature, ΔT) Off-corner point C 2 : NOM PT+WCV (nominal P, nominal T and worse case V) Off-corner point D 2 : NOM PT+BCV+ΔV (nominal P, nominal T and best case V plus a perturbation voltage, ΔV); and, for the WC PVT (Worse case P, worse case V and worse case T) base corner: Off-corner point A 3 : WC PV+WCT+ΔT (worse case P, V and worse case T plus a perturbation temperature, ΔT) Off-corner point B 3 : WC PV+BCT (worse case P, worse case V and best case T) Off-corner point C 3 : WC PT+WCV+ΔV (worse case P, worse case T and worse case V plus a perturbation voltage, ΔV) Off-corner point D 3 : WC PT+BCV (worse case P, worse case T and best case V).