Patent ID: 7716615

Claim:
An integrated circuit (IC) comprising: a plurality of redundant critical path circuits, wherein a critical path circuit is identified as a circuit that presents a challenge to a performance requirement and the critical path circuit is copied to produce the plurality of redundant critical path circuits, wherein one redundant critical path circuit of the plurality of redundant critical path circuits that meets the performance requirement and has a best performance is operational and the others of the plurality of redundant critical path circuits that do not meet the performance requirement or do not have the best performance are non-operational and are switched out of a remaining portion of the IC using a multiplexer, wherein the performance requirement includes at least one of: a timing requirement, a power usage requirement, a clock speed requirement, an active power requirement, or a power leakage requirement, and wherein the IC is evaluated based on a change in circumstances, the change in circumstances including a voltage or temperature change, to determine which of the plurality of redundant critical path circuits meets the performance requirement and has the best performance.