Patent ID: 7735043

Claim:
A wiring layout apparatus for a semiconductor integrated circuit, the apparatus comprising: a layout design unit configured to design a wiring layout for a semiconductor integrated circuit; a critical wiring detection unit configured to analyze a delay of signal propagation in the wiring layout so as to detect wiring strip conductors that configure a signal path whose timing is critical; a rewiring unit configured to rearrange the wiring strip conductors so as to improve the uniformity of a wiring pattern of an area in the vicinity of the critical wiring strip conductor, with regard to the wiring layout; and a strip-conductor-size variation determination unit configured to evaluate the uniformity of the pattern of the rearranged wiring layout so as to determine whether or not variation in the size of the critical wiring strip conductor falls within a tolerance range, wherein in the rewiring unit and the strip-conductor-size variation determination unit, the uniformity of the wiring pattern is determined, based on a filling rate of the wiring strip conductors in the area in the vicinity of the critical wiring strip conductor and the number of the vertexes, of end portions of the wiring strip conductors, which exist in the area in the vicinity of the critical wiring strip conductor; and the rewiring unit rearranges the wiring strip conductors by performing at least one of the following operations: removing the wiring strip conductor laid in the area in the vicinity of the critical wiring strip conductor and laying the wiring strip conductor in another area; removing the wiring strip conductor laid in another area and laying the wiring strip conductor in the area in the vicinity of the critical wiring strip conductor; interchanging the wiring strip conductor laid in the area in the vicinity of the critical wiring strip conductor and the wiring strip conductor laid in another area; and extending the wiring strip conductor laid in the area in the vicinity of the critical wiring strip conductor.